[AktiviX-discuss] help: threatened with copyright on art and ideas

[Charlie Harvey]

echo at aktivix.org wrote:
 > Quoting max* <max at tofubandits.org.uk>:
 >
 >> hi all,
 >>
 >> does anyone have any experiences of dealing with threats re: 
copyright
 >> infringments? any advice on how to deal with this? anyone 
been in similar
 >> situations?
 >>
 >> we've just received this email;
 >>
 >> "Dear 'seeds for change',
 >>
 >> I have contacted the organisation three times already 
without a response.
 >> I am one of the co-creators of the Blob Tree which was 
published in 1988
 >> by Marshall Pickering. It was copyrighted to Pip Wilson and 
myself, Ian
 >> Long. We have asked that the 'Jelly Baby Tree be taken off 
the web site as
 >> it infringes our copyright. We have had to contact several 
organisations,
 >> including Government agencies, who have agreed to take your 
resource off
 >> their websites.
 >>
 >> We would like to deal with this problem sooner rather than 
later. Could we
 >> have some communication with the relevant person?
 >>
 >> Thank you
 >>
 >> Ian Long"
 >>
 >> It refers to an exercise that one of the seeds for change 
collective came up
 >>
 >> with a few years ago (available at:
 >> http://seedsforchange.org.uk/free/tree.pdf ). That was a 
long time before
 >> we'd ever seen or heard of the "blob tree".
 >>
 >> Now we're being asked to remove it because somebody else 
claims copyright.
 >> The
 >> blob tree seems to be 'older' than our tree, going by date 
of publication.
 >>
 >> We find it particularly ironic since all our work is 
@nti-copyright. we want
 >>
 >> people to tkae our work, use it, change it, expand it! note 
that the sender
 >> of the email claims to have been asking other people to take 
OUR resource of
 >> their websites, even though we give express permision to all 
to use our
 >> materials.
 >>

I'd look into creative commons for stuff like this - when stuff 
is in the public domain ppl can come along nick it and then use 
it as if it was their own.

If you put it under cc then you've got some fairly strong legal 
clout to bash them back with when they get layery. And you can 
have as a condition of the licence that nobody is allowed to use 
it unless they pass on the same rights (copying, sharing at no 
cost, etc) to others a-la GPL...


 >> any advice on how to deal with this? anyone been in similar 
situations?

Get a backup of your website in a few different places. Then 
tell them to piss off and see if they do anything ?

If you've got a sound ISP you'll probably be fine - they won't 
want to take it to court. But lots of ISPs really aren't sound cf.:
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA553.htm

cheers
Charlie