...which would explain why the entry was moved to Abuse.
The quick-and-dirty is that selling anything for use on LiveJournal itself, background images, user icons, building a style for someone, is specifically what is banned.
So selling commissions for bulletin-board userpics that would be compatable with LiveJournal is allowed, but mentioning that they're LiveJournal-compatable on the page you mention selling them will get your account suspended or worse. Much like it's illegal to sell Dildos, but you can sell vibrating massagers. Mentioning that you do web-development is fine, but you can't offer explicitly to do web-design for someones LiveJournal style for money.
Also, accepting Paid Account time instead of actual money is also explicitly verboten from what they told me, or at least my reading of it. Here's their full answer:
While we cannot discuss the terms of a suspension with a concerned
third party such as yourself, we can provide you with the guidelines
used by the Abuse team for determining unacceptable commercial
activity.
Limited commercial activity, such as advertising one's own auctions
or the like, is permitted -- as is, for example, the community you
reference. Some examples of things that are not permitted are:
-- Unsolicited commenting or community posting to promote or advertise a commercial venture taking place on LiveJournal;
-- Solicitation of monetary compensation or Paid Account time in
exchange for LiveJournal invite codes, custom styles, or user picture
icons;
-- Unsolicited commercial email, whether sent through LiveJournal's
servers or not, to promote a LiveJournal account or community;
-- Displaying a "click-through" or other promotional banner
designed solely to make money for the poster depending on how many
users click said banner.
In general, as long as the individual is not attempting to profit
from LiveJournal's services, resell LiveJournal's services, or promote
his or her use of LiveJournal through unsolicited and intrusive means,
it is considered allowable -- although, of course, each case must be
considered on an individual basis. As such, many of the cases that you
note -- in which artists are advertising their services in exchange for
monetary compensation -- are generally allowable, as long as it does
not fall into one of the categories above (such as user picture icons
or custom styles). If in doubt, we encourage individuals to simply
mention that they are available for commissions without specifying
fees, and arrange the details of such transactions off of LiveJournal's
servers (via email or AIM, for instance).
We encourage you and any other users who have questions on what is
permitted to contact us before posting if they have questions; we far
prefer taking the time to clarify in advance.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And a couple minutes after I post that last comment, they answered...
Date: 2003-07-24 01:44 am (UTC)...which would explain why the entry was moved to Abuse.
The quick-and-dirty is that selling anything for use on LiveJournal itself, background images, user icons, building a style for someone, is specifically what is banned.
So selling commissions for bulletin-board userpics that would be compatable with LiveJournal is allowed, but mentioning that they're LiveJournal-compatable on the page you mention selling them will get your account suspended or worse. Much like it's illegal to sell Dildos, but you can sell vibrating massagers. Mentioning that you do web-development is fine, but you can't offer explicitly to do web-design for someones LiveJournal style for money.
Also, accepting Paid Account time instead of actual money is also explicitly verboten from what they told me, or at least my reading of it. Here's their full answer:
Answer (#607639)Posted: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 07:48:07 GMT (26 minutes ago)
Dear LiveJournal user wolfwings,
While we cannot discuss the terms of a suspension with a concerned third party such as yourself, we can provide you with the guidelines used by the Abuse team for determining unacceptable commercial activity.
Limited commercial activity, such as advertising one's own auctions or the like, is permitted -- as is, for example, the community you reference. Some examples of things that are not permitted are:
-- Unsolicited commenting or community posting to promote or advertise a commercial venture taking place on LiveJournal;
-- Solicitation of monetary compensation or Paid Account time in exchange for LiveJournal invite codes, custom styles, or user picture icons;
-- Unsolicited commercial email, whether sent through LiveJournal's servers or not, to promote a LiveJournal account or community;
-- Displaying a "click-through" or other promotional banner designed solely to make money for the poster depending on how many users click said banner.
In general, as long as the individual is not attempting to profit from LiveJournal's services, resell LiveJournal's services, or promote his or her use of LiveJournal through unsolicited and intrusive means, it is considered allowable -- although, of course, each case must be considered on an individual basis. As such, many of the cases that you note -- in which artists are advertising their services in exchange for monetary compensation -- are generally allowable, as long as it does not fall into one of the categories above (such as user picture icons or custom styles). If in doubt, we encourage individuals to simply mention that they are available for commissions without specifying fees, and arrange the details of such transactions off of LiveJournal's servers (via email or AIM, for instance).
We encourage you and any other users who have questions on what is permitted to contact us before posting if they have questions; we far prefer taking the time to clarify in advance.
Regards,
  LiveJournal Abuse Team
Re: And a couple minutes after I post that last comment, they answered...
Date: 2003-07-24 01:52 am (UTC)