Serious Announcement - Please Read! (Patreon)

First of all, I'm not going anywhere - I'm not leaving Patreon, or going on sabbatical, or increasing the amount that I ask for my tier memberships or anything like that, so do not worry!

However, I have recently discovered that my artwork, specifically from Patreon, is being stolen and re-uploaded without my permission. 

To whomever is doing this, desist immediately, never continue, and all is forgiven - I will say no more about it. I made note of what has been illegally uploaded from behind the paywall on this site and if I see one more such piece I will begin investigating. Anyone discovered redistributing any paid-for content without my express written and legally witnessed permission will be permanently banned from this site and from all others, reported, and prosecuted to the fullest extent possible for theft, loss of income, and damages.

You may think this is a victimless crime. Since perfect duplication of digital content costs virtually nothing, you may think that it costs me very little and then I can just upload images here for a huge payoff in return. However it *does* cost a significant amount to create my artwork - and not just in time spent. 

You should be aware that my *only* purpose in maintaining a Patreon account is in order to offset the cost of this hobby and to allow me to continue to produce high-quality free content for the greater public. I leverage exclusive content, much higher quality, more renders, early access, polls, and input on potential new projects to my patrons in order to provide an incentive for support from those who are able and interested in doing so. Money earned from your generous subscription memberships is then used to maintain subscription services for Photoshop, Marvelous Designer, to pay for the Boost for Daz iRay rendering service that allows me to create more and higher quality images, and to purchase new assets for Daz Studios such as background, lighting rigs, new characters, clothing, hair, facial hair, character poses, accessories, and even somewhat for the maintenance of my computer (for example purchasing a 4TB hard drive, mainly for my artwork. 

My margins are extremely slim - the money that I earn, after expenses, runs to less than $2 per hour in a typical month. It can be even less than that, where I am actually *paying* money in order to create content. I previously was able to use part of my earning to support other artists here on Patreon - but although I still support them, I am no longer able to do this from my Patreon earnings and do so now at my own expense.

If this theft and illegal redistribution continues, there may be consequences that unfortunately affect everybody. I may be compelled to remove all older posts that are not public and move to an individualized download-only system. I hope that this will not be necessary.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

And now for the overwhelming majority of you, my devoted and beloved patrons, I want to clarify a few things about copyrights and the distribution of my material so as not to frighten any of you. I know if *I* were reading something like this from someone I follow, I would feel very uncomfortable - I would be wondering if I had done anything wrong, maybe by accident?

WHAT YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DO

Anything that I post *publicly* you may repost and distribute in any way that you would like with a few caveats; 

1. Do not alter or remove my branding. If you crop the image, either the "Pratev" logo (typically on the lower right side of the image), or the text showing the web address of my Patreon (lower left side of low-resolution images) must be present and unobscured. You could not, for example, crop an image so that only the word 'Patreon' remained with no reverence to 'Pratev'.

2. Do not upload to any site that requires any kind of paid subscription in order to view my work. If you upload to a site that has paid sections, that is fine, just make sure that anything of mine that is posted is never behind a paywall.

3. Do not represent yourself either overtly or by omission to be the creator of any of my artwork that you post. Do not represent yourself as me. You do not have to include a disclaimer or a link to my Patreon, DeviantArt, Tumblr, Muscle Growth, Discord (on public channels), Coiled Fist, Fur Affinity, or any other site - you don't have to explicitly say, "This was not created by me" either - if someone asks you, just tell them where it came from. You don't have to give a lot of detail, "Dude, is this yours?" "Naw, a guy called Pratev" is enough.

4. Do not post my artwork anywhere that it may be considered illegal. Most countries have laws that prohibit the distribution of pornographic material to minors and so require a password or membership in order to view NSFW material. Please respect that - as long as that membership is free, of course.

You may copy all images for your private use an unlimited number of times, save them on any number of devices, back them up in multiple places, etc.

You may show all images to anyone you please as long as it is lawful to do so. Do not show anything provocative or nude or suggestive or violent to any under-aged persons as defined by your local jurisdiction, typically under 18 in most places.

You may alter an image from a public post and upload it as long as you follow my instructions about leaving the branding intact and not placing original or derived work behind a paywall or in a place where it might be viewed by minors.

You may print, enlarge, make a poster of, place on a mug, place on a t-shirt, and so on - any image, including from behind a paywall tier, so long as you follow all of the applicable rules for redistribution - especially about not altering or removing the branding, and with a few additional restrictions:

1. You may not use my artwork, even publicly posted works, for mass production or wide distribution of a product such as a mug or a t-shirt - even if those items will be given away for free. If you would like to give away identical gifts to a few friends or something, that's not what I am talking about and that is fine.

2. Provide a service, even a cost only one, for creation of printed or manufactured products like the ones mentioned in point #1.

WHAT YOU MAY NOT DO

Use my artwork as an advertisement or promotion for any purpose whatsoever other than to promote itself as examples of my artwork.

Earn money from distribution of my artwork or creation of derived artwork from my originals. This includes uploading to sites that require members to pay in order to view my material or works derived from my material.

Represent my artwork as your own or represent yourself as the sole creator of any derived works from my originals.

Represent yourself as me or speak on my behalf without first consulting me.

Post anything at all, including artwork, announcements, poll results, etc, that are behind a paywall without my express permission.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

LAST WORD

This has been an ugly post and I am truly sorry for that. I felt it was necessary and I hope that I never have to say anything like this ever again. I truly appreciate all of you and for your generous contributions which have allowed me to try new things, to better myself as an artist, and to increase the quality of my work tremendously! I hope to continue for a long, long time - and I have every intention of doing so. I hope that you enjoy what I create and like the direction that I am going in the evolution of my artwork. I have many ideas swirling in my head - things like animation and more artistic compositions - and I have a list of great ideas from many of you that I have been exploring and will be showcasing as I get them completed.

Thank you all so much for your support - I truly appreciate you!

~ Pratev