Extras Licensing

[Rodney]

This is something Martin could comment on as an IP lawyer but I want to get the ball rolling toward the next Extras offering (which no one is working on and is still many years away so relax!)

 

Here's a generic license I am using as a template:

 

LICENSE

 

Copyright © 2014 Hash Inc

All rights reserved.

 

Redistribution and use with or without modification is permitted provided the following conditions are met:

 

Redistributions of content must retain this copyright notice, or the copyright notice of the origin author of the resource to include this list of conditions, exception policy and the following disclaimer.

 

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, exception policy and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

 

Exception policy. An exception applies to all models which are generally free for testing and private use, but not necessarily for commercial use. For each file there is usually an accompanying information file (info.txt and/or license.txt) containing detailed licensing and distribution information. The purpose of the info.txt file is to describe the content and grant access while the purpose of the license.txt file is to reserve or restrict rights for specified purposes. Authors are encouraged to always include the info.txt file with their content and where adding or clarifying license and distribution is desired the info.txt file should refer to the license.txt file. In this way missing files can be replaced with the original and/or updated with a new license as appropriate. All content has been contributed to the Animation:Master community and is therefore released for personal study and usage without restriction except as noted in the files accompanying documentation. Content without the accompanying info.txt file has not been screened for quality and some restrictions may apply. While the content may be released for use, any associated names, trademarks and other creative content are not unless specifically granted in writing and are included in this collection strictly for identification and attribution purposes related to the original and/or derivative author(s).

 

Neither the name of the Hash Inc nor the contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from the original without specific prior written permission.

 

THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

 

It's the exception policy that I'm the most interested in at this point in time.

I can say without reservation that the goal of any Extras content is to grant access.

The optimal content is that which is contributed without restriction.

It is important however to allow for the original authors' intent and for this to be known and documented.

 

Any suggestions for improvement are appreciated.

[Rodney]

Here's a quick proof of concept that borrows from the general look of the first CD but tries to move forward a little.

I just grabbed data from the Extras CD to fill in the image placeholders.

 

My goal here was more to see how much work it was going to take to automate important parts of this process.

There is a two fold purpose behind the html/css in that it is hoped that it might frame the content both online and locally.

As such I'm returning to some earlier concepts that couldn't be implemented in the earlier Extras efforts.

[robcat2075]

I think when people buy an Extras CD they want to be able to use the models in anything without having to get further permissions, so maybe an extras CD shoudl just have free-for-use things on it?

[Rodney]

I think when people buy an Extras CD they want to be able to use the models in anything without having to get further permissions, so maybe an extras CD shoudl just have free-for-use things on it?

 

Generally they (the CDs) do but what I'm wanting to do is move forward a little to make sure that contributions have that documentation so that there is no gray area on use. This may seem trivial but how many times have we fielded a question regarding usage rights? It's not enough to guess.

 

But I agree with you.

The issue then is that the poor sucker who has to put these things together has to guess if the assets he is putting into the collection are actually available for use. Did a stray file get mixed into the collection. Will a lawyer get called? Will someone's feelings get hurt?

That approach doesn't work.

 

Documentation is important and before I can commit to working on a new Extras I need to resolve that issue (for myself) and the easiest way is to get into the habit of documenting resources (the ones that are contributed of course).

 

Note that this isn't an issue with most of the files in the forum's exchange as they are usually uploaded by the contributor.

But those passed on second hand... require a bit of leg work.

Now, how to do that without taking up too much time from the contributor.

That's the underlying question.

 

Now as to other usage... having only free content without restriction easily trims away a large part of the high quality resources.

And all it would take to remedy that is a simple note: "Not for commercial use without prior written approval." or "Any derivative works must also be shared with the Animation:Master community." I dunno, whatever the original author wants.