My web pages and their contents are subject to German copyright law. Unless expressly permitted by law (§ 44a et seq. of the copyright law), every form of utilizing, reproducing or processing works subject to copyright protection on my web pages requires the prior consent of the respective owner of the rights (Kimberley Jackson). Individual reproductions of a work are allowed only for private use, so must not serve either directly or indirectly for earnings. Unauthorized utilization of copyrighted works is punishable (§ 106 of the copyright law).
In English, please.
Every work of art is automatically protected at the moment of its creation. And while we all understand the concept of theft in the material world, it all becomes a little foggy when it comes to intellectual property. So let me give you a brief overview about what you can and can not do with my stuff.
In the end I offer a general info on copyright and a FAQ, especially regarding the use of images.
Let me start out with a very general statement.
None of my writings or art are part of the public domain. I also DID NOT publish them under creative commons licenses!
Art
Most of my art that doesn’t use existing cartoon characters or copyrighted symbols are mine–legally and fully. That especially concerns my anime versions of Sam Carter and Jack O’Neill. Since there are no copyrighted symbols, terms or names used in the final art, and the characters as such didn’t exist in anime, I own them–plain and simple.
You are therefore NOT allowed to use my art on your own website, unless you have contacted me and I have given you explicit permission. You can take the following steps as a guideline:
- Contact me via the contact form. State briefly which work of art you wish to use, and what the URL of the page is. If you wish, you can use the following template as an idea:
Hi Kimberley,
I would like to use your artwork “ENTER NAME” on my website http://www.example.com. Would that be okay for you?
Cheers,
SOMEONE - As soon as you hear back from me (I will usually give permission, unless there are severe reasons against it. For example, I don’t wish my artwork to be affiliated with nazi-extremist websites, or websites promoting pedophilia or rape, or other shady criminal activities), I will send you the image file along with my info. You may then put it onto your website with the note Artist: Kimberley Jackson OR © 2016 by Kimberley Jackson.
Done. Easy enough, isn’t it? To make it even simpler for you, here’s the contact form you can use:
Exceptions:
You allowed to share my art by making use of the social share buttons at the bottom (e.g. Pinterest) under the condition that you don’t remove the credit and link back to my page.
But only by making use of those! Downloading and re-uploading my image to those pages counts as using my image on another website, since the links and affiliations to this website are deleted in the process.
Please refer to the FAQs for more info.
Now, let me explicitly stare what you are not allowed to do–even though common sense should tell you this:
You are not allowed to…
1. alter (and then re-publish) any of my art
2. publish/submit any of my artworks to social media networks or archives of any sort (such as for example Facebook, tumblr, Pinterest, deviantart, AO3 or others) with the exception of usage of implemented share-buttons as explained above
3. sell my artwork, or distribute them for monetary purposes or profits
4. publish or distribute any of my artworks without my artist’s name (Kimberley Jackson) attached; that includes cutting artist credits out of images of photos, people!
5. hotlink any of my artworks or images–because it steals some of my traffic and slows down my website
…without explicit written consent given by myself, Kimberley Jackson.
I’m serious about this, guys, I’m done with dealing with this stuff and filing takedown notices. In Germany, we have strict copyright laws which protect artists. And since I am a citizen of Germany, and my website is located here, every crime you commit falls under German jurisdiction. That means penalties can and WILL be issued here.
Looking at recent court rulings, those fines can easily rank from 200 up to 1000 Euros. I have refrained from taking such drastic measure up until now, but, as I said, I’m fed up with people using my stuff without crediting properly–or worse, going through the effort of cutting existing credits out and making money from them, which I consider malicious intent well worth fining.
Now, the steps and warnings above do not in any way affect your right to private copy.
Right to private copy? What does this mean?
German copyright laws protect private persons who wish to make a copy of a piece of art, book, cd or film for their own private enjoyment. In essence, what this means is, you are allowed to download any of my art and writings for your personal use. That even means you can pass it on to a couple of close friends and family members.
But careful! In a recent decision, a German court ruled that uploading an image to Facebook (or other social networks) does not fall under this right to private copy. The reasoning was, that the average Facebook user has about 100-150 friends, most of which they don’t really know–which goes far beyond a small, private circle of friends. Social networks are therefore considered a public area!
Writings
All writings that can be accessed on this page are provided free of charge. You are allowed to save or download material under the right of private copy, as stated above.
