Comments on: License Time

By: saalon

saalon — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:35:01 +0000

Yeah, I was trying to consider the worst case scenario (i.e., somehow it’s a hit, but I’ve given up the protection of someone not being able to sell my work without giving me royalties) even if it was highly unlikely. Which it is.

But even if that’s the case, what’s the effect? I need to make something that I can charge for exclusively, which would be the whole point of getting something popular in the first place. In all likely scenarios, I’m only helped by someone selling my stuff if they attribute it properly. And in the unlikely scenarios, I’m still helped on some level, and barely hurt.

If nothing else, the GPL-ish “Share Alike” clause is a worthwhile inoculation against people misappropriating it for commercial reasons. The kind of person who would try and profit off of someone else’s work unfairly is the same kind of person who would chafe at releasing his work under a fully open license as well.

By: brennen

brennen — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:02:00 +0000

I’d second Brent on the whole “your fans will buy from you” thing. If I get merch from somebody online (webcomic, music, whatever), I always buy straight from the artist or their designated intermediary – and come to think of it, I’ve hardly ever encountered the option to do anything else. Ripped off t-shirt designs, probably. But in general, if anyone is misrepresenting themselves as you, well, they’re committing fraud or something similar, and in this case probably plain old copyright violation as well, since the license requires attribution…

By: Brent

Brent — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:35:06 +0000

People don’t steal and sell unpopular, unknown stuff.

If someone rips you off, by that point you’ll already be popular (for some understandable value of “popular”). At which point you can make a high-profile stink about it, and make their lives hell.

With current social media, you can blow the whistle within *hours* of discovering something like this, and your fans–the ones actually buying your stuff–will know about it.

(License stuff seems fine to me; I generally license things as openly as possible now.)

By: saalon

saalon — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:23:27 +0000

That’s how I’m starting to feel, actually. I may edit this post and plop in the one that allows commercial works.

By: brennen

brennen — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:04:46 +0000

CC is useful in that it offers a bunch of fine-grained distinctions, has pretty good mindshare, and comes with a quick-and-easy graphic. Seems like a fine idea to me.

Re: allowing commercial use, I kind of expect that you would not have any reason to regret it for this kind of project and that there might even be a few minor upsides. In practical terms, I’ll put it this way: What kind of gain in exposure is any kind of likely that wouldn’t benefit you and your actors?

That’s not to say there couldn’t be any negative outcomes, but they strike me as unlikely.