copy backgrounds.... for sale?

What should the policy be concerning the use of images from the high-res background gallery?

I find it personally really useful, but there's the ongoing saga of people printing out backgrounds and selling them. At some point in the future, we had possibly considered printing and sending backgrounds (with permission of the uploader) as either a sponsor perk or a shop item.

How do you feel about this?

You know I never thought about the background gallery until now, then I realized how much I could make use of it since most of my cels don't have backgrounds. I can't believe how people can take advantage of a free service and use it to their advantage buy printing them off and selling them. I guess you really can't trust people out there, even the ones you think you can trust. I would hate to see the background gallery being taken away as a free privilege, or even worse completely gone.

Only RS members have access to the background galleries right? So that means a member is selling backgrounds? Sick.

Are people selling copies of backgrounds and no cels or are they selling them with cels to enhance them? Personally I don't mind what people do with backgrounds I supply. But it isn't right to sell something you can get for free....see: "fansubs"

Maybe a small, clear or see thru (RS) watermark on the backgrounds may curb the sales of copies from the background gallery.
Jason you could put it in the site like a bug on a TV screen so it shows up on all backgrounds if you copy them.
If you need a copy without the bug you need to email the owner to get it that way everyone knows were there copies are going to.
The sellers could be tracked down faster that way and stopped.
Just a few thoughts from the id.
Roy

Actually, the background gallery isn't restricted to members. It probably should be as the Google and Yahoo spiders tend to register quite a few downloads and suck a little bit of life out of the site.

I saw a thread about this as I was tending to a "Why is RS unhappy right now?" question on Anime Beta.

It's easy to become a site member, but that's part of the downside to things like this. I personally enjoy mixing and matching backgrounds. With a little inkjet printer, a stack of matte photo paper, and some free time, anything's possible.