will delete my characters on LS soon then x.x

This situation of shared names is definitely a kink in this operation, and I understand the frustrations of those who have stated this issue. There needs to be a way of being more mindful of that among those mods checking these things, and not just acting on this rule (and, *AHEM* "punishing" someone ) simply because their character happens to have a name which is similar or even identical (unless that name is so unusual that there is no way they could not have taken the name from another character).

I now won't upload my King Cheetah character simply because it shares a name with a cat from the "Warriors" books which I had never heard of until I googled her name. I shall also delete my characters as I now think they are all under threat. None of them share a name with any official characters or are based on any official characters, but I'd rather not take the risk of having characters that I created myself with no inspiration from anything else deleted.

Would it be possible to PM the person if their character is in jeopardy of being deleted?
As in giving them some time to modify their character to fit standers so no information is lost?
I hope that made sense.

Demeter: The rule is very clear. If you see a movie with a character named Jared in it, nice name by the way, and you like the name, then by all means call your character Jared. What you SHOULD NOT do is create your character specifically after Jared from the movie. Like the article says, you CAN NOT create a character EXACTLY like one that's been created previously, like in a movie or book. You may use the name, but that's the extent of it.

so exactly.. you mean you may not create characters like... for example practically a deerization of balto in bambi source for example?

but what if you just give yoru chartacter a name because you like it, what if i decide FOR EXAMPLE to name my character Jared and there is a movie where appears a character named Jared... i picked up the name because i liked it not necessarily because i've seen it in other movies...

i just ask because i don't really understand what is this official rule statting

Thank you Skul. I was getting tired of reporting Hetalia wolves.

Thank you for reinforcing the rules on creating characters. I personally feel like most of the characters created are much like this rule states is not allowed. Hopefully this will help members create more original characters that actually fit in relation to the real characters of the movie of each particular source.

I don't see why not.

I meant it just the way Creature. said. Is it okay to make fan-version of background/minor characters (like those remaining 4 pups in Wolf Quest)?

The pups from the movies that received no names (and are not official characters) would be okay to make fan characters for. What would NOT be okay is if, say, you created a human character on Mulan Source with the name Aleu, who is the leader of a tribe, and shares too many similarities with the Aleu from Balto. I hope that clears it up a little.

Wouldn't this mean no fan character from movies?
Example; The no names pups on BS and random characters in the movie. They are plenty of those and would be considered stealing in this case, because they have no permission to do that?

It would be nice to clear that up too.
They make their own personality, but still base it off the pups actions in the movie and take the design and claim it as their own pretty much. Some even have the names used in the movie.

In fanart/images it would be fine as long as you're not claiming the character as your own. Would be a good idea to credit back to the original creator as well to be safe.

Rabbit--> well not everyone knows how to make watermarks. It's not something we can force members to do either. And if the character is blatantly stealing, or if you're just unsure, report it. Nothing wrong with being cautious, and we won't warn you or anything for it.

Well, good, some limitations and I think that it's a good choice. A lot of art theft and character theft has been happening for a while now, even when we report it in, I'm just glad that something is being done about all of this now I'll feel safer posting up characters and such. I'm still watermarking my images and renders though. ^_^; I hope this will give kids a chance to be more creative and make their own designs and give them original names instead of just changing balto to... Baltoe. XD Something like that. What about adding an official character in like Jenna with your fc does this count as this as "stealing" a character. Sorry if this post is a little confusing... But yay! Let's hope that people will be more causious about taking ones character and just adding a few marks to the body. I think another good rule to have though, is for everyone to watermark their image so that way if someone tries to take it we'll know who the original creator is and can report it. That's just a suggest of course.

What about fan arts? Would those get deactivated too? Like if there is a 'fan animal' in a drawing/render but they don't have a page?

~I'm only asking because I'm working on a picture request for my best friend, and it has a wolf based off of an amime char. But he's doesn't have a page or anything like that.

Fan pups like what?

What about all those fan-pups on BS?

Aniu--> Mm, that's a tricky one. If it's changed enough, it would be allowed. But for sure if it was just a plain screenshot, or badly rendered, it wouldn't be allowed.

Even if you do give credit it won't be allowed

Thank you for finally putting some limitations on characters! But, what if the character's design resembles an official character, though a part was edited? Say, someone makes a character that has the same design/color scheme as Esperanza here on SS, but makes her an Appaloosa, without even editing the rest of the character image. Would this be considered stealing?

Names are fine, since you can't copyright them really. But just be careful with the info, so people don't get them mixed up with the official.

I think it's okay if it's just the name that's the same. But I wouldn't know for sure.

Yeah, Thats how mine are, just names nothing like the book characters.

what if its just the name? i have a fue horses on SS named after people from books but there nothing like the person in the book . names cant be copyrighted right?

What if you give credit to the creators of the character? I made two from a book but I gave credit to the author in thier description.

It's already in the site rules, theft not being allowed. It applies to all sections.

Is this official by Steet?

Just to add to what has been posted, to elaborate more. Any already official character from any other show, whether an anime, other shows, movies or books are not allowed to be made into a fan character. Doing so is claiming the character is yours, which is THEFT. You do NOT hold the copyright to that character.

If you are caught, there will be consequences. We will not put up with these offenses, so if you have any character that would fit the category, delete it now or ask a mod to and you will not be punished.