View source for Acceptable Use Policy

== Submission Content Rules ==

SoFurry.com is a "furry" website, as such submissions should be furry (or scaly, anthropomorphic, etc) in context, though exceptions are made as detailed further below.

Aside from proper title and description, the adding of tags is required. We encourage you to choose from predefined tags being provided to you during input. Nevertheless you are free to provide new tags. Keep in mind, that the purpose of tags is to improve searchability, therefore it is in your very own interest to choose tags carefully.

We reserve the right to reject any submissions should we deem it in violation of our content rules. We may also re-tag your submission to better fit into our content categorization system. Please note that repeated, unrelenting attempts to submit rejected content may lead to account termination. It is self-evident that the upload of illegal content is forbidden. We reserve the right to reject submissions based on quality or other concerns.

===Artwork===

SoFurry is a site for furry art. That said, humans are allowed in furry artwork. You may also upload artwork of humans as well as species close to humans (elves, orcs, etc) - but note that we are a furry site and the majority of your gallery should be focusing on furry art, or creatures generally associated with the furry fandom.

Human-only submissions must be tagged with the keyword "Human-only"

Realistic depictions of human childs in sexually explicit situations are forbidden. Asl yourself if your submission is going to put SoFurry into trouble, and don't upload content that is likely to do so.

We may remove screenshots of games or programs like SecondLife if the amount of actual contribution of the uploader is too small (i.e. stock models, no artistic value in pose, composition or editing, etc)

Please use journals to announce streams. A nice streaming and event system is forthcoming, but for now please don't use the art section to announce streams. Write a journal instead.

Should you wish to add illustrations to your stories or cover art to your music, you may do so by uploading them to your gallery. When your illustrations are not furry related on their own, please give a corresponding statement in the illustration's description, telling us to what story or song it belongs to. Again, the majority of your gallery should be furry or furry-related.

Borderline submissions will be handled on a case-by-case basis. We encourage you to upload images in high quality and high resolution. Uploading of teasers or thumbnail-previews (with a link to a site with the full version) is ok if you're promoting a larger work, however we do not allow the upload of an entire gallery of thumbnails.

===Stories===

Like artwork, stories should have furry context. Non-Furry stories are allowed but should not constitute the majority of your stories. Stories containing humans exclusively must be tagged with the keyword "Human-only".
Readability is important for your story to be enjoyable. Therefore you should pay attention to a well formed structure, formatting and correct spelling.

===Music===

Always observe copyright laws and don't upload commercial music. Voice-only submissions are accepted, please use the "Talk" or "Podcast" tags for these submissions.

===Journals===

Journals are your place to keep us up to date and are your way to voice opinions. Journals are not the place for insults or drama. Formatting and spelling might not be as as important as for story submissions but still you are encouraged to keep a reasonable level of quality.

===Photography===

The photography section is for your personal photos, which may or may not be furry. However, due to legal reasons, photos must not show humans in adult or explicit situations. Users under the age of 18 are not allowed to upload photographs of themselves. Be aware of the legal situation regarding photographing others, and respect their privacy. Please also note our section on Advertisement submissions in the AUP.

== Content levels ==

All content on sofurry.com must be properly flagged according to its content level:

'''CLEAN:''' The picture or story is of non-adult nature, or contains only decent nudity. Without going into the age-rating crap so prevalent these days, let's just say "worksafe", or "I would show this to my semi-conservative parents".

'''ADULT:''' The picture or story contains depictions of sexual acts or other adult subject matter. This amounts to "NSFW" or "my parents would disown me if I showed them"

'''EXTREME:''' The picture or story contains extreme fetishes that go beyond regular clean sex or show potentially offensive stuff. This includes, but is not limited to: scat, watersports, snuff, castration, cub, etc.

If in doubt, use the next-highest content level to be sure.



==Appeal of Moderator Decisions==

Moderator decisions can be appealed, the final decision is for the site owner to make.



== Copyright ==

By submitting content to sofurry.com you grant us the right to redistribute said work on our website (duh...) while retaining all other rights yourself.
This also means that you cannot upload content for which you can't grant such a license, for example if said content was not created '''by or for you'''. Uploading "something I found on the web" will lead to your account being terminated.
In short: Don't upload other people's art unless you have their expressed permission to do so, it's your character, or their license (copyleft, etc.) gives you that permission!



== Characters ==

SoFurry considers fan-art of popular characters a work of parody. However, you are not allowed to upload material on our servers that uses personal characters of another fur without their permission. 
'''NOTE:''' Commissions usually result in a "joint work" under US copyright, in which case both the artist and the character owner have the same rights, including distribution. If this is not what you want, make sure to clear this up before commissioning the artist! See the [http://wiki.sofurry.com/wiki/Q:_Can_I_upload_art_of_my_character_I_commissioned_from_an_artist%3F Copyright FAQ] for more information.