Sharing of website content
You are allowed to share any of my stories using the share buttons to the left. For the purpose of promoting one or more of my works on other pages, you may also use small passages of my writings. (Quotation right)
You also have a right to private copy, which means you may download my stories for personal enjoyment, but you are under no circumstance allowed to upload them elsewhere.
Sharing of ebooks provided free-of-charge and as public downloads on this website
Attention! This section does not include ebooks that you receive as a private courtesy copy in the context of the “Private Reading Circle”. Please refer to the section below for your rights with those ebooks.
You are allowed to share any of my free ebooks offered on this page using the share buttons to the left. For the purpose of promoting the contents of an ebook on other pages, you may also use small passages of my writings. (Quotation rights.)
You are furthermore allowed to copy my free ebooks, and share them on other websites (including file-sharing networks such as Torrents) as long as they remain unaltered with my name (Kimberley Jackson) attached. (Please note that I cannot be held responsible for ebook files containing mailicious software if they were obtained through file-sharing networks!)
You also have a right to private copy, which means you may download my stories for personal enjoyment.
You are not allowed to…
1. alter or rewrite (and then re-publish) any of my stories
2. publish/submit any of these stories to literature or fanfiction archives of any sort (such as for example fanfiction.net, fictionpress.com, AO3 or others)
3. publish any of the material in a form that it hasn’t been published as by me before (such as print books, audio books, movies, software, etc.)
4. translate and/or publish any of the material in a language that it hasn’t been published in by me
5. distribute any of the stories on this page for monetary purposes or profits
6. distribute any of the material without my author’s name (Kimberley Jackson) attached
…without explicit written consent given by Kimberley Jackson.
Of course plagiarism is not only the theft of a story word-by-word. Please refer to my blogpost on plagiarism if you want to learn more.
Sharing of the private courtesy copy of an ebook that you received as a beta-reader or in the “Private Reading Circle“
You are under no circumstances allowed to publish, sell, alter or upload any ebook received in the context of the private reading circle (PRC). PRC ebooks are private courtesy copies of stories not published anywhere in that form. Any form of unauthorized publication will be considered a violation of my authorship rights and a breech of trust. You will immediately be removed from the Private Reading Circle and I will contact a lawyer.
Special restriction for beta-readers: You are not allowed to share content you receive in connection with beta-reading activities with anyone, nor are you allowed to pass on copies to unapproved third parties.
Right to private copy in the Private Reading Circle: You are allowed to pass your ebook on to close friends or family members, however make sure you can trust those people. If your copy gets leaked, I will still hold YOU responsible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What do you mean, copyright? I thought everything published online for free is automatically in the public domain? Especially fanworks.
A: This may one one of the biggest legal misconceptions of our modern digital age. In order for a work of art or fiction to be in the public domain, the creator explicitly has to release it into it.
So, no. Just because someone posts something online for free doesn’t mean they grant the public all the rights to use it.
Q: So is it automatically published under a Creative Commons license?
No. Look at the answer to the previous question. The same rules apply here. In order for something to be published under a creative commons license, the author/artist has to decide to release it as such. Usually, you will find explicit mention of that license on the work of art.
Q: But what about fanworks? I heard that you don’t own any rights for those anyway, because the characters aren’t even yours.
In short, you’re wrong. Most, if not all, of my fanworks are transformative works, and therefore I hold the copyright.
Please refer to my article on “Fanfiction and Copyright” for a detailed explanation of that question.
Disclaimer for Transformative/Derivative Works
All known characters used in stories of television and movie fiction (in more detail: Sailor Moon, Alias, NCIS / Navy CIS, Stargate: SG-1) are not created by me, and belong to the respective copyright owners, studios and original writer.
Sailor Moon: Naoko Takeuchi
The X-Files: Chris Carter and FOX Network.
Alias: J.J.Abrams and ABC Networks
NCIS / Navy CIS: D.P. Bellisario and CBS Networks
Stargate (SG-1, Atlantis, Universe): Stargate (II) Productions, Kawoosh Productions, The SCI FI Channel, Showtime/Viacom, Sony/MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions
The same is true for story plot, if a story is closely tied to happenings on the respective show (such as missing mcene stories, etc.). No profit is made from those stories.
If you find any of the stories offered on this website for sale somewhere, please contact me immediately so that I can file a takedown notice! If you paid money for any of the stories on this website (by buying them as a book, ezine or similar, or by purchasing access to a fiction website, etc.), you’ve been ripped off. Unfortunately I cannot reimburse you any money you may have spent on unauthorized copies.
