leveragehunters:

This post here? It’s wrong. I’ve seen it way too many times now and it’s scaring people off what could maybe be a viable alternative to Tumblr.

The facts are that DeviantArt has Terms of Service and Terms of Submission/the Submission policy (the latter you must agree to when you submit art) and they clearly state you retain ownership of your copyright and DeviantArt can’t sell anything without your consent.

The Terms of Service. 

1. From Clause Four, Copyright: …DeviantArt does not claim
   ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to
   DeviantArt (Your Content). 
2. Clause 16, Copyright in Your Content: DeviantArt does not claim
   ownership rights in Your Content. For the sole purpose of enabling us to
   make your Content available through the Service, you grant to
   DeviantArt a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce,
   distribute, re-format, store, prepare derivative works based on, and
   publicly display and perform Your Content. [note: the sole sole purpose of this clause is to literally allow
   DeviantArt to operate its sites/services and provide you with its services. This is a very standard clause. It
   does not give them the right to do anything else.]

The Terms of Submission:

These are what the extracts in the post that’s circulating are from. What the screenshotted and linked post is, crucially, missing (apart from accurate interpretation of the clauses) is that the Terms of Submission are ONLY about DeviantArt’s use of the Artist Materials on the DeviantArt Site(s). They’re not a Wild West free for all for DeviantArt to do whatever it wants. The agreement is for a specific purpose and clauses must be read in light of that purpose.

That licence you grant in clause 3 to:

“(b) display, copy, reproduce, exhibit, publicly perform,
broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute through any
electronic means (including analog and digital) or other means, and
electronically or otherwise publish any or all of the Artist Materials,
including any part of them, and to include them in compilations for
publication, by any and all means and media now known or not yet known
or invented ; c) to modify, adapt, change or otherwise alter the Artist
Materials (e.g., change the size) and use the Artist Materials as
described in Section 3(b); and d) the right to sublicense to any other person or company
any of the licensed rights in the Artist Materials, or any part of them,
subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.”

is very long and very scary looking, but most of it is standard guff and it all only applies to DeviantArt doing stuff necessary to use your art on its Sites. This means DeviantArt doing whatever’s necessary to your art so that you can do what you want with it on the Sites (eg offering prints for sale). It also means that DeviantArt may possibly use your art to promote,
advertise or market the DeviantArt Sites, because this is specifically permitted by clause 3(f), but they can only use it to promote the DeviantArt Sites, not anything else.

This might be things like: create thumbnails for your gallery or make video compilations to showcase DeviantArt as a site or create best of promotional posts or maybe feature your art on the front page (I’m not sure how DeviantArt functions so I’m extrapolating possibilities from my knowledge of other websites). All of those actions, from gallery thumbnails, to creating prints someone has ordered from you, to creating a ‘best of’ post require them to copy and/or alter your art in some way. Which they need you to give them a licence for, because you own the copyright.

Which is clearly set out in clause 2 of those very same Terms of Submission:

Ownership. Artist at all times retains all right, title and interest
in and to the Artist Materials provided by Artist hereunder (including,
without limitation, the copyrights in and to the Artist Materials),
subject to the non-exclusive rights in the licenses granted to
DeviantArt under this Agreement. Artist is free to grant similar rights
to others during and after the Term of this Agreement.

Remember, the only right/licence you’ve given them is the right to use your art to give you what you want from their Sites and the right/licence to
possibly

use it to promote their site. You own the copyright, you own your art and even while it’s uploaded to DeviantArt you’re free to sell that copyright to whoever you want.

And no, DeviantArt explicitly cannot use your work commercially/sell etc your work without your consent, they say so right here in clause 5:

Limitation Of Rights The rights and licenses granted to DeviantArt under
sections 3 and 4 of this Agreement require DeviantArt to obtain Artist
consent before DeviantArt makes any commercial agreement with anyone
else to separately buy, license, re-sell or re-publish or commercially
use any Artist Materials not in association with DeviantArt but as an
individual work of art or as a group of works from a single Artist in
isolation from any other works.

TL;DR DeviantArt does not steal your art, they do not steal your copyright, they cannot sell your art. If you use DeviantArt you still own your art and you still own your copyright.

Also: this has been clearly and thoroughly debunked here quite some time ago: No, DeviantArt is Not Selling Your Art to Hot Topic

Please stop spreading misinformation, especially now when artists are looking for new homes. I’m not
saying DeviantArt is good–I have no idea, for all I know they could be
the devil, but if they are the devil it’s not because they’ll steal your art and sell it. It’s not because you sign right and title to your art over to them when you make an account and upload it.

Given the current circumstances, they may in fact be a viable alternative to Tumblr. Again, I don’t know, that’s a decision each person will need to make on their own, but at least make it based on the right information.