License/copyright of micros, what makes a micro a micro?

So... I just thought I'd ask. If I make micro heroes, do I have the copyright to them? Or is it the person who made the template? But if I don't use a template, is there a difference then? Is it this forum that "limits" the usage, etc? Basically, I want to know what makes a micro a "micro" and not random pixel art?

I don't have all the answers...

But perhaps could you find some in the history of micro heroes here :
http://microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

You would technically have to make everything on a micro for it to be yours. And a lot of people make micros based on Marvel/DC whatever characters so they could never copyright that. Plus if they use hair, outfits, or the template that someone else did.

TheDenDen wrote:

You would technically have to make everything on a micro for it to be yours. And a lot of people make micros based on Marvel/DC whatever characters so they could never copyright that. Plus if they use hair, outfits, or the template that someone else did.

Well, for example this?
https://2img.net/h/i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss6/Woodmouse-/plaguedoc2-1.png
https://2img.net/h/i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss6/Woodmouse-/plaguedoc2-5.png
I made it 100% scratch, apart from the face under the mask, which only has outlines and colors of the basic template head.

Unless somebody is using your micros to make a profit (highly unlikely) I wouldn't get too hung up about copyrights.

To answer your question, if you did not make 100% of the micro, whoever created the parts you used, no matter how small, has the right to protect their work under copyright laws. The law no longer requires anybody to register their work and label it (name, year, Copyright logo ©) but people still do because it provides evidence on who created the work first.

And to make something count as yours, you need to change 60 or 80% of it from it's original design, to the point of it essentially not looking like the original design in any sense...

you cant just throw the symbol on sometime to copyright it. you would need to officially go through the process of doing it or it wouldnt really matter anyways.

Yeah, I wouldn't care to copyright my micros...maybe the characters/stories, but not the micros

Zookeeper wrote:

you cant just throw the symbol on sometime to copyright it. you would need to officially go through the process of doing it or it wouldnt really matter anyways.

Not necessarily...

Quote :

Copyright law is different from country to country, and a copyright notice is required in about 20 countries for a work to be protected under copyright.[30] Before 1989, all published works in the US had to contain a copyright notice, the © symbol followed by the publication date and copyright owner's name, to be protected by copyright. This is no longer the case and use of a copyright notice is now optional in the US, though they are still used.[31]

In all countries that are members of the Berne Convention, copyright is automatic and need not be obtained through official registration with any government office. Once an idea has been reduced to tangible form, for example by securing it in a fixed medium (such as a drawing, sheet music, photograph, a videotape, or a computer file), the copyright holder is entitled to enforce his or her exclusive rights. However, while registration isn't needed to exercise copyright, in jurisdictions where the laws provide for registration, it serves as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright. The original copyright owner of the copyright may be the employer of the author rather than the author himself, if the work is a "work for hire"

Fallen Angel wrote:

And to make something count as yours, you need to change 60 or 80% of it from it's original design, to the point of it essentially not looking like the original design in any sense...

Well, "original design" is quite strange since I rarely make micros based on anything, so they're "original characters".