Copyright issue?
Hi all, sorry to bother you all with a question about copyright but I have been asked a question with regards to my work.
my work I do is public domain and I like to do this for everyone, however I had an email from someone who is using my work, or planning to, and has suggested to me that once he is finished his project will be copyrighted as will all the work involved, basically he has asked me that I can no longer have my work public domain if he is using the work for his copyrighted material.
ok, I kinda get what he says I can understand what he's saying, is this true? Is that something that can happen, it seems madness that I can create something for everyone, then someone copyrights my own work and stops me and others from using it, I suppose I waive all the rights, but really, I can't use my own work.
perhaps I will have to use a different license now, I'm not sure,
whats everyone's thoughts on this?
thanks in advance for your comments.
No, this is not possible, he can only copyright his own derivative work that he did using your work, but not your original, you are always the author and have rights to do with it as you want.
The only thing you cannot do, is take his derivative work created by using your material and release it again as public domain.
@Duion thanks for your response, that's good to hear, il have to see if he/she has made any changes to the artwork and make them aware that they cannot and should not copyright my material.
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
Wow, that sounds like an infuriating message to get. What a jerk! Duion is right, they absolutely cannot copyright your work, nor limit anybody else's acess to it. They can't even really ask you to remove the CC0 license, as free/open licenses are irrevocable. Imagine if somebody was really invested in using your work in their game, then without their knowledge you revoked the license! Anybody always and forever will be allowed to use your CC0 work under CC0.
You should use their own nosensical argument against them and tell them that it has already been used in a game and so they themselves would be commiting copyright infringment (by their own reckoning).
Publicly shaming such a would-be parasite wouldn't go astray either.
Red warrior needs caffeine badly.
Thanks for your comments, I have told them that they can copyright there OWN material but not my CCO work, As it is public domain and shall remain that way. Unless they have made changes to the work itself.
I think they are just confused about copyright licenses, and they understand what I am saying and have apologised if they have caused any upset to me, which they hadn't really, I just freaking out about if that could happen about someone copyrighting my own work, so now that my mind is set to rest I will continue to create CCO work and I'm going to tAke this all with a pinch of salt and move on, I'm not going to publicly name them as we can all make mistakes from time to time, so we all learn something.
thanks for all your comments, was a big help.
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
I released my music on here under CCO. I think that means I gave up all my rights, so i can't tell other people what to do with it or what license to put it under if they decide to use it, but if I placed it under the other licenses then I would have the right to tell people what to do with it.
It seems to me that people are not restricted when they use a CC0 work but if they were using a work of any other license then they would be right resetricted, so they free to use the work in any way and for any purpose including the commercial, so i think they have the right to relicense the work for any purpose including commercial purposes.
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@Tozen thanks for your reply, you are exactly right, I have given up all rights under the CCO license, but they are still a license of Public domain, I do not feel great about someone who has used CCO license material and then copyright/license it under a different terms, for them to try and sue for liabilities later, or that anyone who has used my work for any purposes including commercials are then unable to use that work.
I think I would like to think that people moral's would come in to play when using such work, but like you say, they can do what they want, but as the original Author I think that grants you some rights regardless of the license release, and would feel that if anyone plans to do a copyright they would need to ask my permissions still, even if it means pulling the work offline and making others aware,(not that I would do that) so the copyrighted work would go ahead..........
you know what i'm confused again.........
I just create work for everyone to use for free, if someones going to use and copyright it then that gos against my etho's of how I want to work, and that just ruins it for me and others.
I do wonder what is the point of the CCO license right now, perhaps like you say i should use a different license that protects from that sort of behavouir.
Has anyone had this sort of trouble before? or suggest a better license? il have a look and read through them.
thanks everyone.:)
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
Found this whilst searching and this sets my mind at rest proper. Perfectly said.
The term “public domain” refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
It's interesting.... I think they still can mix public domain stuff up along with of their own commercial project I.e take a few public domain images and then put it in their game, and put the game under a commercial license and sell it and make money on it.
But the public domain work standing all on its own, I dont' think they can put it under copyright again once copyright on it is expired. But if the public domain was part of a COLLECTION of works, then it could still be protected under a copyright for the whole collection.. "Collective Works Copyright' so public domain images on their own are in the public domain and free for any use as far as I do know, but images in public domain collections bundles may not be free as in copying the whole thing and re distributing it out on cd ect. you probably can't do that to public domain collections ect..So you might need permission when it comes to using stuff from public domain collections of works such as public domain cd's colelctions, public domain archives on websites ect..
So even with using public domain stuff you still have to be careful. You have to make sure that any work you use after 1923, but before 1964, to check with the copyright office to see if copyright was renewed or not on the work. It should also be noted that Shareware and Freeware are also not public domain works.
