Icons are not bases
From Fan History Wiki
Icon ownership in fandom has, historically, been a difficult issue. Many people see no problem using other people's images and no text, no border icons for their own icons. Other people have a problem with that. The phrase "Icons are not bases" thus has become one used a lot in icon making communities to let potential icon users and other icon makers know that plain, no text, no border icons should not be reused to make new icons.
People having used icons as bases, despite icon makers wishes, has led to a certain amount of wank.
As of February 13, 2008, the phrase "icons are not bases" appears 47,900 times on Google. [1]
