Now that we've gone over that example lets just take a moment to go over what you should watch out for.
Things to watch out for:
- Avoid sites that are image boards or hosting sites, like zerochan and e-shuushuu.
- Do look for sites that specifically have sections that are only for scans, like animepaper and minitokyo.
- If you are uncertain about a place or the image in question, simply don't use it.
Another question that comes up a lot is why do we insist on removing work created by artists who are not published. It's simple. Artists, even if it is anime based, do own their works. They are, so long as their work has their own original take on it, allowed to actually sell their work at conventions or even as prints via a place like DeviantArt. This means that at any time they are well within their rights to demand that no one use it without getting permission first. That's right, they can sue to have things taken down.
So why is official work that is either produced in manga, in an anime show, or artbook allowed? Those images are more public and open. Mind you our fan art, wallpapers and e-cards are not used commercially. If they were we'd have to get permission and pay the artists in question. However since it is not used commercially and generates a lot of free advertising, it's allowed.
Anyway, I hope this cleared things up a little further so people know how to be more proactive about avoiding fan art in their submissions.