Yes, i read about collection's too, I kinda thought that, if someone uses my caveman sheet with my Greenland tiles and calls it caveman game, it could be considered a collection? If someone just uses they caveman sheet for there project is fine, but using the same tiles set as well could be infringing on that persons collection of work as suppose to just using a few images, assuming they copyright the game using those sprites.
hmm, isn't the work I do a collection of my work by chasersgaming, could that be seen as a collection? Or would it be necessary to actually Wright, a collection of work from chasersgaming, and then set the public domain? Wow, it could go either way really, maybe just to save argument is just to release under the other license with a attribution notice.
im back to thinking that what is the point of the CCO license at all if it doesn't protect no one when they use it, although my work isn't good enough to warrant such an argument, but maybe one day it might,.
if such a thing came to a lawsuit it would be difficult to prove that someone had used a part of work which is part of someone's collection when the exactly the same work is available on a public domain license.if they public domain license work was dated before the copyrighted work then hat would save the argument wouldn't it?
I am waffling on a bit sorry, it can spiral out of control, hahahaha.
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
OMG, it sounds like you want Patents slapped on it I'm still working on my Fangcrawler, Sloops, and Gronks in my game for Besia system..
Fangcrawler huge beast lives on Telos might use it as a mount in game for player.
Not a lawyer here. However, a work may be released under many licenses. The owner may release it under any license she wishes, or multiple licenses. Users may do anything they wish with the work, under ANY ONE of the licenses it has been released under, as long as they don't violate the terms of the one license they choose. This means that users may choose to relicense the work under different terms, as long as those terms maintain at least all original terms.
However, the new license does not overwrite the original terms. There is just one new additional license the work may be used under.
For instance, I may take any CC-BY-3.0 licensed work on OGA, and relicense it as is under CC-BY-SA-3.0, because CC-BY-SA still maintains all of the original CC-BY terms, and just adds a few new ones. Anybody may still use it under CC-BY-3.0 if they want, because my new license doesn't replace the old one.
I could not, however, take a -BY-SA work and relicense it as just -BY, because the -BY license gets rid of the restrictions of the -SA clause.
This is useful, because for instance, Apple's app store requires all content to be released under there own license. If users could not relicense free art under Apple's terms, then they could not use that art on apps released on Apple Store. This actually happens, as CC-BY(-SA) licenses prohibit relicensing under Apple's terms.
However, anyone can take CC0 work and slap Apple's license on it. This does not get rid of the CC0 license for other users though. A consequence of this is that anybody can take CC0 work and release it under whatever proprietary license they want and try to sell it, as is, for profit. But they can't prevent people from getting it for free, and using it legally under the terms of CC0.
^what DezrasDragons said. In other terms: lets say air is CC0. Everyone can breath it for free. Joeshmoe could put it in bottles and sell that air. That would be allowed. People might even buy it. But they don't have to. I'll just continue getting my air for free. Joeshmoe can't stop me from breathing just because I didn't pay him. In essense, Joeshmoe isn't charging for the air, he's charging for the bottle the air is in.
Someone could take your cc0 works and sell it in a commercial game, but they can't tell everyone else they aren't allowed to use your cc0 works. Everyone will say "no, chasergaming put it on OGA for free before that game came out. I'm going to download it from OGA for free instead of paying for those art assets."
--Medicine StormThank you all for your comments, it's helped a lot, I apolize if this is going over old grounds, you think you understand it then you get thrown a curve ball, I just wanted to be sure on a few things so I can continue create CCO license work.
all the best everyone and thanks again.
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
Copyright laws can be very complicated, it depends on exact license and even the country the author is in has an influence.
Public domain is for works where the copyright has expired, for example 70 years after creation or whatever the number is. That is the main source for public domain material. Other sources are work from US goverment employees that created something in their worktime which is paid by the goverment do not own their work and it becomes public domain, same goes for some science sectors.
In the USA you may be able to manually apply "public domain" to something, but even on that I'm not sure.
In Germany, where I live for example it is not possible to apply something like "public domain" to something, since in Germany, if you create something you are always the author and copyright holder and you cannot give your rights away.
This is why CC0 was invented, which is different to "public domain", CC0 was created to create something similar to public domain as good as possible. Basically it is just a waiver that you sign, that you will not make use of your rights on your works.
On top of all, you still hold certain "moral rights" to your works, which applies as well to other licenses you use for you works.
So the real author always has the upper hand as long as his work was not explicitely sold to someome.
Duion:
> Other sources [of public domain] are work from US goverment employees that
> created something in their worktime which is paid by the goverment do not own
> their work and it becomes public domain, same goes for some science sectors.
As far as I understand, such works are only public domain in the US. Recipients outside the US do not benefit from the copyright exemption. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._gover... for details.
I am not a lawyer and the above is not legal advice.
If they are public domain in the US, they are public domain everywhere, where is written what you claim?
Only thing I know is that not in all countries work can become public domain.
Two citations in the first section of the Wikipedia article.
The wording is odd and I am not a lawyer, but the implication seems to be that US Government works cannot be anything but public domain in the US, but may not necessarily be public domain outside. The US government may have international copyright protection on works depending on the laws of the country in question and if they intend to obtain/assert such protections. There's also the additional complication that "public domain" isn't universal.
For what it's worth, Wikipedia's take on it is that it's still unclear, but safe enough to use with no restrictions or caveats.
That may be what I called "moral rights".
In Germany for example "public domain" does not exist and cannot exist by the german law. You are automatically copyright owner, if you create something, you may give it away for free, but you can still make use of your moral rights any time.
I think in the case of the US there may be something similar.