Ok it's long, but if you would like to know what's possible and impossible to copyright, then read on. Don't come here just to dish out drama like it's supper time and we're all starving for your drama.

You can copyright music, a photograph of something, a game, a drawing, a painting, a movie, and so on. This is just basic common sense, but let's go over the more touchy stuff.

Poses: Poses can't be copyrighted, period. If I stand a certain way, take a photo of it, I own the rights to that photograph, but I don't own any rights to the pose itself. Someone else could stand in the same position and take a picture and post it and I couldn't legally complain at them for 'stealing' my pose. Same goes for animals. Dogs stand *shrug* if you have two photographs with a dog standing in the same pose as the other, is one photographer stealing anything from the other? No. You cannot copyright a pose, especially if it's naturally occurring. Some people still like to fight this and say OMG YES YOU CAN, I COPYRIGHT ALL OF MY POSES and then run around bitching at anyone with the same pose.

Artwork Poses: These are iffy. The pose itself you can't copyright, but if you decide to do something in say that particular style with that pose and make it look close to the original artwork itself (colors, pose, lineart, everything) then you just redrew the original image and that does violate the copyright law. You didn't break it for using the pose, you broke it for copying the other person's artwork. If you simply drew something in the same pose and say used a different drawing style or used a different species or something, then nothing was stolen.

Anatomy: Come on are you kidding me? Maybe for something like Alien or Predator yeah, because they're not natural. Things like humans, plants, animals, or the structure of a building from one angle(not the full blueprints) or just an object you have laying around- I'm sorry but there is no possible way to physically copyright the anatomy. Lets say I take a photograph of one of my dogs (I'll use the pitbull mix)- does that mean I automatically own all copyrights to her anatomy? No. I can't just go out on a limb and say I want to copyright my dog's anatomy so I'm the only one who can use it. There are so many other dogs that have the same anatomy as her! Same fur colors too (not 100% the same since nothing in nature is ever exactly the same- not even a snowflake).

Colors: Ok this is just funny when people attempt to do this. You have a pink fox, so you're going to go ahead and attempt to copyright the color pink so you're the only one that can use it. Pink is a color that is part of the visible spectrum of light which occurs naturally, thus there is no way in the world that you can copyright the color pink. It's everywhere at all times! Even if the object isn't pink, that much of the light was absorbed. The only time you see a color is when that color is reflected- this is what makes the sky and water appear blue, blue green, green, or any other color when in reality it's clear. Simple science that was taught to you in middle school and most certainly high school and maybe even grade school for some people.

Markings: This depends. You can copyright the over all design of a character (from clothing to tattoos to whatever), but it only applies to the whole shebang, not part of it. This doesn't mean just furry characters either. Writers can copyright a character in their story, but nothing will violate that copyright UNLESS someone makes a character with the exact same description. The character is also somewhat protected through being part of a published work. The only way to copyright the markings and such is when you copyright the character. Stand-alone markings on something that's not a character won't be worth anything.

Over all you can't copyright something if you never published it. So a character design that's in your head isn't protected at all and if someone else makes something a lot like it before you did, well hey, stuff like that happens. Now if it's 100% exactly the same as your character AFTER you've put your character out in published works, then yes, the other person did steal it from you.

Again, you can't just copyright a part of the clothing or accessories or part of the markings, it has to be the whole thing over all and someone has to copy it 100% of the way to be considered a rip off.

I can't just go out and take a photo of an animal and say I want to copyright it's design either. Patterns that are 100% natural will not be able to be copyrighted because hey, if nature makes the same thing over and over pretty much, what's to stop people from drawing it over and over?

What's the line between generic and non-generic? Make the character's markings slightly or extremely different than something natural. I stick to more natural occuring things, but you will never find the same exact markings 100% to a T in real life- you'll find things that are very close, but not 100% the same. Take Kitt for example. Kitt is a liger, but looks nothing like a full out real liger. She's different colors than what a liger is normally, and you will not find the same exact stripe pattern on a liger or a tiger either. Nature doesn't make just a few big stripes, it makes lots of smaller thinner stripes. This is what sets her apart from being 'generic'. Jess, the husky/wolf mix, is also different. You cannot find her exact color in nature (I have never seen or heard of a husky/wolf hybrid being a light henna red *I mean that EXACT shade 100% of the way, not something close to it*), nor will you find her EXACT markings in nature. Some of the markings on her face you will see, but not 100% the same exact markings over all. Because these characters do not match up 100% to something in nature, it cannot be classified as generic. Generic simply means something that just happens over and over and over- like a black and white husky such as Magnum. Magnum's pretty generic, but that's why you add things such as hair and clothing to set him apart from all the other black and white huskies.

If you have a pretty generic character, adding clothing, hair, and accessories will help make it much more original. The biggest thing with doing that is you shouldn't see someone with the same exact markings, colors, everything over all (meaning 100% exact copies of you) unless you pick pretty common things like really common clothing and hair styles. With hair you can also add dye jobs. Every little bit of customization you do sets it apart from the rest of whatever it is that looks exactly like it- just like a car! You get a car that's painted a specific color, ok well how many other people have that same car with the same color? Most likely a lot unless it was a custom paint job. So what do you do to make YOUR car stand out? Start adding things onto it. Get some vinyl decals and put them on, get different side rails, hood scoops, rims, tires, mufflers, and so on. Add pin striping, or racing stripes. Eventually you have a car that's different. Of course it is possible for people to end up doing the same combination of things for a car just for the simple fact that you are limited to what's manufactured. The only way you'd be able to get something that no one else has is a 100% custom paint job (like some special artwork or pattern that you made)

Make it special, do something that makes the character a little more unique. If you want to keep it natural with generic colors or something, then do something a little bit extra with the markings. Something that is either very rare to find in real life, or something you won't find at all. By that I mean 100% the same exact thing as what you drew.

No matter how hard you wish and want to, you can't copyright the anatomy, color, species, and certain types of markings of your furry character UNLESS it is a species that you totally made up and doesn't happen in nature. Alien crawler is purely fantasy and they copyrighted his species because of that- this you can do. "I want to copyright the species of my character that's a gray wolf."- this you can't do.

Things like wolves, foxes, domestic dog breeds (both mixes and pures), and other animals that do exist in the real world cannot be copyrighted. One person does not own the species (some people make new 'breeds' of domestic dogs and could probably copyright that, but you can't just up and own all wolves) and one person cannot tell you to stop drawing the animal realistically because they own the anatomy. They also can't just up and tell you to not draw the pose of that animal. Now, they CAN tell you to not replicate the photograph, so let's touch that subject.

To replicate a photograph you are 100% copying it. Anatomy, colors, markings, EVERYTHING- you're not just using the pose for your character, you are actually going to go out and draw/paint that photo, but the end result will look EXACTLY like that photo- this would be considered illegal only if the person has stated they don't want you to go back and replicate it, however, they can't come after you for using the pose of the animal.

It is physically impossible to copyright the anatomy of something like a regular 100% natural gray wolf and you cannot say "You can't draw a wolf standing because I took a photo of a wolf standing in that same pose and I own that photo." It just can't be done. If you think it can, then why don't you do some research. Also, don't argue all of this crap here. I didn't post this for you to dish out drama like a main course meal. It's a statement. A 100% true statement. Ask the owner of this place  Dragoneer if you can copyright the pose/anatomy of a regular natural animal and I guarantee you he'll say no. I've even asked him myself.

I don't even know where some people got it in their heads that they COULD copyright a pose and natural anatomy.