I...i thought..I didn't think subeta could claim they own it? Shoot..i had so many ideas too..almost makes me want to donate all my pets. No wonder SO many people just make fan pets.. well this sucks..

What are you talking about? From what I understand stories and overlays and the like belong to us and not the site?

While it's true that anything submitted technically belongs to Subeta, it's highly unlikely that they'll just lift your personal characters from you due to the amount of backlash they would face for it. It's possible that they may draw inspiration from your original ideas, but that's unavoidable no matter what, even if you were to publish your own book, the general public could create their own property from its inspiration. e.g. most modern fantasy is inspired by Tolkien's works, Fifty Shades of Grey inspired by Twilight, Repo Men (2010) inspired by Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

So, I honestly wouldn't worry too much.

& i heard of its existence through another forum. I am a little confused at where it is though? I can't find it in the rules link below. So is it when you first sign up somewhere?

See I don't mind inspiration so much..Ex. I make a overlay of a bird with three heads and one leg thats blue and yellow and subeta makes something thats purple and pink bird with one head and three legs.. but when i make a green three headed bird with one blue leg and they make a three headed bird thats green and one leg thats blue...thats a little fishy to me:P

It's in their Terms & Conditions. As I said, it's unlikely they'd just take something without changing it to a degree. After all, Subeta would be nothing without its userbase, and much of its userbase seems to be artistic. It'd be unwise for them to upset such a large portion of their users, even if they have the legal right to do so.

If they do reproduce something that you think is far too similar to your own works, you can always make a stink about it (politely!) either on the forums or through tickets. Explain how you feel about their use of your work, and how it could possibly be remedied. You just have to remember that they're under no obligation to appease you. However, politely speaking up is always the best way to resolve such things.

(I don't mean to sound so clinical, but I figured you'd like a straightforward answer ^^)

thank you so much for your words of wisdom! I'm okay with letting them getting inspired by my future pet stories if they do. ..except one..one is really dear to me and i was planning on getting a hoodie made of the overlay i drew of them..so sadly...i think i will have to part with that pet being in my pets(i don't want to take any chances..i love them that much.) Hope they find a good home when i let them go. All my other pets are mostly subeta pet based so i dont feel that they are mostly my creation..as much as the other one.

I'm glad I could help ^^ I do understand the hesitation, two of my pets that I'm working on right now are incredibly dear to me, and I'm mostly just confident that Subeta won't use much from them because their stories are relatively difficult to fit into the world of Subeta. You could always hold onto the pet for sentimental reasons, but leave its profile mostly empty.

honestly i don't think subeta creative staff have any interest in stealing users' stories/designs. they have their own ideas for site lore and other content; it would be silly of them to go around lifting from random pet profiles.

while staff have the right to make official content based on custom wearables (which they have), i've never heard of them doing the same with stories or unique pet designs - except for the storm cadogre, which appeared to be heavily referenced from a user's original overlay, but that's the only extent to which i know of this happening.

basically what i'm saying i guess is there's probably not much need to worry about the site taking your original characters.

Sorry for bumping this up, but I figured I'd post with an official explanation about this. I ended up filling a ticket to make sure because this thread got my anxiety running something fierce. This is the reply I got after the UA got in touch with someone higher up:

So, for example, if someone made a very fancy pet profile, Subeta can take a screenshot of it and go "hey, look what you can do if you join our site!". Or, if someone made a fanpet based off of a Subeta minion with a story for the entire "race" of minions, the only thing Subeta claims ownership of is the minion itself, not the expanded story bits the user came up with.

As for the storm cadogre mentioned and the supposed "heavy referencing" - you can't claim copyright on a pose and that's the only thing that was even remotely referenced. I'm not going to touch on this further in this topic due to site rules.

Good to know. I didn't figure they'd just go ripping off their player base's original ideas, but it's nice to have an official answer.

You're probably giving yourself way too much credit. I doubt their first choice would be to lift an existing pet story without the user's agreement even if it was professional level stuff.

Both copyright and intellectual ownership are legitimate concerns, not only for pet sites but for every website on the internet. This has nothing to do with someone giving themselves too much credit for their own work.

That said, everything was resolved and clarified with an official word from staff, so there's really no need for that kind of attitude.