Copyrights and Trademarks

[Merlin!]

May it so be noted.


One.
No one on this site or anyone affiliated with this site is in anyway claiming ownership over Harry Potter or any characters registered to JK Rowling. Original characters and all writings (regardless of character) are copyright to their respective owners.

Two.
The writing found herein this site belongs to the respective poster, and each person upon writing anything at anytime becomes the sole owner of the rights to that work, unless stated otherwise by said member. Characters and characterizations of persons also belong to their respective creator and shall not be duplicated elsewhere unless by the permission of said creator.

Three.
All base images used for the intensive purposes of this site (such as the background) are owned by their respected photographers or publishing companies. All images were found or gathered through search engines in varying queries and are hosted separately of said publishers.

Four.
Any images found in a profile or in a thread belongs to the respective member unless created for them in a request thread either on this site or another, in which event the image will belong to the person listed as the creator. Duplicates of the images on other sites shall not be tolerated unless displayed by the member it was created for or the creator of the image.

Five.
Plagiarism of any works or modified images will not be tolerated from members or guests. Punishments for such actions will be dealt with by the staff on a as-served basis, varying from banishment for a set amount of time to severe legal actions in court.

Six.
The staff of H&H do not claim ownership of any characters, writings, or created images, and as such the owners of said works give permission to the staff to defend said works in the event of plagiarism. The staff will defend the rights of the members herein and will actively seek out any plagiarism as though it were their own works being stolen, and push any issue to the full extent of our rights.

Seven.
The name Hallows and Horcruxes and any variation of such a name (including but not limited to Hallows & Horcruxes, Hallows && Horcruxes, Hallows + Horcruxes, Hallows AND Horcruxes, etcera) is trademarked to the respected members of this site. According to trademark law, registration of the site name is not required in order for this domain and any future domains to have the name trademarked. Hallows and Horcruxes is to be considered a common law trademark and shall be protected within the realm of its use, which is the internet.

Refer to Copyright Laws.

Refer to Trademark Laws.


So it is noted.

[Ron Weasley]

Amendments.


One.
May anyone who is considering taking any part of this website, be it the rules, character forms, canon list, help threads and other articles, as well as the board layouts, color schemes, skinning ideas or coding ideas, have it known that the members of this site, not I or any other staff members, will force your site to close down. Either ProBoards will shut it down for plagiarism (which I have already expressed my thoughts on) or you will delete it, shut it down, or abandon it. Don't think this is serious? I'll be more than happy to link you to the sites that copied H&H in some form or fashion; some will not be there, some will be closed down, others abandoned.

Copying is stealing someone else's idea. It's not unique, it's not cool, and it won't get you ahead in getting members or a neat reputation. All you are accomplishing is making a poor-man's version of someone else's success, and it only angers and upsets the creators, which in the case of Hallows and Horcruxes is not just myself, but the other members as well.

All I can really think to ask is... is it so much to ask, as a forum administrator, a writer, a human being, for other people to have their own creative ideas? It's one thing to emulate, which means use someone else's work as the basis for your own work; most fanfiction is created as such. However, fanfiction authors do not copy over the work they are writing about and claim it as their own. Why? Because it's stealing. Just because my work is online in the form of rules, forms, articles, and formatting doesn't make it any more right to just copy it. So don't. Or the members will get you. And your name will be known throughout ProBoards as one who steals forum ideas, which leads to the next question of what else it is you take and claim as your own.

DON'T STEAL. DON'T COPY. JUST DON'T.


So it is noted.