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STOP Unfair Closed species rules

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UPDATED STATUS a few days after  - griffsnuff.deviantart.com/stat…

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Also very important read that explains it a lot better than I do comments.deviantart.com/1/6575…

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Everything down is going to sound very agressive, and that is because I am pretty tired of this fear mongering used in these communities. AND NO NOT ALL CS COMMUNITIES DOES THIS ,but many of them do and that is not ok. The more aware people are of this, the less they can use fear to control people. Its like Scientology , CSpecitology?. You have the good religions and then you have that one asshole religion . You have the good part of the cs community and then OH YOU GET IT.

This stamp is based on my status update here, and after reading even more horror stories I decided to make this aswell.
griffsnuff.deviantart.com/stat…

Added in later testemony of one of my dear friend-> griffsnuff.deviantart.com/stat…


(And yes some of the unfair rules also gets applied to open species even ive made rules like these in the past, they are dumb, they are based on you respecting the artists out of fear of them hating you and that just makes it wrong in my eyes now)

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I myself have been part of the Closed Species community that started rising around 2008/2009 Before then it was not a very known concept. I remember the times when a closed species ment it was someones character with a made up species name, usually a mix between two or a couple of animals were you mixed their latin names.  Its way more fun having a  Caniscorvus instead of a damn wolf only. Wolfcrow is cooler sounding.


I did this myself back that time. Since then the whole thing has grown beyond everyones expectations and ended in a huge community and buisness based concept. But it was just peoples characters. With cool character comes the need of people wanting to own the same thing with a small variation to it, and thus the concept of made up species were born. Started with small versions of peoples characters that others could own, and it expanded pretty quickly. Because it was cool to own a character that was the same thing as an artists character you liked!

With everything good, comes also a lot of bad when it is let in the hands of people who think they can change basic rules and law to fit them and then get away with it because their product = their rules and everyone else has no say what so ever. You will often hear the If you do not like it, don't join it And sure, great saying and all, BUT NOT when it causes harm and is based on fear , lies and scare-tactics that will have people terrified to even create their own art or use their own characters that they sometimes paid over $500 dollars for.

LIKE with everything, comes change, things work for a while, then when more people join in and better solutions are discovered, the majority gets sick and tired of the  elites and top and the old ways has to make way for the new ones. That is just how our world works and how humanity evolves when it comes to everything we do. That is how we humans improve and if we do not listen to eachother and have open discussions about how we can improve, then it will just end in one big clusterfuck of drama. Which has already been going on. You get the trolls, you get the free the species movments and the list goes on xD

I know a lot goes on behind closed doors, I KNOW that people get away with things that are not even legal. I am making this to make people aware that yes this is going on, and you have a right to stand up for yourself without having to fear that any of the things below are actually something someone can do to you.

Many of CS rules work because they are based on the fear of screwing up and thrown out of the community or even added on public blacklists, Even if you leave said community or are no longer part of it that fear stil exists because some of these communities will stalk you and your friends to make sure they keep you from doing anything against their rules.

Here are some of the things some communities will try and force you to accept, and worst is that it works, and so many has had this happened to them were they just end up leaving and giving everything back even if they paid hundreds of dollars for characters.

Revoking, taking back characters against your consent
Lets talk about this one, because this is the biggest problem that these communities do and also get away with.
First of all this is NOT LEGAL. They cannot take back anything you bought or got in a trade because you offended them or broke a few rules, even if they try to scare you with their term of service or rules. Why? Because you did not sign ANY contract saying that they could revoke it if you broke their rules. If they take something back from you without buying it back or trading it back, that is concidered Stealing.

Only thing they can do is deny you the right to use the original picture made of that character. That is all since that is their original property. But they cannot resell or trade the character itself to someone else.

Failure to provide a legal contract and blacklists
No rules or Terms of service is binding without a contract. They cannot force you to do anything. Sure they can add you to a blacklist for breaking their rules but so what? If your not part of their community or want to get out it doesnt really matter, They scare you into believing that this list will ruin you and they also never provide reasons to why you were blacklisted either for the public to see. Most people with common decency will find out on their own why someone is blacklisted by asking around and talking to the person in question and not blindly believing a list that provides no intell or let alone no proof as to why someone is there. The problem is when people just blindly believe soemeone, and that is what each and everyone of us needs to stop doing. Do your own research and be aware.

