Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1038387-20131226232148/@comment-188432-20131228161340

The reason, as I understand it, is that the precise boundaries of fair use haven't been defined through enough legal action. It's a tricky thing for copyright owners. They don't want to dampen enthusiasm in their product. It helps them for there to be an active fan base. On the other hand, they do have to be seen to defend their copyrights in order to retain them. So they pick their battles.

In a sense, it's not up to Wikia to enforce; it's up to the copyright holder to defend. When Wikia receive a DCMA notice, then they take action.

But that's not to say that the model is "do what you want until you get caught". Wikia have a duty to advise caution, and we as users have cause to heed that advice. The more we can do as admin to show that we care about protecting our topic's rights holders, the better.

So that's why I say, speaking personally of course, that a policy restricting avatars to CC-BY-SA 3.0 licensed images makes sense.