Ganymede Explains His Picture Policy :P


STARRED PICTURES

There are many reasons why I do not let anyone use the pictures with three stars next to
their links. I only put the stars next to pics if friends have scanned them specifically
for my site alone, or if I have edited the picture myself so extensively that they look
quite different from the way they were when I acquired them. I also put stars next to pics
that I myself have created from online movie files - I spend hours and hours downloading
multi-megabyte movie files with a 14.4 modem, making screen captures from them, and then
doing pixel-by-pixel editing. As you can see, I don't put stars next to a picture link on a
whim - I actually have good reasons for doing so.

I'm sorry to be so bitchy about this, and I am not a member of "Stop the Image Thieves,"
but at the same rate I do not feel that you should be free to take certain images which I
have created myself, or images which my friends have gone out of their way to scan or
capture just for me, or images which I have extensively edited myself **pixel-by-pixel** to
make my webpage unique.

I must also point out that I have NO way to make screen captures and I have very limited
scanner access (I only have one piece of scannable Mamoru material anyway), so intensive,
hard-core editing on pictures which I have acquired *with formal permission* from other
people is THE MAIN WAY I keep my image vaults unique and fresh. I also download online
movie files and make "poor man's screen captures" by capturing images from the movie files.

You may argue that these images aren't really mine to give or take no matter how hard I
worked on them because they belong to Takeuchi-san and Toei and other big companies, but if
that's the case, then what's the point of making a webpage? If every Sailormoon site had
the same images in their image vaults, how can an image vault stay unique? I mean, I
consider my Tuxedo Kamen Shrine unique as it is, but I would like my image vaults to be
unique too, and I have every right to want to protect such things as an image of Tuxedo
Kamen I spent over an hour editing pixel-by-pixel to make it look good as a transparent
.gif file. The total number of days I have spent editing, merging, splicing, and capturing
many of the starred images is gargantuan, and I do not appreciate people going around and
placing the images I have worked so hard on at THEIR websites without sacrificing any of
the work or time that I have.

So please, PLEASE respect my wishes, and the time and hard work I have lovingly given to
Mamo-chan and to this Shrine, by NOT TAKING the pictures that have the three stars next to
them. :) No matter how hard I try I can't stop you from stealing images I have
edited/created/retouched/spliced. I'm just asking, *requesting* that you guys respect my
wishes and the work I've put into my site by appealing to your common sense. I respect
people's work and do not take pics if they are marked as "untakeable." If people don't want
to give that same respect that when they come to my site or anyone else's site, then all
the Sailormoon image galleries will end up looking the same and image gallery surfing will
become an extremely boring experience for websurfer and webmaster alike.


UNSTARRED PICTURES

The unstarred pics are images that I have done minimal or no editing on, and I don't feel I
have the right to keep them for myself. I only want to keep the starred pics for myself,
since the starred pics are the ones I have put a LOT of time into in order to make my image
vaults unique.

If you do take any of the unstarred pics, I ask that you credit me and give me a link
anywhere on your website (you may either put a link to Ganymede's Sailor Neptune Shrine or
Ganymede's Palace). You must also let me know at **iacobus at geocities dot com** and tell
me which of the unstarred pics you are using.

I ask that people do this for one main reason: as I said above, I have no way to make
screen captures, and my scanner access is virtually nil. Yet my image vaults are HUGE, and
this is because of the charity of good people who DO have lots of Mamoru material and the
money to make screen captures and scan pictures. If you use my unstarred pictures I want
you to let me know and tell me which ones you use because that way I can tell you exactly
just who you should give credit to and exactly whose websites you should link to. I had
almost nothing to do with the creation of the unstarred pictures, and I want you to
properly credit the people who did.

Thanks for respecting my wishes, and if you don't plan to do that, then thanks at least for
taking the time to read this. :)

- James (Ganymede)