WTF?

[solidfoamsoul]

By posting any material in this forum you agree to the following terms. You agree that it may be edited or made public at the discretion of MagiStream staff. By submitting an entry into any competition you agree not to sue any Staff member. If such a suit happens, you agree to let us win. If you do not agree with these terms please do not submit an entry.

How is this by any means legal? Or even needed? Do the mods INTEND on claiming contest entries as their own and publishing them as their own work?

All I'm sayin is...

[Paine]

This is a contest to create a new creature for the site itself. I should think the winner will be given credit for his/her work, but the thing itself will become property of Magistream.

So if you have a problem with it, don't submit. That's all.

[virusq]

That's an incredibly common disclaimer on contest entries.

By entering, you are offering your intellectual property to the site owner(s). You are releasing your claim on it as your unique idea. It's why they call it selling out when you get published.

[solidfoamsoul]

If such a suit happens, you agree to let us win.

I think it's that part that bothers me. It sounds downright childish.

[Arimermaid]

If such a suit happens, you agree to let us win.

I think it's that part that bothers me. It sounds downright childish.

It's kind of cute though!

[Paine]

If such a suit happens, you agree to let us win.

I think it's that part that bothers me. It sounds downright childish.

Why?

You are submitting a creature to the site with full knowledge (as long as you have read the rules) that if implemented, it will belong to them. If you're idiotic enough to take up a suit afterwards, there is no way you would win, aside form bribing the jury or judge.

Which would be illegal.

[virusq]

It does, doesn't it?

It's official lingo, however. I've seen it on everything from comic character competitions to Verizon phone bills.

[Zulu]

One thing that I think you are all missing, is that the disclaimer does not say that the material will become the exclusive content for MagiStream and therefore not yours anymore. Because it doesn't say this, I am assuming that my contest idea is still mine. Until I see otherwise, my Seraphs are my unique idea and still belong to me. If I find them elsewhere, I am still able to press charges for plagiarism. So even though you post something here, the idea is still yours to use where you please. I think it's not until the winners are selected that then the art and descriptions become the property of MagiStream. So, since I'm pretty sure my Seraphs won't win the competition, it's pretty safe for me to post them and the idea of them remain uniquely mine.

[Wolfayne]

That is so wrong. Wer should have co-ownership for the "creation" of a new creature, but we get nothing, and they get everything. We should have some right to copyright it, even if this is for a contest.

[wolfeyedangel]

Alright folks, I'm repeating what I just posted in the questions thread which is where this SHOULD have been taken in the first place then locking the thread... further discussion can be under the stickied thread:

Any creature you create (that is one you invented yourself) is your property. The CONCEPT is your property (see the argument on Thestrals in the Creature Suggestion thread for many more details.) You are, by entering the contest saying to magistream: You may use THIS VERSION of my creature and have your sprite artists sprite it, and tweak my write up to put in 'Alasre Mountains' instead of "Outer Mongolia," fix the spelling mistakes, and other wise make it fit the Magistream theme and consistent with the game and the world... and you have the right to actually post all this and use it. Otherwise it's your critter, no one but magistream can use it without your permission and you can, legally, do whatever you want with it else where. Now you CANNOT use the specific sprites someone else made of your critters. Their art is theirs... your critter is yours.

This is much more limited when you're doing a write up of a specific real or mytholigical creature (say you're doing a Duck.) You cannot tell other people they cannot draw ducks. After all you do not own ducks. The idea you post here is for a specific magical variety of duck and if people what to use other things than your idea of duck there's nothing you can do about it. You're telling magistream that they can use your idea of a duck, with all the same uses described above, but it's still your idea of the duck.

Now for the contest disclaimer. To summarize: You are saying you are entering with FULL KNOWLEDGE that if you win they're going to use your entry, tweak it, may resprite it, may re-write sections, and are going to post it and other wise polish it to make it fit here. And because you know that IN ADVANCE. You give up the right to sue them because you AGREED to let them do it in the first place. It's actually a simplified version of the 'official contest lingo' and 'official posting other folks art' lingo. You should see the eye-crossing legalese that Deviant art has and the hue and cry it caused because to many of those not fluent in legalese it sounded like they were trying to claim all intellectual property rights (which they weren't they were just claiming the DERIVITIVE rights they needed to post the pieces and do things like pick pictures of the day and all the other things they do.)

~Wolfeyedangel