[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Aoie_Emesai

Is that true? Deviantart owns all that is uploaded their site? I don't remember reading that. Can you spare me a link? I couldn't really find it on their faqs.

I may or may not have misread it when I made my account. The following is from their Terms of Service (you'd get to the link by attempting to make a new account, at the bottom). Time to take a shot at being a lawyer.

The first segment I read over makes me think that you're right, and they either changed something or I misread it:

4. Copyright

deviantART is, unless otherwise stated, the owner of all copyright and data rights in the Service and its contents. Individuals who have posted works to deviantART are either the copyright owners of the component parts of that work or are posting the work under license from a copyright owner or his or her agent or otherwise as permitted by law. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, or prepare derivative works based on any of the Content including any such works without the express, written consent of deviantART or the appropriate owner of copyright in such works. deviantART does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to deviantART (Your Content). You agree not to distribute any part of the Service other than Your Content in any medium other than as permitted in these Terms of Service or by use of functions on the Service provided by us. You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Service unless expressly permitted to do so by us or by use of functions on the Service provided by us.

I've bolded what I feel are the important parts. If this was unchanged, it's likely that I read the first sentence and interpreted it to mean that they are the owner of all copyright and data within its service - that is, since you're putting works onto their service, they own it. However, the sentence buried further into the paragraph that I bolded specifically states that they do not claim ownership of works published through their service. That'd make me wrong. However...

16. Copyright in Your Content

deviantART does not claim ownership rights in Your Content. For the sole purpose of enabling us to make your Content available through the Service, you grant to deviantART a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, re-format, store, prepare derivative works based on, and publicly display and perform Your Content. Please note that when you upload Content, third parties will be able to copy, distribute and display your Content using readily available tools on their computers for this purpose although other than by linking to your Content on deviantART any use by a third party of your Content could violate paragraph 4 of these Terms and Conditions unless the third party receives permission from you by license.

Once again they don't claim ownership, but I've underlined another part that may have given me a bad impression. I'd interpret that to mean that reproduction, distribution, storing, etc. as simply being part of how the internet works, and that they're just clarifying that there in legal speak. However, the preparation of derivative works based off of your own artwork doesn't jive well with me, even though I've never heard of that happening or any artist becoming upset over it.

I don't really remember if there was an ownership issue or if it was that idea of the derivative works that bothered me - all that I remember is that I was OK with it as a 3D modeler since, as I said, the important part of 3D works is less about a single render and more about your models, neither of which DeviantArt would own or possess by simply uploading a render. However, it's a bit different with photographs.

It's probably really a non-issue and I don't mean to make it out to be greater than it is. Those are just my interpretations of their ToS as well; I could be completely off.