We've put a bit of thought into it, and here are some guidelines! While formally we reserve all rights regarding Dreamkeepers, our informal stance on reader created content is outlined below.
*Non-commercial creations
If you're not making money from it, then have fun, and create whatever you want! I'm not interested in cracking down on anyone for fanart, crossover fiction, motion comics, dubs, what have you. Derivatives of our work, like memes and AMVs, are also totally fine. Be considerate of spoilers if it's a new release, but that's about it.
*Commercial creations
Commercial means you're selling content, or earning money from it. In my mind there are two basic categories of commercial work. Hand-crafted art, like a clay sculpture, and manufactured art, like a thousand factory-produced figurines.
Either way, we have two limitations:
1) If you make less than $2,000 in gross sales during a year, then we're fine with it. Anything more than that, and you'll need to contact us ( Dreamkeeperscomic*at*gmail.com ) so we can sign a full-blown legalese licensing agreement. We'll ask for a percentage of the revenue which exceeds $2K.
2) No producing / manufacturing copies of *our* content- because that directly competes with what we might be trying to sell. But if it's your own art, something we're not producing anyways, go ahead. Limitation #1 still applies.
*Crowdfunding
We have to drop the hammer on crowdfunding. If everyone launched campaigns for Dreamkeepers merchandise they wanted to make, there could be Dreamkeepers Kickstarters galore- and I would have no control over whether they delivered on their promises. People could even use the name 'Dreamkeepers' to intentionally scam readers. We have to preserve our crowdfunding reputation, so we have to say no to anyone that wants to engage in crowdfunding or fundraising for their own Dreamkeepers content. I'm sorry, because we've had several requests pertaining to this already- but it's something that could very easily get out of hand.
*Logo
Logos fall in the same vein as Crowdfunding- it is, in the literal sense, our trademark. If people want to use the Dreamkeepers logo on non-commercial fanart, I'm fine with it. But when it comes to anything commercial, we would rather constrain use of our logo to stuff actually made by us.
One last note: Especially on commercial work, please credit us and link to our website. www.dreamkeeperscomic.com
And that's about it! Rather general, but I wanted to at least get this out there. If people want to get commissions of Dreamkeepers characters, make some DK themed merchandise to sell at a convention or something, make some custom DK t-shirts to share with their friends- I think that all sounds fun as hell, and in the end it helps make everything better for everyone.
Any questions, drop them in the comments on the DA post http://dreamkeepers.deviantart.com/journal/Dreamkeepers-informal-licensing-statement-565705011 and I'll get through in a few days to answer them.
Thank you to all the readers and artists who help make this such a vibrant, fun community! We're grateful to all of you.
-Dave & Liz
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