Fan Content & Creator Policy

1. What this Policy is, and who it is for

1. This Fan Content & Creator Policy (the "Policy") is a grant of permission from Pixel Glitch Studios ("we", "us", "our") to you. We trade as Isles of Calamity and as the studio Pixel Glitch Studios.
2. In this Policy, "the Game", "the Site", "Account", "Character", "Membership", "Membership Credits" and "you" carry the same meanings they carry in our Terms of Service and our other policies. As those documents do, "you" means the player. The permission in section 2 is also open to anyone who makes Fan Content about the Game without holding an Account, and this Policy applies to them in the same way.
3. "Fan Content" means anything you create that includes, depicts, describes, or is based on the Game or the Site — including live streams, video-on-demand, clips, screenshots, artwork, animation, writing, guides, maps, calculators, wikis, fan sites, podcasts, music, cosplay, and community spaces. "Creator" means anyone who makes Fan Content.
4. "Game Rules" means the rules published at /rules/. "EULA" means the End User Licence Agreement presented to you when you first start the Game client.
5. This Policy covers Fan Content only. It is not a press licence: if you are writing about the Game as press or media, see our press & media kit, which clears specific assets for editorial use on its own terms.

2. What you may do

1. Subject to this Policy, we grant you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable licence to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, publicly display and publicly perform material from the Game and the Site for the purpose of creating and distributing Fan Content.
2. Without limiting that, you may:
   1. stream and record your play, live or on demand, on any platform;
   2. capture and publish screenshots, clips, and video;
   3. create fan art, animation, writing, music, cosplay, and other original works based on the Game;
   4. write and publish guides, tutorials, reviews, critiques — including unfavourable ones — analyses, and commentary;
   5. run a fan site, wiki, forum, Discord server, or other community space about the Game; and
   6. use our name to say truthfully what your Fan Content is about, subject to section 7.
3. You do not need to ask our permission, register with us, or notify us. This Policy is the permission.
4. We do not charge you for this licence and we do not ask for a share of what you earn.
5. Criticism is covered. Fan Content does not have to be flattering, and we will not withdraw permission under section 11 because Fan Content is negative about the Game or about us.
6. This Policy operates alongside the EULA. It is our prior written permission for the purposes of the EULA's restriction on commercial use, and, to the extent the EULA's restrictions on non-commercial use, on reusing the Game's assets, or on creating derivative works would otherwise prevent Fan Content permitted here, this Policy prevails for Fan Content and to that extent only. Everything else in the EULA continues to apply to you, including while you make Fan Content.
7. Nothing in this Policy narrows any right you already have under applicable law without our permission — including fair use under United States copyright law, and equivalent exceptions such as quotation, criticism, review, parody, caricature and pastiche under the law of other countries. If the law already permits what you are doing, you do not need this Policy and it does not take that away from you.

3. Making money from Fan Content

1. You may earn money from Fan Content. Specifically, you may:
   1. take part in a platform's partner, affiliate, or monetisation programme (for example on a video or streaming service) with Fan Content;
   2. run advertising against your own Fan Content;
   3. accept donations, tips, subscriptions, supporter tiers, memberships, and crowdfunding from your audience; and
   4. accept sponsorship for your channel or site, provided the sponsorship is not presented as ours and does not imply we are involved (section 5).
2. What is being paid for must be your work — your commentary, your craft, your guide, your community. You may put your own Fan Content behind a paywall or a supporter tier. You may not charge for access to our material as such: for example, a subscriber-only archive of our art, audio, models, or other assets is not permitted, whatever it is called.
3. Selling goods is not covered by this Policy. Merchandise, prints, physical products, and digital products sold as products — including asset packs, texture packs, and paid mods — need our written permission first. Ask us at support@islesofcalamity.com; we are not saying no in advance, only that this Policy does not decide it.
4. These are the platforms' programmes, not ours. We do not administer them, we are not a party to them, and their rules — including their eligibility and age requirements — are between you and them.
5. We do not currently run a creator, partner, or affiliate programme, and this Policy does not create one.

4. Credit, and being straight with your audience

1. Please identify the Game by name — Isles of Calamity — in your Fan Content, and link to islesofcalamity.com where the format reasonably allows it. In a video description, a stream panel, or a page footer is plenty. We are not asking for a credit crawl.
2. Please do not remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, trade mark, or attribution notice that appears in material you take from the Game or the Site.
3. If we ever give you something of value in connection with your Fan Content — an early build, a free or discounted Membership, payment, or anything else — you must disclose that connection clearly and conspicuously to your audience, in the Fan Content itself, in the way the law of your country requires. In the United States the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides apply to that disclosure. This obligation is prospective: we do not give Creators anything of value today.

