Was there any logic behind what became UC and what didn't?

[Serebii]

I never really felt this way personally. A lot of old computer games used to inform you that your character changed clothes with some text and stat changes rather than anything visual. It's kind of like how you don't see all 6 of your BD items on your pet when you look at them.

This is mostly what I felt like too. Having grown up playing RPGs, "only" seeing a little bit of text was okay for me because I was able to imagine the pet using the item.

[Miri]

In regards to art permission by original artists of the uc art… why didn’t neopets have a clause in their contracts that they fully own the art work?

[Ice]

I wouldn't be surprised if when things started out whatever contracts or agreements they had weren't all that standard or well thought out... definitely back in the original days having that kind of forethought or thoroughness with regards to art assets probably wasn't a thing. But if it really were the case I'd be more surprised that Nick didn't shore up their legalese lol.

[Double.Trouble]

I was always confused about the "we no longer own that art" when it came to certain UCs because...unless they fucked up somewhere with contracts, wouldn't the company just own the rights to everything drawn for the site?
It always felt like an excuse to me, kinda like the "we don't have the code to create new UCs, it's too haaaaard" when they obviously did.
I dunno.
I think someone on the team just liked UC Kaus and completely just didn't care about UC RB Lupes for some reason, even though the latter falls under their so called rule of the pet must have a drastic art change to have a UC option.

[Miri]

What even counts as enough of a change to circumvent needing permission from original artist?

Extra lace/fur over here? Change in hand pose? Different spot color?

[TheBestNeopetsPlayer]

What even counts as enough of a change to circumvent needing permission from original artist?

Extra lace/fur over here? Change in hand pose? Different spot color?

This is a good question. If the original artist of a UC Maraquan Kacheek tried to complain in court then I don't know how far he would get. It's not like he owns the trademark for Kacheeks or Maraqua and he very obviously produced the pic while working for this company. Why would the art itself not be the company's property?

[RealisticError]

I always assumed that some of the combos that were kept UC just straight up didn't exist, like RB grarrl is cool, but I don't think grarrl are particularly popular pets, add on the fact that it's a very expensive PB and gender specific, the pool for those UCs would be really small.

That said, I can't imagine there were many royal kau and they stayed UC

[DarkSkies]

But i'm still a bit confused, like if they couldn't apply due to copyright then why doing it for replicas? What's the difference there?

As far as I see they're more re-drawing for NC UCs (and hopefully it would be something different than the fist pose conversion) to be different from OG.

I can imagine staff doing preferences about what they like more vs what's easiest to customize.

[Raposa]

Was it possible the rights could have just been misplaced? It happens pretty often. Think I recall it happening to Bob Marleys music way back when, and copyright confusion is the reason MLP: FiM features characters like Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash instead of Surprise and Firefly.

Rights holders change, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Scientologists involved back in the day didn't have something to do with it, as they've been known to be very shady just in general, and/or maybe ownership was made murky during the Viacom acquisition. (Hopefully I worded that right, I'm working off a single Mountain Dew atm) It may explain why some newer pets were chosen over old ones?

But I also don't know what their contracts looked like. Maybe the artists actually did own their work to an extent?

[Ice]

I feel like maybe the only person who could really shed light into this that is easily accessible would be Anthony Conley, as he's done art for Neopets for a long time and currently still does art contractually and is active in Neopets Nation. Maybe if anyone wants to reach out to him and ask... XD