Hate-art, i.e. art or stories that depicts another person's character in a negative light without their consent, is not allowed.



== Advertisements ==

Advertisements for your own furry products are only allowed as long as they are '''complete works of art by themselves''', for example a cover image for a comic. However, the upload of censored artwork with a "click here to buy the uncensored pic"-notice is not allowed, nor is uploading multiple advertisement submissions for the same service. We reserve the right to reject submissions that advertise such services and products. If you want to advertise on SoFurry, see [[Advertising on SoFurry]]
Exempt from this rule are commission example sheets with pricing information, feel free to post these in the art section.

It is not allowed to turn the photo-section into your own online shop. Note that it is more difficult for a product photo to be a "complete work of art". A single submission with visually pleasing example shots and a link to your shop or a journal with more information is okay, but multiple photo submissions with price tags etc. are forbidden. Purchase an advertisement slot if you want to do such things.

Note that we also do not allow the repeated upload of such submissions in order to push it back to the first page. In other words, if you upload a single submission that satisfies the above rules multiple times (while always deleting the old ones), we reserve the right to take down your submission completely. Such re-uploads are allowed at most once every month, and only if the content actually changed.

'''Example 1:''' An user advertises his comic by uploading the cover page or a teaser. One such submission per comic project is allowed.

'''Example 2:''' An user advertises his comic by uploading normal-resolution color or B/W versions of the entire comic, with a link for getting the high-res and/or colored version on every submission. Each upload is a complete work of art in itself, so the artist may upload the entire comic and put those links into every description.

'''Example 3:''' A user uploads a single image that shows multiple product photos and adds a link to his online shop. This is allowed, as long as it is a single submission for the entire online shop.

'''Example 4:''' A user uploads multiple submissions with product photos, price tag and link to the online shop. This is not allowed. Upload a single submission for your online shop, and don't push it more often than once a month, and only if something changed.

== License ==

SoFurry.com respects the freedom of artists to manage their creative license. SoFurry.com does not enforce a particular content license upon its users. Authors and artists are free to choose any license and express that in their submission. We advise you to choose your license carefully. There are licenses that you cannot revoke (e.g. copyleft). Also, we do allow users to upload other people's works if the accompanying license allows it.

If you are unsure about which license to use, please state in your submission description how you want your work to be used.

For example of the kind of licenses you can utilize, [[http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses/ click here]].

== Age Restrictions, Underage Users ==

This service is offered as-is. We reserve the right to remove any user from areas we believe he/she may be too young to access. However, we refuse to accept responsibility for bringing up other people's children. If your child comes to this website without your supervision then it's your job to stop that. It is well within your power to do that, and if you feel that this is not so then please seek professional advice on how to fulfil your parental duties. SoFurry supports ICRA tags, so any decent parental control software should work.



== Freedom Of Speech, Links ==

Your freedom to swing your fist ends at the tip of another's nose. In other words: You're free to express your opinions, especially in journals, but allegations, accusations and slander are not allowed.
You may link to pretty much anything in your journals, however we reserve the right to close comments on, or remove journal entries that cause excessive drama or otherwise disturb the normal operation of SoFurry. We will do our best to try and be fair, but ultimately this is a private site and thus it's our decision.



== Hotlinking ==

We believe in open access and the benefits of direct links. Hence, sofurry encourages deep-linking and hot-linking, as long as it is not abused (for example by other sites to reduce their own traffic costs at our expense) or endangers site operation.



== Syndication, Interoperation ==

We at SoFurry.com do not exercise ownership over content submitted by users and we believe it is in everyones best interest to be as open and cooperative with other sites as possible. That's why SoFurry.com is actively seeking cooperation with other sites, for example to enable users to share data they've uploaded on one site with another, to facilitate single-sign-on via OAuth, or syndicate content via RSS. We grant other websites permission to use data from our site in an automated fashion, '''as long as user's copyrights are not violated''' and our facilities are not unnecessarily stressed.

For example, indexing our data to build a search engine is okay, but downloading and serving whole images or stories from our site is not.

If in doubt, just contact Toumal before putting your data-sharing project online.

== API Usage Terms ==

The SoFurry API gives users and application developers access to site functionality and content in a machine-readable manner, for example for mobile devices or stand-alone applications. All terms and conditions above apply. We reserve the right to revoke access to individual applications and/or users should they endanger site operations. If in doubt, contact Toumal before going online with your application.

== Browsing Statistics ==
By using SoFurry, you agree to let us collect anonymous statistics about how you use the site. If you do not wish us to do so, you may opt out (with no penalty or loss of functionality) by following the instructions at [[Privacy Policy#Browsing Statistics]].