Harry Potter Finis and Other Film Fest Fare

The last Harry Potter film opens today.  I'm eager to see it.

Still watching Battlestar Galactica: a favorite character has gone out an airlock and religious wars seem to be starting up...  Also saw the first of the new Torchwood (the second installment comes on tonight).  Started watching season three of True Blood - still entertaining.  Obviously my taste runs toward imaginative fare like science fiction and fantasy.

And I watched a very interesting documentary on Disney animation from about 1984-94 called Waking Sleeping Beauty.  It's about the films, of course, Disney's second flowering - The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King - but even more about the management and egos and managing or ill-managing those egos.  Fascinating.  The film probably ought to be required watching for anyone trying to run a creative business.

(The image above is, of course, borrowed from Disney, who hold the copyright.  I believe its use here in a discussion Disney and its films is "fair use," but if requested, I'll take it down.  Here's a nice discussion of Disney, copyright, fair use, and similar at Professor Damien's Public Domain Treasure Chest.)

On Copyright and Public Domain

Here's the best statement (okay rant) on public domain material that I've seen lately.  Also kinda funny.  At VintagePrintable.  Here's an excerpt:

"Disclaimer and waiver *sigh*: Vintage Printable can’t guarantee anything in life. If anyone wants an image removed, please send e mail. Also *sigh* no representations or warranties about anything to anyone, including that the images actually are public domain or otherwise have no restrictions on use, or warranties of merchantability or any other kind of warranty. Each user is fully responsible for their own use of these images and recognizes Vintage Printable is not responsible in any way for anything. Users understand that we believe the images are free to use, and are not carriers of some awful computer bug or some other terror that will crash the internets *Sigh*. Of course we can’t guarantee anything, or give any kind of legal, copyright or advice about your life in general, so if you are at all concerned, find your trusted adviser and ask them..."


It's almost as funny as one of my favorite passages of Terry Pratchett in Truth, a warranty for a Gooseberry TM  Disorganizer MKII:


"This device is provided without warranty of any kind as to reliability, accuracy, existence or otherwise or fitness for any particular purpose and Bioalchemic Products specifically does not warrant, guarantee, imply or make any representations as to its merchantability for any particular purpose and furthermore shall have no liability for or responsibility to you or any other person, entity or deity with respect of any loss or damage whatsoever caused by this device or object or by any attempts to destroy it by hammering it against a wall or dropping it into a deep well or any other means whatsoever and moreover asserts that you indicate your acceptance of this agreement or any other agreement that may be substituted at any time by coming within five miles of the product or observing it through large telescopes or by any other means because you are such an easily cowed moron who will happily accept arrogant and unilateral conditions on a piece of highly priced garbage that you would not dream of accepting on a bag of dog biscuits and is used solely at your own risk."


What is with our society anyway? An excess of lawyers?  
Well, there's an obvious cure for that!

Copyright

Intellectual property rights...  On the internet that can be e-borrowing the neighbor's lawn mower, then wondering if you ever have to take it back.  It's just so darn easy to, um, "borrow" an image or a phrase - or a whole term paper.  But taking it back?  Giving credit?  Paying for it?  Get real.

I try.  For this blog or websites I try to either: create the image (a sketch, as I'm a stinky photographer); find an image in the public domain; or, if those fail and I'm desperate, then I choose one whose re-use isn't forbidden (creative commons licenses get real picky), then, if it seems okay, I credit the image to its creator and link to its source.  I figure that's an ad for the original site & artist, but, of course, I'd remove it instantly if asked.

I'm sensitive to the idea of plagiarism, since I've had one architectural design stolen, over the years, and maybe-possibly-65%? of a design for a musical.  So I try to be careful about copyright.

Oops.

A public domain photo I'd used, um, wasn't.  Luckily, I figured that out and could track its photographer.  Tara Bradford was very kind and allowed me to use the image after all.  Check out her blog or her website.  Gorgeous photos.  Tempting to steal more of them!  But don't.

ADDENDUM: I have permission from photographer Tara Bradford to use this photo.   But it's STILL copyrighted!

DO NOT Pin this image or copy it or any o' that stuff without her permission.   If you're looking for a cute alphabet, look HERE instead.

Or checkout my website (the one that I oopsied), basically a link-page to favorite arts sites called Parsnip Pie.

ADDENDUM:  Go ahead and check out that site, but the photo has been replaced there by my own sketch.  Just simpler.

SNIPPET #7

Here's the latest bit from the "Design Methods" chapter of Alice Through the Proscenium (currently being re-re-formatted aargh! for its e Publishing launch):

Go-Bys –  Not quite inspiration and not really guides are those pictures of someone else’s work used as a model for your own project.  Don’t use a go-by for the whole design.  (Plagiarism is mortal sin, but, sshhhh, shop-lifting a few little bitty clues is only a venial one).  A go-by can kick-start your brain.  You don’t need to feel guilty either, because you will modify it all completely by the end.

Which brings up intellectual property rights.  The principal is simple: stealing is wrong.  Permission and compensation are fair.  You know when you’re cheating.

It’s after the lawyers trample in it all that it gets muddy.  I mean, the Chrysler building is trademarked? 4.10  Use that shape in a set and legally you ought rent it from someone.  Really.  And collages using images you didn’t create yourself require permission from the copyright holder of each scrap. Yes, that ladies’ underwear ad.  You can legally line the bird cage with overlapping funny pages, but frame it and becomes Art and apparently illegal.  Freedom of speech?  The law tells collage artists to shut up. 4.11     

4.10   Yes, trademarked by the building owners. Yet an architect cannot copyright a building’s design, only the construction drawings.  Go figure.
4.11  But, thanks to the brave Barbie artist who beat Matel’s lawyers, you can now legally dress your dolly in tortillas and bake her as an enchilada.  Just don’t dress her photo, unless you took it yourself, or, arguably in Britain, if it’s a museum photo and a documentary sort of photo rather than an artistic photo…  Yeesh.

As a footnote to that footnote...  One of my shows may have been plagiarized - it's hard to tell.  Designers often come up with similar solutions as they solve similar problems, but in this case there were so many similarities, shapes, materials, plan all seemed too similar.  At the time I was 95% convinced it was borrowed - but over time that conviction has dwindled to 75%.  On the other hand, one architectural plan really was blatently stolen!  The thief admitted it cheerfully - couldn't understand my upset - but did, in the end, pay a token design fee,

ADDENDUM:  Copyright law keeps evolving.  As of 2013, it may be okay to use that ladies' underwear ad... if your use is "transformative."