Hi and thanks for appreciating my stock. Below you will find my terms of use, updated to be as clear as possible and divided in 2 sections, for using my stock inside and outside deviantArt.

Section 1 - Inside deviantArt

Do not steal my stock or claim it as your own.

No redistribution, except for thumbnail previews in journals or blog-like entries linking directly back to my deviation; in other words, my stock cannot be made available for download anywhere but here on my deviantArt account.

My stock must be used creatively. However subjective that may be, I do not want to see simple one-click filters or adjustments.

No need to ask for permission to use my stock beforehand, but you must notify me once you've finished and uploaded your deviation. Please also include credits with a link to the specific image used from my deviantArt account.

I am fairly liberal concerning subject matter, including horror, macabre, erotic, or other controversial topics, but you cannot use my stock in any way that violates deviantArt policy, and more importantly, the Law. Both in global standards and what's legally acceptable in your local jurisdiction.

Please double check what category I put my image in before you intend to use it. Most of what I submit belongs to stock & resources, but the images I put under different categories (for example photography) cannot be used as stock. For that reason, I have recently created another dA account for my more artistic pieces ([link]), but now I'm faced with the issue of "backward compability"; I don't want to delete everything from this account that's non-stock related just yet because of all of the faves and feedback they've generated, so I would ask you instead to just to be a little extra careful when using my work.

dA prints are fine as long as you respect all previous guidelines.


Section 2 - Outside deviantArt

Same conditions from Section 1 apply, but with more specific guidelines.  You need not read any further if you are only using my stock inside deviantArt.

My stock is free to use for school work, charitable causes, non-profit purposes, basically anything non-commercial. In such cases, please credit me and let me know how my stock has been used.

Commercially, there are instances where my stock can be used free, but only if you satisfy one of the following conditions. Here I feel I have to elaborate in greater detail for a better idea of the do's and don'ts:

1) Promotional Material: Flyers, posters, websites, annual reports, etc, as long as you are using my stock to help promote you or your company, but not using my stock in designs, artwork, print-on-demand or other products for resale. Example: You can use my stock freely in a flyer design for Ladies' Night at XYZ SuperClub, then distribute the flyer openly to help attract more people to your club, but you cannot resell the flyer itself. If you want to resell some products with my stock in it, I would expect some sort of return which we could discuss further in notes or e-mails.

I understand in some cases when designing promotional material that it is not feasible to include credits in my name, and that's fine. You do however need to notify me when my stock has been used, along with a sample of the work you did. I would also ask for a comment on my main page - it can be very simple like "Thanks" - if only to contribute another Pageview on my account.

2) Tutorials: I encourage the use of my stock for instructional / educational purposes, even commercially. This includes stuff like tutorials on DVDs, magazines or websites where you could use my stock in part or in whole to illustrate some sort of creative process or techniques. I would however ask that you show me a sample of the tutorial once published and that you credit the images of mine that you used along with a link to my dA account. Every bit of exposure helps.   

For large scale companies, I would also want a complimentary copy of the publication where my stock is being used. For instance, an issue of the magazine would be nice, or a DVD sent to me through the mail. I base this on the principle of take a little, give a little, I trust this is fair.

3) Traditional Art: As a digital photographer, I have a soft spot for more traditional forms of art. I find they leave more of a human imprint, and since my illustration skills are rather limited, I love to see what can be done with my stock through non-digital means. For now, I'm willing to allow some commercial uses for traditional artists who want to incorporate my stock as reference, like selling the resulting paintings, and I would limit the amount of money to be made at $500 for the paintings themselves.

This $500 (US) is the amount that you, as a traditional artist, can make using my stock as reference without having to pay me. This is a total amount and not per painting, so that anything made beyond $500 would have to be negotiated in further detail. Please keep in mind that I would try to be as fair as possible, like settling payment after you've sold the painting(s) and working a rate of commission relative to how much of my stock you used as reference. I still want to make it profitable enough for you, but hope you can understand I want my share too if you use use my stock extensively.

Digital reproductions of any traditional artwork on sites like Etsy, Zazzle, or Cafepress would also have to be negotiated and are not included in the $500 exemption. The $500 exemption applies only to the traditional artwork in its original state. My name does not need to be included in the original artwork, but it would be nice if you could mention me and a link to my deviantart account in some external source, like in an online description of your painting.

4) Sim Games: By popular request, yes you can use my stock to help generate some virtual money, on 2 conditions: That you use my stock creatively as previously described and that you do not use this as a loophole to trade virtual money into real money.

5) Any picture of mine containing a logo, trademark, identifying number (like on a license plate) or human face, etc. cannot be used for commercial purposes. I genuinely try my best and make it a point to filter these things out, but sometimes I might have overlooked a small detail. You cannot hold me responsible for this when using my stock in your work, especially outside deviantArt.

6) If we agree on a commercial license fee for extended use of my stock, I would prefer actual money as opposed to points, which we could discuss in private to hash out the details. You can either note me or send me an e-mail through somadjinn(at)gmail.com. I'm deliberately masking my e-mail address in hopes that the evil cyber spider bots don't spam me, but I trust you're still able to decipher the secret code between parentheses

7) Re-using my stock to generate other stock is a tricky subject. I've received this request on a few occasions, and my answer depends really on a number of factors because stock contributors can vary greatly in their stock rules. First and foremost however, please make sure that my terms are being respected, especially in that your derivative stock has to be original and does not allow for greater commercial usage than my own.

You do not have to include the same special / bonus exemptions I do like $500 for traditional artworks, but neither can you make other special / bonus exemptions, like allowing digital reproductions for up to a certain monetary amount that my terms do not allow for. One exception though... where as a gesture to support this community, I do not place any restrictions on dA prints, as long as my stock is being used creatively.

In any and all cases, I still retain copyrights to my pictures in their original forms and states I personally post-processed them in. Only when significantly creative alterations have been made to the picture can you claim copyrights to your own derivation, but not my picture element inside of it.

Regards,

Nicolas Raymond



www.freestock.ca