if the sprite is AAed to a constant background that is part of the sprite, thats not outer AA, thats just regular AA within a piece.
If a "sprite" is on a constant background and does not move it's not a sprite. Most of the stuff anyone does here does not constitute as a sprite at all 
Not true. A 'sprite' is such because of designation within the program. It has to do with the differences in drawing, culling and manageing them. Taking GBA as example, there is essentially (in a 2D game) background, sprite and live text (although the text is also technically sprite-based). But anything using sprite palette that is not part of the tiled background is a sprite. In our current game we added things like overturned cars to the scene that are placed with their own collision, so the player can walk around them dynamically. They don't move their position, they don't animate, yet they are in fact sprites.
I would put the general rule as 'Anything that is not tiled, or not inserted into a system utlizing tiles, is a sprite.' Of course that again goes back to programmatic use, and not original artiwork. In that regard, I'd say 'If you say it's a sprite, it is.'
- Adam
