Art Gallery Policy

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City of Gamers is, in the greatest sense of the word, a community. We are made of a dynamic and international group of artists, authors, players, judges and gaming professionals, from all ages, races, and backgrounds. There are two primary and often conflicting goals in the service we provide for you, the members of the community, through the Art Galleries.

1. Ensure that members are free to express themselves without restriction or undue censorship, and nurturing an environment of creativity, learning, and talent.
2. Protect the members of the community to the best of our abilities, concerning discrimination, and prejudice.

Not to limit submissions, but merely as examples, a work of art can be of a science fiction, fantasy, horror, surreal, or a related theme. However, subject matter must not violate existing copyrights or trademarks. Works that are judged to be libelous, plagiarist, obscene, or detrimental to the value of trademarked characters will not be permitted.

The following is a non-exclusive list of actions and content that are not permitted on the Site:

1. Any use of copyrighted material without the express permission of the author or owner. See our policy on Image Theft and Plagiarism
2. Any material that encroaches the rights of others, including clear expressions of bigotry, racism, or national hatred.
3. Any material that is perceived by City of Gamers as abusive, deceptive, profane, slanderous, offensive, or inappropriate, including explicit pornography. See our policy concerning Nudity in Art.
4. Any use of material that contains viruses, corrupt files or other content which may compromise the City of Gamers Online Community or any user thereof.
5. Any material that violates any laws or regulations of any governing body with jurisdiction over City of Gamers, its affiliates and users.
6. Any materials inconsistent with the values of the spirit of the City of Gamers community.
7. Adding links to your gallery that that promotes any of the above.

Policies on Art containing Nudity

City of Gamers does not condone the uploading of pornographic materials to its database. However, we recognize that the human form is one of the oldest artistic expressions, and allow nudity if it is central to the statement of the artist or of the work of art itself. The following guidelines shall be used to determine whether a work of art containing nudity will remain in the City of Gamers Art Gallery:

1. Is the submitter the original artist of the piece, or does the work contain copy written material for which the artist has not received permission, and has failed to manipulate to a necessary degree as to not infringe on copyright law?
2. Does the submission explicitly depict graphic sexual acts?
3. Is the individual depicted over the age of 18?
4. Is the work of art done in good taste?

Should the staff deem the work to fail any of these rules, we reserve the right to refuse the work, and, even though we will always make an attempt to do so, we are not required to notify the artist of said rejection. Good taste, as with all art galleries, falls squarely within the views of the administrators of this site.

Once a work of art is determined to violate policy, it is immediately refused for posting to the gallery. Notification of its refusal will be sent via the City of Gamers private messaging system. Submitting the same piece again or similar material will result in immediate removal and potentially banishment from the community.

Policy on Content Categories

City of Gamers does not condone the submission of work of art to categories that they do not belong in. This means that a work of art that is clearly designed to be within a “Mature” Content Category should not be submitted to the “Everyone” Content Category, etc. Constant disregard for the organization of the site will be viewed as Site Abuse.

Image Theft, Ripping, and Plagiarism

City of Gamers will not tolerate plagiarism or "rips" - taking another artists work and posting it as your own. Ripping is image plagiarism and theft against your peers. City of Gamers considers the following image theft and plagiarism:

1. Posting another artist's material found inside the community or outside the community with little or no modification and claiming it as your own.
2. Use of non-stock photography, poetry, or a portion of another work of art without the original authors written authorization (to be included in a zip file for download).
3. Posting another artist's material found inside or outside the community, not claiming ownership, but failing to seek the written authorization of the original author for its use.
4. Posting another artist's lyrics, poetry, or other writing within (or in association with) a work of art without their written authorization to do so and beyond the boundaries of "Fair Use".

If an artist feels that they have been ripped, or is aware that another artist has been ripped, please notify staff via issc@empyregroup.net with the following information:

1. Link to the original work.
2. Link to the "ripped" work.
3. Whether this is a constant problem with the ripper.
4. Name of the ripper.

Ripping allegations are very serious, and handled on a case by case basis. As a general rule, should the offender receive a warning for their first infraction, any continued theft will result in a ban.


[Guidelines compiled from various places including deviantART and The Elfwood Project.