Make the world's creation accessible.

Our motto was "Creation on the fly" and the bird metaphor seemed the best choice out of all the options available to us. We didn't want to name our software after bugs (for obvious reasons).

Also, haven't you heard? The bird is the word.

We're a privately held company currently headquartered in Long Island, NY, with team members around the world. The founders also created Worth1000.com, a talented community of 500,000 digital artists that participate in amazing daily contests. You can find more information (and our group shot) in our About Us section.

Through our interactions with the artists on Worth1000.com, we realized that while many people wanted to use digital editing software, it was very inaccessible:

• The costs were prohibitive (and many people didn't want to risk installing a virus by pirating).
• The interface was too bloated with rarely-used features to make learning it easy.
• You actually needed to install the programs on a machine with specifications that complied with the program and suffer through any unwanted DRM malware that might also come with the software.
We have our roots in the grassroots hobbyists community. We are artists ourselves and know that there are so many other potential creators out there like us... all they need are accessible tools.

We have been fortunate enough to attract a group of industry visionaries who believe firmly in our mission and want to help us grow.

You own the full rights to all works you create. Aviary only retains a license to display any works you make viewable to the public within Aviary and in any external publication provided it's in a way that promotes Aviary. For example, this means your work may be used to accompany a third-party newspaper article about Aviary.

The original author owns his original work and grants the new creator a license to make a derivative of his work. The new creator owns the derivative work (only).

Yes, the creator of the source work will automatically be listed as a contributor for that work.

Right next to the sources tab, there is a derivatives tab. All derivatives of a work would appear under this tab.

No, the derivative remains in the public. Simply put, once it's been given out, it can't be taken back. Here's a real world analogy: If you lend your friend a CD and then ask him for it back a day later to destroy it, it doesn't change the fact that your friend may have already made a copy of the CD that will continue to exist no matter what you do to the original.

You can set this in any application when you save it. You can set more advanced permissions on the file (like allowing specific people to access it) by clicking the "Creation Settings" link, located on any of your image's display pages. Please note that making creations private is restricted to Pro members.

Viewing allows you to see the flattened version of the file on the Aviary website, along with any information on the file that has been enabled (such as commenting). Editing (also referred to as "opening") allows you to open the file within the application, in order to learn how it was made or to even make changes to it (which can only be saved as a derivative).

You can make changes, but it will not overwrite their file. It will create a derivative of the work that appears in your name.

Yes. Just create a Contact List and grant that list access. Then add specific contacts to that list via the Contact Manager. For example, if you wanted to share a family photo with just your family, open the Contact Manager, create a new list called "My Family" and then drag any of your contacts who are family into that new Contact List. Then go to the Creation's image settings and allow the specific Contact List "My Family" to access the file.

This feature is available for subscribers. Subscribers should choose "Only You" from the permissions list (for both editing and viewing).

Permissions dictate what other Aviary users can do with your file on Aviary (from a technical perspective). You can turn on and off access to certain aspects of your file using your permission settings. Licensing dictates what people on Aviary can do with the flattened version of your file off of Aviary. This is not technically enforced and instead relies on people adhering to the licensing terms set in the Creative Commons license you pick.

• © All rights reserved: Nobody may use your work without your permission, in any capacity.
• CC-BY Attribution: Anybody may use your work without your permission, in any capacity, provided they credit you correctly.
• CC-BY-NC+: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Plus. Anybody may use your work without your permission, in any non-commercial capacity, provided they credit you correctly. For any commercial work, they must contact you directly (or can purchase the work via the Aviary website, if you list the work in our market place).

Your derivative file inherits the license terms from the source. Therefore, make sure you are comfortable with the license before using the source!

We're so glad you asked! Check out the pricing page to read about our subscription options, and contact us if you have any questions.

Make sure you are logged in to the Aviary website with the username whose subscription you are trying to cancel, then visit your subscription page. Click the "cancel your subscription" link that appears in the yellow message box on this page. If you have any questions about your subscription, please contact us.

If you would like to delete your Aviary username, profile, and all associated creations from the Aviary website, please make sure you are logged in to the Aviary website as the user you would like to delete, then visit Your Profile and Account Settings page and click the "Delete your account" link. Please note that once your account has been deleted, you will no longer be able to access from the Aviary website any of the creations you made with that account.

Aviary stores them within its internal file cloud (codenamed Rookery), and is redundantly backed up on Amazon S3. Your files are safe, secure and available to you from any computer with internet access.

Yes. More information to come soon. If you're interested in early bird access to this service, please let us know.

Currently, you can export flat versions of your files (like jpg and gif) to your personal computer. We maintain the original unflattened work files on our servers. We'll allow subscribers to download the full layered work files to your computers soon.

We try to keep a bird's eye view of how the applications are used in order to improve them. We track what everyone is collectively doing, but only to make the tools better. For example, we might see that many people are hitting the UNDO button after using a specific function. That alerts us that we need to improve the function. It goes without saying that we will never, ever sell or share any of your personal usage information with any third party.

Yes, it's here.

In Beta release:

• Phoenix, our layer-based image editor
• Peacock, our visual laboratory for creating amazing effects and visualizations
• Toucan, our color pallette coordinator

• Raven, our vector editor
• Talon, our Firefox extension that allows users to perform screen capturing.

We will be releasing an Adobe AIR version of the applications that can be used offline.

Yes, called Talon. It has just been released to all our users. It allows you to:

• Full and partial screen capturing of any webpage
• One click editing and saving of any image on the Internet.
• Quick searching of the Aviary creation library.
• Quick launch of all released Aviary tools.
• Add pressure sensitivity access to brushes.

Aviary has a free basic plan which is a great way to get to learn the tools. We also have a premium Pro plans which allows a lot more control over the applications usage. Our paid plan is incredibly affordable ($24.99 a year), especially when compared with traditional desktop software that can costs thousands of dollars.

For exact pricing details, please see our pricing page.

You aren't supposed to. If you are making money from our software, you should upgrade to a paid plan. Obviously, we would never enforce this, but we do want you to know how we feel about it: It's wrong. We trust you to do the right thing.

Yes. We have a scholarship program for students and educators. To see if you qualify please contact us with details about intended usage.