Licence

Licence: A licence (or license) is a legal description attached to any work regarding the appropriate use of the work in question. Unlicenced works are considered public domain, which means the work has no restrictions attached to it. Licences are often used for intellectual property, primarily content, such as illustrations, programming code, stories and so on.

For an artist and/or writer, it is a good idea to consider an appropriate licence for one's works, if one wishes to challenge 'unauthorised reuse' of one's works. But if this not a concern of yours or you trust the community around you enough, you can ignore this article.

Picking a licence
Here is a list of licences that might be interesting for artists and writers alike when it comes to their work. It is important to choose one's licence appropriately when considering the end user usage of one's works.

Remember that 'commercial use' also means reposting the work on a website that is for-profit (such as DeviantART). For-profit are often highlighted as such by their use of ads. If you are in doubt whether a site is for-profit, please contact the operators of the website itself.

You should place your licence in an appropriate location near your work (even a footer on a website that indicates that all works on the site is distributed under the same licence is also appropriate). Some websites, such as DeviantART allows you to pick a licence while you submit your art.

Reposting other's work
If you wish to repost someone else's work, you should first look at the licence that they provide. In general, it is a good idea to ask the creator of the work you wish to share if you can (a permission overwrites the restrictions of the licence). If you cannot find a licence by the work you wish to post, do not assume instantly that it is public domain (such description is also required), but rather contact the creator in question.

If contacting the creator is not possible (or for other reasons you intend or wish not to), you need to follow the licence given. The table above should give you an indication of what terms in the licence means.