Your comments

I think when you click submit and nothing happens it's because it has a problem with one of the fields, but it doesn't tell you which field.

I've encountered this issue and have found some success by shortening the title and removing symbols from it (like &)

Aha, I found that there's a little "M" button in the bottom right of some text entry fields. If you click that (sometimes takes a few tries, at least in Firefox), a pop-up appears and displays the codes you can use. It goes away when you start to type in the field, though, which is not very handy. So, two windows or a screenshot or something is what you'll want 'til you get used to what's available.

Ahh! I didn't even think to try Wiki-ish Weasyl-ish Reddit-ish language. *facepalm* Thanks!


And it sounds like there's some "cooking" yet to do with the parser, but that's beta for you. ^__^

Relevant to this discussion, the Copyright Office was soliciting input from the public as to how to handle "Visual works":
http://www.copyright.gov/policy/visualworks


The deadline passed (October 2015), but this suggests that they're reaching out and desire to clarify how to handle such things as graphics illustrations, which this site is all about! I guess we can hope to see some Copyright Law updates as regards art commissions.

Lusetifan -- unless you bought the copyright (usually expensive!) or had a mutual agreement of transfer of copyright (see "work for hire" discussion above), the artist owns the copyright to the image at creation time, and continues to own it by default. What they let you do with it is up to them. This includes re-posting it (you should always ask permission to do that, and that's not just a courtesy but a legal requirement), and printing it, and publishing it and so forth, even if it's not for any profit or revenue.

Technicalities and legalese aside, it's simply good courtesy to honor the creator's wishes. You bought the commission because (at the time) you respected them, their work, their quality, and/or their name. You should also respect their wishes. It will earn you a greater rapport among other artists than you would if you put up a fight.

Actually, Copyright law distinguishes between "work for hire" and "employee". They don't have to be an "employee" (hourly wage, tax setup, etc) in order to be contracted as "Work for hire". Reference Title 17 Section 101 for the definition of "work for hire", and Section 201(b) in Circular 92 at copyright.gov.
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/circ92.pdf

There you will find that a "work for hire" means quite a lot of things that have nothing to do with being an employee in the manner you describe, but relevantly:
"a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work" (the commissioner's gallery is not a collective work, btw), and:
"if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire."

There have been actual cases where email is considered sufficient written instrument. This is actually how I acquired the copyright to my banner image, though I have not yet tested the strength of this by registering it formally. When I do so, I have to provide the name and address of the original artist, presumably so the Copyright Office can contact them and say, "You good with this?" ;)

(Note: Copyright law is actually kind of vague on what constitutes an 'employee', though they give examples of elements to look for, like what you stated; but they're not enough on their own .. otherwise every artist who had hourly rates would be an employee of the commissioner, which isn't so).