Important Message, Concerning Content, disclaimers et al

[mesmereyes]

Many of you will be aware of the incident concerning WinterRose and the removal of the images he had uploaded here. Many of you may also be concerned as to how this will effect The Collective as a whole both now and in the future. Here I will do my best to lay out the current situation and what if anything we will be doing differently.

We have already with the kind help of TeraS redesigned our disclaimer page which all members must click on before joining. I urge you to read it and digest it's contents.

We have also placed this disclaimer at the front end of the gallery page so that you must pass it on every visit. This may seem something of an imposition but the Admin and mod team felt that we needed to constantly remind both our members and any casual visitors what our terms of reference are.

We are placing no restrictions on content beyond what we have already concerning the use of any underaged images whether real or drawn. Individual artists can decide for themselves which sources to use for images bearing in mind that if the representative of any celebrity, site or artist requests removal of specific media then we will comply immediately, as soon as the contact has been validated. Therefore if the need arises we may from time to time have to prohibit pictures from individual sources or of specific subjects.

If we move quickly enough in these circumstances any legal complications can be avoided and this community allowed to continue.

It is up to individual artists whether or not they give permission for their work to be used elsewhere, posting here does not give any other member or any of the admin team any implicit right to use your pictures without your permission. Should this happen we will do our best to give support but that support will be confined to dealing with current members of the gallery and forum only. We will be unable to police any or all off site activity that does not visibly link to our membership base.

We will always try to do what we feel is right for this forum and with that in mind there may be times that unpopular choices need to be made and enforced, we hope that you will understand and give us your support throughout the years to come.

Thank You