Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

Yeah, I know it's boring, but it's necessary for me to state some legal things about the site. But unlike some other sites, whose webmasters are either lying or grossly misinformed, I'm here to give you the legal straight dope.

Let's start out with copyrights and trademarks. The Legend of Zelda series, images, character names, place names, storylines, and any related material are copyrighted and/or trademarked by Nintendo of America. I do not own these things, and I don't have permission to use them. I am simply using the common Nintendo material for the purpose of informing and entertaining. I also make no claim to own or have any control over anything that belongs to Nintendo.

I also use things such as news articles and screenshots from other websites without permission. Once again, no mailce is intended, and I do my best to cite my sources. Any watermarked images that I use retain their original watermarks as a citation.

When it comes to the various fan works, such as fan fiction, fan art, and poetry, there is not much legal precedent. Under the most conservative interpretations of the law, fanfics and other fan works are not copyrightable, and thus the authors don't own the stories. However, parts of a story can be copyrighted, and this includes original characters and the original idea of the story. This kind of thing has never been challenged in courts, so no one really knows how the law applies. But let me state how I see things. I believe that even fan works should be protected, therefore I will not tolerate any kind of plagiarism of fan works. If you are a plagiarizer, you will be publicly humiliated. The things on this site that can be absolutely copyrighted are wholly original works such as news articles I wrote myself, editorials, game walkthroughs, and game theories. These are protected by the law, and usage of them is under the control of the author.

I also make no claim to own the things displayed on my site, official art pictures being a prime example. I do not watermark pictures, and I do not restrict their use because I don't own them. But I did put a lot of hard work into scanning pictures, so if you want to use them, all I ask for is some credit or that you at least tell me first. Remember that no Zelda site owns the official pictures, and I make no false claim that I own the stuff. Just remember that if you want to use fan works, you must have permission from the authors.

I should also point out that since I am not maliciously using Nintendo's stuff, I do not make a profit from it. I have to pay a lot of money to host my site. All the donations I receive are put in a separate bank account that I use only for the web site. Trust me, I'm not making any money here.

Although I theoretically can copyright the layout and appearance of my site, the coding, etc., I choose not to. I'm not some anal-retentive weirdo who hugs everything to himself and screams "mine!". If you want to use the same layout as me, go right ahead, I won't stop you. But I will recommend that you add some personal touches. And also, directly copying things from my site might not bother me, but a lot of die-hard fans of my site might get pissed at you, so be warned.

I should also mention my site's privacy policy. First of all, I'm not sure how my web host's server logs visits and stuff, so I can't speak for them. But I can tell you about what I do specifically. First of all, my page trackers keep a running log of the IP numbers of the last 20 visitors, their web browser and operating system. This is not some kind of malicious spying, it's how the Internet works. Everytime you go to any web page, your computer tells the other computer who you are. That's just how the system works. And frankly, I couldn't care less what your IP number is. It's of no use to me, so I keep no records of them. But my site tracker does record what operating system you use, the browser, and screen resolution. This information is kept in a running total, and is not matched to any individual computer. So I cannot track which visitor had which OS. When you make a submission to the site, it is implied that you want feedback, and I place your email address with your submission. This is my default practice. If you do not want your email address given out, then you must tell me not to post it. If at any time you want your email address taken down, email me and tell me. On the message board you are required to give a valid email to sign up. You choose whether or not you want it publicized. I will not give out your email address unless you say it's ok. Also, when you post on the message board, your IP number is permanently recorded and linked to that post. Once again, I do this just for convenience to know who actually made a post. To make a long story short, I won't do anything with what little information your computer gives me. I'm a big advocate of privacy, so I won't violate yours.

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