Hello,

A question that we’ve gotten a lot since we first opened up is our policy on custom pets based on copyrighted characters. This is covered indirectly by our Terms of Use, but since this has come up a number of times now, I think explicitly stating it once and for all would be helpful. This will be put into the custom shop itself in the near future, but for now I think an announcement is appropriate.

- Mycena Cave makes customs from the specifications of our members
- Mycena Cave is an American web site
- DMCA is a thing in the United States of America

In the Customs Shop, Mycena Cave artists sell you the service of creating customs to your specification. We cannot hope to be able to recognize all custom orders based off of existing characters, and any line we could draw defining “too similar” would by definition be arbitrary. As such, as the buyer of a custom it is your responsibility to ensure it does not infringe on any American laws.

As an organization based in the United States of America, we must comply with American laws. As a result of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Mycena Cave as an entity cannot be held liable for customs which are deemed to be infringing, but if we receive a valid DMCA take-down notice for one of your customs we will have no choice but to remove it. Furthermore, we are a small organization, so while we could probably argue “fair use” in court, we are not equipped nor do we have the funds to fight legal battles on behalf of your customs.

Finally, Mycena Cave being based in the USA means that your custom is subject to DMCA removal regardless of whether you yourself are located within the United States. Since the service that we are selling is the creation of your custom, and this service will have been tendered, we will not offer refunds for customs we are required to take down due to DMCA take-down notices.

We will make whatever custom you order. Ensuring that it does not infringe United States copyright law is your responsibility. If we receive a valid copyright complaint regarding your character, we will remove the custom without refund.

Do we ever expect this to happen? No. Is it theoretically possible? Yes.

I hope this clears things up.

Huh, that’s interesting. Well, custom copyright issues happen on aywas, so it’s no surprise to me that this would be eventually addressed here too.

Having the user be responsible is probably the smart choice. It’s really hard to determine whether something violates copyright, especially if you don’t know the character.

Does this mean that near exact copies of an easily recognizable design(like say…pikachu) will be rejected, or accepted on the terms that it will be taken down upon request? Like I know you say that defining whether it is too similar would be arbitrary, but if it was easy to determine without being told what character it was…?

If I were to ever get a custom I’d make my own characters, but idk what anyone else would prefer. It would be kind of strange seeing a bunch of pokemon inekis running around the site.

Mokitty: the artists would accept the custom (Pikachu) but if Mycena receives any official request for take down, they will take it down. Basically, the user is responsible for possible copyright issues of their own pets.

That was my issue when I got my newest custom mocked-up by Plasma (before she became a site artist). I had literally told her “so, I really like Okami’s design/color scheme but I don’t WANT it to, you know, BE the same design.” and we went from there.

Ohh, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!

I don’t think I’d actually see pokemon ineki running around(that was just an example) but I had to ask. Seems like it would be a bit of a risk for the person ordering the custom, if a take down request could be made and the custom taken away with no refund(which seems totally fair to me), because like Shima mentioned there are companies who are very much sticklers about copyright. I think Disney is, too.

Disney is SUPER bad about copyright (which is actually somewhat disgusting, since they make bank on old fairy tale stories that have gone through their copyright. But again, another argument.) I’m surprised they even allow fanart and fanfiction, regardless if they make money or not, honestly.

And there already are customs inspired by Pokemon, Mokitty. XD So your theoretical has been true for a while now.

I’m assuming that’s if they look at this site out of what millions? Disney can’t copy right long blonde hair or any kind of hair style considering hair styles are not copyrighted unless it specifically details in the character from their movies.

So I’m hoping to see some sort of Rapunzel or an Elsa type hair character fan creation.

Adding to the list: Hasbro has been picky with fanworks of characters in the toy lines they own. I know a few artists who received a request to take down their My Little Pony fanworks from their shops.

However, I should add that fan made characters are okay though.

Alice, both Neopets, but also one of my friend’s independent games (30k downloads in early access at the moment) have had to remove the red cross from their hospital/health pack images respectively.

The Neopets crop section of the image was maybe 10 by 10 pixels, and the indie game isn’t that well-known yet and that was even less than 10 by 10 pixels.

They do complain, even about small sites/games.

I’m sure Disney, Hasbro, or similar brands, have a lot of funds to find copyright infringers. Heck, they wouldn’t have gotten a copyright on things if they wouldn’t go looking for infringements :P

I do agree with you though, that hairstyles ‘based on’ (or in your case, super long hair customs) aren’t an issue ^^ It’s more if you also dolled up the custom with exactly the same dress, eye colour, freckles and toenail polish :)

It’s hard when people see something they like and it’s a well known character, and they really love the character it’s like: I just want my own version of them!
But obviously that can’t happen x3.

I think it is good that you posted this though! Some of us older players who get on other petsites have seen this issue and are aware to avoid it (even when sites don’t directly state so -well right away anyway xD). But, for the younger ones it’s good to remind them if they haven’t seen this issue before.

I think this is good that you’re posting your policy on it. It makes it clear to all users, new and old because it is slightly different than other policies I’ve seen on other sites where it is just strictly banned.
thanks a lot for clarifying it.