5 ms·

I had a similar incident with, strangely enough, Microsoft. It wanted to use one of my photographs in promotional material and asked permission. I said that per

I had a similar incident with, strangely enough, Microsoft. It wanted to use one of my photographs in promotional material and asked permission. I said that permission had already been given by me in the form of a CC-BY and they were very welcome to use it. It took quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing before I got annoyed and said that if its legal counsel didn't understand licenses of all things, then they probably should be fired.

mhurron 10y ago
For things like promotional material, large companies will attempt to get explicit, signed permission instead of relying on something simply thrown up there on the web. They understood the licensing just fine, they also understand covering their ass explicitly. They don't feel like being left to your whims should you choose to change license to attempt to extort money out of them after they start a large campaign.
- tamana 10y ago
  That's fine, but they shouldn't badger people to do work for free, then.
- hh2222 10y ago
  How about some middle ground where the CC license says if you need explicit written consent, you must compensate the artist for their troubles?
  - detaro 10y ago
    Doesn't need to be in the CC license. If they ask, you can just offer them an alternative license that costs them, but gets them a signed piece of paper. Putting "requests for clarification mean you have to pay" in a license sounds like a bad idea.
  - mhurron 10y ago
    Compensation would be worked out in negotiations. That is simple contract law at that point.
  - Trundle 10y ago
    Why does that need to be written in to a standard license? If you're giving explicit consent then you're communicating.
- emptybits 10y ago
  > relying on something simply thrown up there on the web ... They don't feel like being left to your whims should you choose to change license Fair enough. Naive question... Does the Wikimedia Commons (and other established sites) not address this? Licensees of CC material will find content and license change histories, archiving, and (thus) audibility if a dispute arises. i.e. claims like "this was the license on date X" become verifiable
- forgotpwtomain 10y ago
  > They don't feel like being left to your whims should you choose to change license to attempt to extort money out of them after they start a large campaign. I'm not a lawyer but this is wrong, if you've released material under a license in most legal jurisdictions that's binding, releasing it under a different license does not invalidate the terms of the previous one.
  - detaro 10y ago
    A random website claiming "this is my stuff and under CC license" is less reliable than a written contract. How do you prove that the license really was granted if I take the website down? Convince a court that archive.org or a printed screenshot is evidence? If I falsely claimed to own the rights to the images, and you get sued by the true owner, can you show you acted in good faith and did enough to verify the license? If you have a contract with me and I lied, you probably would have better chances of recovering your damages from me. It would be interesting to see how many companies would pay a small fee for this if you asked.
    - WalterBright 10y ago
      It's pretty hard to subsequently argue that you didn't agree if you took the money and cashed the check.
lisper 10y ago
Why didn't you just ask them for money? They surely would have happily paid you.
- greggman 10y ago
  I doubt that. The picture was a pretty generic picture of a statue in the Louvre which I'm sure they searched for free images for. Also, I didn't want to later be sued by the Lourve if it turns out they needed extra rights (which is the contract they effectively wanted me to sign) If all they wanted was a signed copy of the CC-BY license I would have signed it

mhurron 10y ago

For things like promotional material, large companies will attempt to get explicit, signed permission instead of relying on something simply thrown up there on the web. They understood the licensing just fine, they also understand covering their ass explicitly. They don't feel like being left to your whims should you choose to change license to attempt to extort money out of them after they start a large campaign.

tamana 10y ago
That's fine, but they shouldn't badger people to do work for free, then.
hh2222 10y ago
How about some middle ground where the CC license says if you need explicit written consent, you must compensate the artist for their troubles?
- detaro 10y ago
  Doesn't need to be in the CC license. If they ask, you can just offer them an alternative license that costs them, but gets them a signed piece of paper. Putting "requests for clarification mean you have to pay" in a license sounds like a bad idea.
- mhurron 10y ago
  Compensation would be worked out in negotiations. That is simple contract law at that point.
- Trundle 10y ago
  Why does that need to be written in to a standard license? If you're giving explicit consent then you're communicating.
emptybits 10y ago
> relying on something simply thrown up there on the web ... They don't feel like being left to your whims should you choose to change license Fair enough. Naive question... Does the Wikimedia Commons (and other established sites) not address this? Licensees of CC material will find content and license change histories, archiving, and (thus) audibility if a dispute arises. i.e. claims like "this was the license on date X" become verifiable
forgotpwtomain 10y ago
> They don't feel like being left to your whims should you choose to change license to attempt to extort money out of them after they start a large campaign. I'm not a lawyer but this is wrong, if you've released material under a license in most legal jurisdictions that's binding, releasing it under a different license does not invalidate the terms of the previous one.
- detaro 10y ago
  A random website claiming "this is my stuff and under CC license" is less reliable than a written contract. How do you prove that the license really was granted if I take the website down? Convince a court that archive.org or a printed screenshot is evidence? If I falsely claimed to own the rights to the images, and you get sued by the true owner, can you show you acted in good faith and did enough to verify the license? If you have a contract with me and I lied, you probably would have better chances of recovering your damages from me. It would be interesting to see how many companies would pay a small fee for this if you asked.
  - WalterBright 10y ago
    It's pretty hard to subsequently argue that you didn't agree if you took the money and cashed the check.

lisper 10y ago

Why didn't you just ask them for money? They surely would have happily paid you.

greggman 10y ago
I doubt that. The picture was a pretty generic picture of a statue in the Louvre which I'm sure they searched for free images for. Also, I didn't want to later be sued by the Lourve if it turns out they needed extra rights (which is the contract they effectively wanted me to sign) If all they wanted was a signed copy of the CC-BY license I would have signed it