PROTIP: On e621, use of the copyright:tag should be used to indicate a copyright status of the picture. Such as copyright:public_domain, or copyright:by-nc-sa (for creative commons)

Using it for the purple of stating that something belongs to a certain something is not the correct purpose here. That's what an artist/company tag is for.

You might want to update the help file, since what it says is in conflict.

I kind of prefer the "danbooru way" of using the copy tag, since a -very- small percentage of what I contribute has any sort of copyright information associated with it.

But that's just me.

"copyright:public_domain" broke my brain and made me lol, but I guess there has to be a zero point.

Not that I'd have a problem with just changing the way things are done, but people have clearly been working according to the docs ( http://e621.net/help/tags ). So I'll continue working the way I've been working for now just to keep things consistent.

People seem to have been using it to mean series:, book:, film:, franchise:. And sometimes rightsholder:. [PROTIP for readers: none of these are currently working tag prefixes] It's ugly, but that seems to be the way people have been doing it.

If there's gonna to be a bulk change, I'd suggest "franchise" as the prefix current entries should be moved to. And leave "copy:" (or maybe "rights:" / "license:") for what you suggest, Arcturus.

Hope that makes sense.

Anomynous said:
"copyright:public_domain" broke my brain and made me lol, but I guess there has to be a zero point.

Don't worry. Most folks aren't IP/Copyright experts. Even if an image is "public domain", it has a copyright status.

The copyright holder has all rights to a work of art or literature and can make any stipulation they want about the ability of others to copy the work and with what others can do with that copy of the work.

There are confusing aspects such as selling the only copy of a work, the original, and whether the copyright goes with it (Tip: Read the fine print of the sales contract :P).

But, once a copyrighted work is declared "Public Domain" by the current copyright <i>owner</i>, they can't revoke that status. All that the appelation means is that the work now belongs to everyone and no work based on that original Public Domain work can be copyrighted unless it falls cleanly into the "Non Derivative" category (meaning something like an original new novel written using Robin Hood and his Merry Men set in a different time or as a sequel to the original story, etc. If it's the original story, it can;t be copyrighed). That's public domain.