The new submission agreement is up and available for all to read. It's really not very different from the old agreement, here's a copy that shows what we changed:

[link]

What I literally asked the lawfirm to do was make clear our intention to make deviantART browseable on devices other than personal computers. Cell phones, iPod's, Playstations.. this sort of thing. They also took the opportunity to reinforce a few key elements of the agreement. Like, if you the artist submit a copyright violation, or if you submit an image which violates the privacy of another person you are responsible and not deviantART.

We run a legitimate art community here; and without a clean agreement that covers deviantART we could put the entire community in jeopardy. So we have to write rules for the worst possible scenario, not the best. Sometimes that can be misunderstood.

The most important thing about the agreement is that if you submit artwork to deviantART you are subject to that agreement. When you remove deviations from deviantART those deviations are no longer subject to the agreement. So the power is in your hands.

And if you question our intentions at all here; the proof is in the pudding. There isn't an artist who could point their finger at deviantART and legitimately say that we intentionally did them any harm.

At the end of the day you have to admit, as we'd be pretty stupid to screw over artists, wouldn't we?

Great things to come folks; for you, and us, together. We'll never put our relationship with you in jeopardy.

-- A