If you are going to have a public blacklist , write WHY someone was blacklisted and provide the proof to back up your statement.

It is simple, Without a written contract, no rule or terms can be forced upon you. Sure they can kick you out of their group and community and deny you service from the creator or people who run the group if you break their rules but that is about it.

Denying owners of characters to trade/sell/gift to whomever they want and for whatever they want
This is also were it gets extremely tricky and were people seem to have most mixed feelings. IT doesnt really matter what someone thinks, because our feelings and opinions do not change the fact of how ownership and trading works. Sure we can get offended and deny service to people who decides that the law dictates how things is done, but that harms the creators more than it harms the people who buy.¨

Just because something is popular doesnt mean you have to kiss creators ass to be part of it. Be your own person, you are more important than accepting unfair rules to be able to partake in something you think you need. Your mental health is more important than being scared into submission by creators who has control issues over things they make.
YOU COME FIRST always. Sometimes even if it is hard we all just have to sit down and think, is it worth being scared over? Take it from me, IT IS NOT. You will be much more happy if you let the fear of these things control you go. Let it go Elsa style.

WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR GROUPS/COMMUNITIES AND WHAT RULES YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE IS THE CREATORS CHOICE

But that is were the rules stop.  You can kick people out of your communities if they break community rules. You cannot enforce these rules on someone who is not part of it or doesnt want to be part of it. But denying people who are no longer part of you community the right to do what they want with their characters are a waste of time. You cannot threathen someone with an empty promise. It doesnt work, you might think it work and with fear it does work. But if no one if afraid of you it doesnt work. If no one accepts the BS it doesnt work, and sooner or later so many people gets effed over that no one is going to stay if you do not change.



Some very important things to take into consideration when having the rules under

:bulletred: Buying something = can only resell for same amount or less if you do not talk with mods first.
- What about all the art added onto that character? what about the value on all the commissions bought of that character?
- What about the value of that character rising the older it gets?
- What if someone is willing to pay and actually use it and spread your species around by being active more but cant because this rule exist and that means you loose a very active member who would keep the hype of you species up.

:bulletred: Trading something = Cannot sell it but you can trade it
This rule itself is extremely broken since the value of things = money , Time = Money , Art = money and the list goes on.

Its ok for me to trade my $10,000 dollar ring for this $90 usd digitaldoghorse, but I cannot pay $20 dollars for it. Which means when that other person gets the ring they can sell it right after and have earned 10,000 dollars on something they could have paid 20 dollars on. Jackpot!!!

This rule doesnt protect your brand, it hurts it. If they find someone to trade with that has something they can sell later, what do you think they will choose? Yeah exactly. They will still do the same thing your trying to prevent them from. These people exists and they arent dumb. 

And again if your outside the community you can do what you want, they have nothing to threathen you with except taking the character back which again is illegal and concidered stealing.

Also cannot trade with someone on a blacklist if they offended the creator or broke rules on something they arent even part of. so if you want to trade with someone and the only thing you want is by someone who is blacklisted, you are litterly effed. They care nothing about you and will try to shove the rules that your not allowed to sell or trade to someone on a blacklist because? yeah why is that? especially when the person on the blacklist isnt even part of the group and never were xD

:bulletred: Gifting something = Cannot gift or give to friend because they are on a blacklist or have to give back to creator
Lets not forget those  who wont even let you gift to a friend because you have to give it back to the creator so they can resell it or add it into a raffle. But there are also those who say you cannot gift to someone because they are on their blacklist. 

You litterly cannot do anything with your own thing. No matter how much money/time/love you put into it, in the end they still own it in their eyes even if they dont. They own the right to the species thats it. Not the character.


Original creators designs vs Myo designs
Most of the time a lot of communities have the possibility of giving the creator money for the exchange of you making your own version of their species. ( I am not going to get into my views on myo in this and instead focus on what happens in some communities that does)

Ok so your design gets approved and is now part of the species. Congratulations!  You paid money to do your own work. But your design is now part of the thing you love and thats great. 