5. What you may not do

The permission in sections 2 and 3 does not extend to any of the following, and doing them puts you outside this Policy.

1. Implying we are involved. Do not state or imply that your Fan Content is official, endorsed, sponsored, approved, licensed, or produced by us, or that you speak for us. Do not present yourself as our staff, moderator, or representative. If a reasonable member of your audience could think your project is ours, it is too close.
2. Using our name or logo as your own brand. See section 7.
3. Selling our assets. Do not sell, license, or otherwise supply our art, audio, music, models, animations, text, or other assets — on their own, repackaged, or as part of something else — and do not incorporate them into another game, product, or service. Section 3.3 covers goods generally.
4. Real-world trading. Do not use Fan Content to buy, sell, advertise, broker, or facilitate the exchange of Accounts, Characters, Game items, or Game currency for real money or anything else of real-world value. The Game Rules prohibit this in the Game; this Policy prohibits building a shopfront for it outside the Game.
5. Distributing the Game. Do not distribute, host, mirror, or share the Game client, its installer, or its files. Do not distribute a modified client, and do not operate or promote an unauthorised or emulated server.
6. Defeating our protections. Do not use, distribute, or demonstrate cheats, bots, automation, or tools that circumvent our anti-cheat or security measures, and do not use Fan Content to promote or teach their use.
7. Paywalling our material. As set out in section 3.2.
8. Content that harms people. Do not make Fan Content that is unlawful, that sexualises minors, that harasses or incites hatred against people, or that doxxes anyone. The standards in the Game Rules on conduct and doxxing are the standards we apply here.
9. Misusing the Site. Bulk, automated, or programmatic access to the Site or our services — scraping, crawling beyond ordinary indexing, or building on an interface we have not published — is not covered by this Policy. We do not currently publish a public data interface for Fan Content or terms for automated access. Linking to public pages such as hiscores, player profiles, and item pages is fine and always was. If you want to build something that needs more, ask us.

6. Datamining, unreleased content, and leaks

1. Do not extract, rip, decompile, reverse-engineer, or unpack the Game's files or assets, and do not publish anything obtained that way. The EULA prohibits this, and this Policy does not permit it.
2. Do not publish, describe, or trade on unreleased, unannounced, or test material — content, features, art, story, or plans — that you find in the Game's files, on any test or pre-release service we may run, or through a mistake of ours. Finding it by accident is not a breach; publishing it is.
3. We would much rather hear from you than read about it. If you find something you were not meant to see, tell us at support@islesofcalamity.com. As with bugs under the Game Rules, telling us in good faith is not something we punish.
4. This section is about our own unreleased material. It does not stop you discussing, speculating about, or reporting on anything we have made public ourselves, or anything already lawfully public.

7. Our name and our logo

1. "Isles of Calamity", "Pixel Glitch Studios", our crest and logo, and the names of places, characters, and systems in the Game are our trade marks. We are not granting you ownership of them, and section 2 does not transfer any goodwill in them to you.
2. You may use our name to say truthfully what your Fan Content is about — for example, "[your channel name]'s Isles of Calamity guides", "an Isles of Calamity fan wiki", or "Isles of Calamity — the Tideboard, explained". That is a reference to us, and it is exactly what we want.
3. You may not use our name or logo as your brand — as the name of your channel, site, company, product, or app in a way that reads as though the project is ours rather than about us. "Isles of Calamity Official", "Isles of Calamity Support", or a domain that is just our name with a suffix on it, are all over the line. A name of your own, plus a plain statement of what it covers, is not.
4. Do not register, or attempt to register, our trade marks, or any name or mark confusingly similar to them, as a trade mark, company name, domain name, or platform handle.
5. Do not alter our logo's colours or proportions, do not combine it with your own logo into a new mark, and do not use it as your avatar, icon, or favicon in a way that suggests your project is an official channel.
6. A visible, plain disclaimer helps and costs you nothing. Something like: "This is a fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by Pixel Glitch Studios or Isles of Calamity."

8. Being a Creator inside the Game

1. This Policy is about what you make outside the Game. Inside the Game, the Game Rules apply to you exactly as they apply to everyone else — including the rules on advertising and spam.
2. In practice: streaming while you play is fine, and talking about what you are up to is fine. Broadcasting your channel, site, or Discord to Game chat is advertising, and the Game Rules prohibit it. Being a Creator does not buy you an exemption.
3. Other players share the world with you and did not choose to appear in your Fan Content. Public Game activity — Character names, hiscores, public profiles, and what happens in front of you — is fair to capture. Pursuing, provoking, or exposing someone for the sake of your content is harassment under the Game Rules, and publishing someone's real-world information is doxxing under them.

