> I've never asked this before - ignorance is bliss.
>
> But now I must know. What is the accepted/acceptable way of using artwork found in
> this forum?
>
> I'm always assumed it's all free, non-copyrighted, and that people can take and use
> whatever is here as they pleased. IS that true?
>
> If true - do people prefer to get credit, say in the comments section of the LAY
> file? Is that sufficient? Can I just download everything here, and post it elsewhere?
>
> Curious to know.....
Think of it like MAME... for each driver in MAME, there are comments at the beginning of the file that says who contributed to that driver.
I've done the same thing since the very beginning of the Artwork project... whoever contributed to a particular artwork file, the comments are at the end of the LAY file.
If you're using parts of an existing artwork (e.g. flyer, bezel, marquee, etc.), you should be giving credit to where you got your material; either the person's common-known name, or link to the website where you got it from. Guessing this applies to most of your files.
There are other websites out there that have individual graphics files posted from the MAME Artwork files, wholly, with no credit whatsoever, and personally, I think it's wrong. At the same time, I'm not stupid... I have a website that is open to the public, with no restrictions on downloads, so I accept the fact that that is going to happen.
I haven't gone through your stuff yet, but if you're not giving credit to your source material today, you should be. At minimum, it's the polite thing to do. Especially since you're essentially hosting your own personal website on this forum.
And speaking of that... I'm going to split this forum in a week or two... one for "official" artwork, and one for "everything else," now that "I'm back." 
I view this forum in expanded mode, because it is what works best for me and how I run things. When three individual threads take up 95% of the space on the page, and two of those
are 2 1/2 - 4 years old, it makes it really hard to sift through what is "official" and what is "for fun." Don't worry... nothing will be deleted, just put in its own separate place.
As far as actual copyrights... it goes without saying that any original artwork from arcade companies is always copyrighted, whether it's a flyer, bezel, instruction card whatever. Those copyrights still belong to the current holders of the IP, just like a ROM file for Pac-Man. None of it is free, it is simply widely available.
RELAX and just have fun. Remember, it's all about the games.
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