Yeah until an asshole like me or someone who is blacklisted comes a long and ends up with that character and decides to use it since it belonged to a friend that werent able to get anything for it because of said dumb rules above and I or person were nice enough to give them something they did want. The MYO Is now worthless and will be retired. So it means you spent money on something to make it part of something and it means nothing anymore since its no longer that species. Yeah you just wasted that money. You paid for a design that got no value.

But if a creator owns something, it doesnt get retired, it gets "revoked" because their design is worth more than yours. So if the same asshole owns that then it is to important to retire. and the group or community will try and take that design back. 

This is the reality you accept when you pay everything from $10 - $200 to make your own design to be part of that species. 



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I am sick and tired of seeing people get bullied into doing something that is impossible to have  a stand in a legal court. The only reason these things work is because we let them work. No one can dictate you on what you do with something you own unless you sign a contract. NO ONE. I dont care how many people will tell me or others "respect the artists rules". I will NOT when people get used like this, it makes me furious reading all the things people have gone through because its impossible for them to stand up for themselves when hundreds of whiteknights will attack them for questioning their queen or king. And not only that, creators will often hide behind their mods.

Its time to wake up. These rules are unfair, they are based on fear and they cannot be forced upon you. If you want to leave communities and or groups of CS you are part of and then do as you please with your character be it change the species, draw it in your own style, use it in your own world or even make a sock out of it you can. You absolutely can. Only thing you cant do is profit of the original drawing made of that character.


I am sick and tired of also seeing peoples work mean nothing, im sick of seeing people spend thousands of dollars on art of a character and then not even being able to sell it when someone is willing to buy it. 


YOU BUY/TRADE THE RIGHT TO USE THE CHARACTER no matter how butthurt someone is. It doesnt matter if they revoke the rights to call it insert species. Because who would want to be part of a community who do not care about the people who feeds them or helps them stay popular. Let them revoke the right to call it bananasuperdogsonfire. Sure your character will still look like one but you do not need the lable. Its your character.


The worst part of this is that not only do these people punish the sellers or owners that break the rules. They also punish the new buyers who want to be part of the community.

So yeah you are screwed if you want to buy a CS from someone who wants to get out of it because of unfair rules. If you know or are friends with a CS rule breaker, you bet your ass you are also screwed.

I have firends who got blocked by mods of CS groups because they traded things to me. Yeah how dare they get rid of their own characters that they have owned for years. 

When a community is so butthurt they wont even let people trade with someone for drawing the species the wrong way, then there should start flashing some red lights. Yes that is all i did. I drew it my own way, i am not part of the community or post in their groups because I believe in artistic creativity and openess to use any character how I se fit, and if It doesnt work in a group then I will respect that and not be part of that group. But that was not good enough for these people, they blacklisted me and is now punishing my friends and other people denying them the right to get something they want in return for getting rid of characters they no longer use.


Welcome to fucking deviantart adoptable community 2017 everyone! 





Excuse my language and horrible grammar. xD PEACE. May you let out your frustration with me or on me or at me or whatever. I am a blacksheep and will not sit here and accept things that hurts my fellow creators. Stand up for yourselves you are worth just as much as any popular artists. No one is more important, everyone is equal no matter gender, AGE, nationality or race. Screw fear and the people who try to use it against you.



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BigClaudia's avatar

Keep in mind that in most of the cases when is related to contract those conditions falls under unfair clauses in most of the countries.

Also most of the people doesnt consider that small thing (checked with a lawyer not long time ago) about selling adopts and stuff to the EU, because as i’ve learned if you have a business in the USA and sells a character to the EU buyer but the contacts contains some unfair clauses in the EU you can be subject to some fines and sometime anything of worse.

also in the EU there are the buyers protection laws that are still applied even if the seller is from overseas (USA and AU as example).

as example most of the websites like Instagram, FA and twitter where in the US the min age is 13, but the EU residents can make an account on the platform only if they are over 16 years old because of the GDPR laws that are in EU at the point to push the sites to adapt their policy