9. The limits of what we can give you

1. We can only grant rights we hold. This Policy gives you permission in respect of our own material and nothing else.
2. The Game includes third-party software, middleware, and other third-party material supplied under its own terms. We do not, and cannot, sub-license that to you. If your Fan Content uses it, that is between you and the rights holder.
3. We make no promise that Fan Content permitted by this Policy will not attract a claim from someone else, and we do not warrant that the Game or the Site is free of third-party rights. This Policy is our permission, not a clearance, not legal advice, and not an indemnity. If your Fan Content matters commercially to you, take your own advice.
4. A platform's own rules — for example on music, on monetisation, or on copyright — apply to you regardless of this Policy. Our permission cannot and does not override them, and it does not resolve an automated claim on someone else's platform.
5. To the fullest extent permitted by law, and subject to section 12, we are not liable to you for any loss arising from your Fan Content, from your reliance on this Policy, or from our withdrawing or changing permission under section 11.

10. Your Fan Content is yours

1. We do not claim ownership of the original work you put into your Fan Content — your video, your art, your writing, your commentary. It stays yours, and this Policy does not take a licence over it.
2. Our material inside your Fan Content stays ours. Section 2 is a licence to use it, not a transfer of it.
3. If we would like to feature, reshare, or reproduce your Fan Content — on the Site, in our news, or anywhere else — we will ask you first, and you are free to say no. Resharing on the platform's own terms, using its built-in tools (for example resharing a post on the platform where you posted it), is the ordinary exception.
4. This section is about Fan Content. Content you create inside the Game is covered by the EULA's User Content terms instead.

11. We may withdraw or change this permission

1. This Policy is a permission, not a contract we have sold you, and it is revocable. We may withdraw it from a particular Creator or a particular piece of Fan Content, or change or end it generally, at any time.
2. If we withdraw permission from you, we will tell you what the problem is and, where the circumstances allow it, give you a reasonable opportunity to put it right. Where we can fix it by asking rather than by withdrawing, we would rather ask.
3. Withdrawal takes effect from when we tell you. It does not retroactively make your earlier Fan Content an infringement, and it does not affect anything you were entitled to do under the law anyway (section 2.7).
4. If we end or change this Policy generally, we will publish the change here and update the date at the top. Where the change materially narrows what Creators may do, we will aim to give reasonable notice before it takes effect, so that work in progress is not stranded.
5. We will not use this section to withdraw permission because Fan Content is critical of us or of the Game.
6. Your Account, and any sanction on it, are governed by the Game Rules and the Terms of Service, not by this Policy. Breaching this Policy is not automatically a breach of the Game Rules, and vice versa.

12. Your rights under consumer law

1. If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you keep the rights the law of your country gives you. Nothing in this Policy — including the exclusions in section 9 and the withdrawal right in section 11 — removes, limits, or overrides those statutory rights, and where any wording here conflicts with them, your statutory rights win.
2. Consumers elsewhere keep whatever equivalent non-excludable rights their own law gives them, in the same way.
3. Nothing in this Policy limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

13. Copyright and IP concerns — how to reach us

1. If you believe something in the Game or on the Site infringes your copyright or other intellectual property rights, tell us and we will look at it.
2. Our contact for intellectual property concerns is support@islesofcalamity.com.
3. Formal notices under the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act should be addressed to our designated agent: support@islesofcalamity.com (a formal DMCA agent designation with the U.S. Copyright Office is pending), Postal address: to be published (business mailbox pending) — contact support@islesofcalamity.com, or by email to support@islesofcalamity.com.
4. To be effective, a notice needs to contain what the DMCA requires: your physical or electronic signature; identification of the work you say is infringed; identification of the material you say is infringing and enough detail for us to find it; your contact details; a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the rights holder, its agent, or the law; and a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them.
5. Please only send a notice if you mean it. Under the DMCA, knowingly misrepresenting that material is infringing can make you liable for the costs and damages your notice causes.
6. If you are a Creator and something of yours has been taken down at our request and you think we got it wrong, write to us at the address in 13.2 and say so plainly. We do overturn our own decisions.

14. Governing law

1. This Policy, and any dispute arising out of it, is governed by the laws of the State of California, United States of America, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.
2. Disputes will be handled by the state and federal courts located in California, except where the law of your country of residence gives you the right to bring proceedings there, or requires that you be sued there — in which case that right stands, and section 12 applies.

15. Changes to this Policy, and how to reach us

1. We may update this Policy. The current version is always the one on this page, and the date at the top tells you when it last changed. Section 11.4 covers notice of material changes.
2. This Policy sits alongside our Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy, the Game Rules, and the EULA. It does not replace them, and, except as section 2.6 provides for Fan Content, it does not override them.
3. If you are not sure whether something you want to make is allowed, ask us before you build it, not after: support@islesofcalamity.com. A question costs you nothing, and the answer is usually yes.