Hello all! I have a question about copyright, copyleft, whatever it takes. I’ve been bouncing around the wiki for a couple hours reading about all the different licenses and there’s just too much info to sort through. I’m hoping someone here can give me a clue.
Basically, a couple buddies and myself want to fire up a gallery of our works, but we want to make any images or photos we put up completely free. We want people to be able to copy, distribute, edit and manipulate, and even use for commercial purposes…BUT we want the files to still remain free after that, so that anyone can use them for any of the mentioned purposes.
It sounds like Creative Commons might be the way to go, with the stipulation that any new license has to be the same or similar so any changes still remain free-ish. But we also don’t want to force people to give full credit on every little thing.
For example, we’re working on art for a collectible card game, and we want to share the art for other people working on similar projects, and we would like any number of them to publish a game using the same art if they wish…but the cards have limited space! We don’t want to have to add an extra line of text like “original artwork by: So Ann So.”
Any ideas if there’s a license that might match our goals? Thanks in advance!
Sounds like you might be interested in a Share-Alike type license from Creative Commons. Obviously you should read the terms very carefully before going with it to see whether it is appropriate for you.
Wow! Thanks for the info! And that choose a license thing is extremely helpful. I have more reading to do, but this looks like exactly what I’m looking for. Thanks again!
Secure the copyright. In the US, go to http://www.copyright.gov and plan to spend some time there. You can register the entire collection of works at one time for one fee. I would suggest that each of you register a separate collection of your own works. If you collaborated on some of them, spin-off a separate collection of those (as appropriate) and list the appropriate authors. Go ahead… spend the money and get the paperwork.
Now that you have the copyright registration in-hand … or it is on the way … “what you choose to do with it is your sovereign decision to make.” Shop around for whatever “stock” license agreement suits your fancy, or write one of your own. You can change your mind. The choice will be yours, and your heirs’, for something like 150 years.
The one thing that any and every potential licensee will want to know is: exactly what your terms and conditions are. This is a definite advantage of using a “well-known” document such as Creative Commons et seq. Remember that, even though you are (by choice) not charging any money, you are still the exclusive owner of those rights. Even if you place no restrictions at all upon the creation of “derivative works,” in the eyes of the law they are still “derivative works.” You can be just as generous and altruistic as you care to be, if you care to be.
There is one more alternative; “the Public Domain.” But unless you would be delighted (out of the goodness of your heart…) to watch someone making hundreds of thousands of dollars from something of (apparently, great…) value that you gave away, you probably do not actually want to go there.
Many folks won’t touch anything “in the Public Domain” unless it acquired that status by the expiration of a very old copyright. The risks of “surprise” are simply too great. (“You said it was public domain, but here comes this person claiming that we both are infringers! …”) Instead, they will exercise (and carefully document) a “due diligence” search to ascertain who is the owner of the work … that would be you … and whether there might be adverse claims to it. They will want a copyright license from you … or your written statement of what well-known license applies. Whether or not any money changes hands, their butts are now well-covered. (The penalties for infringement as set forth in copyright law are ferocious … and rightly feared … as they are intended to be.)