150 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
150 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
Title: Copyright Advice for Small Leagues
|
|
|
|
There's enough in common that hacking sometimes feels like roller derby's big
|
|
brother, and watching derby struggle with copyright law makes me want
|
|
to chime in with some hard-learned advice that computer nerds worked
|
|
through in the 90s.
|
|
|
|
A modern derby bout requires people from all different walks of life
|
|
to come together, and so this sport—which began
|
|
with a strong punk "skater-run" ethic—has had to bring in creative types
|
|
from all sorts of different cultures which don't necessarily share the
|
|
same values. This is causing friction, but I think I know
|
|
how to solve it: stick to derby's roots and insist on volunteer work,
|
|
even if the professional stuff would look nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some Background on Copyright
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
In most parts of the world, when you create something—like a logo,
|
|
some software, a blog post, or a web page—you get the right to decide
|
|
who is allowed to copy it: the copyright. In order to use someone
|
|
else's work, be it on its own or as a part of your own work,
|
|
you need their permission. Generally speaking, authors will pick one
|
|
or both of the following two options:
|
|
|
|
1. Grant permission if you pay money
|
|
|
|
2. Grant permission if you agree to certain terms, usually some
|
|
combination of:
|
|
|
|
* Give them credit for their work
|
|
* Not make money from anything your work is in
|
|
* Don't prevent anyone from copying/sharing your work
|
|
|
|
This has resulted in an observable cultural split. On one hand,
|
|
you have a [market ecomony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_economy),
|
|
in which using someone's work without paying them is bad,
|
|
often called "piracy". On the other hand, you
|
|
have a [gift economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy),
|
|
in which using someone's work is high praise, and creates a
|
|
debt to humanity that can only be repayed by
|
|
[paying it forward](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_It_Forward).
|
|
|
|
|
|
How This Pertains to Roller Derby
|
|
-------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
To avoid butthurt and drama, your league needs to be aware of
|
|
copyright law, and who is reserving which rights on what works.
|
|
|
|
A few years ago, apparently ASCAP was aggressively bullying Roller
|
|
Derby leagues to pay a "performance fee" for having music at their
|
|
bouts. This is shady for a lot of different reasons, none of which
|
|
merit getting into in this article, but it serves as an excellent
|
|
example of why leagues need to be fully aware of what works they're
|
|
using and what the terms are for using those works. (In a little
|
|
while, I'll be offering a bittorrent download of a double-header's
|
|
worth of Creative Commons music for leagues to use, allowing you to
|
|
cheerfully tell ASCAP to get bent.)
|
|
|
|
[Look what can happen](http://www.derbyinfocus.com/2012/08/on-value-of-derby-photos.html)
|
|
when you get a market economy person in a gift economy situation. He's
|
|
laying out his argument very reasonably, because there's nothing
|
|
unreasonable about market economies. But he's missing the point that
|
|
(most) leagues are gift economies. There's another side to this story:
|
|
those leagues are losing their photographer because, suddenly, he's
|
|
demanding payment or increased gratitude. I'll bet those leagues had
|
|
a couple really long drawn-out meetings about this: do the other
|
|
volunteers feel this way? Are we not appreciating our volunteers
|
|
enough? Butthurt! Drama!
|
|
|
|
And payment is a Pandora's box. As a gift economy guy living in a
|
|
market economy country, I can tell you that if my league decided to
|
|
start paying one volunteer, I would probably adjust my view of
|
|
the relationship, and get hacked off that I wasn't valued enough as an
|
|
official, DJ, photographer, and software developer, to be paid too.
|
|
Or, if I knew the full situation, I'd think that guy was
|
|
being a jerk by extorting the poor league. Butthurt! Drama!
|
|
|
|
On the flip side, certain professions—especially photographers—have a
|
|
history of being bilked out of fair wages for their work by a stock
|
|
set of excuses. [Experience and
|
|
recognition](http://static.happyplace.com/assets/images/2011/10/4e935baa48979.png)
|
|
are *not* payment, and weaseling work out of people this way is
|
|
dishonest at best. There are plenty of ways a photographer can get
|
|
experience and recognition that don't directly benefit your league.
|
|
If you sweet-talk a professional into doing unpaid work, you are
|
|
sowing the seeds of butthurt and drama.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What should you do about this?
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Small town leagues have no business entering into agreements with any
|
|
artists unless the terms of that agreement are spelled out clearly in
|
|
advance. You need to be up front with all of your unpaid artists that you
|
|
have no money and expect them to volunteer their time and skill for
|
|
the love of the game and the gals who play it.
|
|
|
|
Acknowledge that your league is a gift economy. Embrace it! You have
|
|
nothing to give in return other than the community of your league, and
|
|
you expect anyone entering that community not to start making demands.
|
|
Have another look at [that craigslist ad](http://static.happyplace.com/assets/images/2011/10/4e935baa48979.png),
|
|
I think it's on point because he points out "everyone will love you."
|
|
Everyone should feel a profound debt to everyone else who helps out.
|
|
Beer should be bought. Invitations to parties should be given. But
|
|
you need your dues—and ticket sales, if you have those—to pay for
|
|
things you can't get from volunteers, like insurance, paint, photocopies, and
|
|
tape.
|
|
|
|
Sure, the presentation is going to suffer when you get out-of-focus or
|
|
poorly-framed photos, amateurish artwork, and web sites that look like
|
|
Geocities in 1997; or maybe you'll luck out and find [a talented artist
|
|
who loves the sport](https://secure.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/3715669736/).
|
|
But the skater-run, non-professional feel of small
|
|
town derby is one of its distinguishing characteristics, and makes
|
|
fans feel connected to the team. You want skaters who are doing it
|
|
for the love of the game, why not ask the same of your other
|
|
volunteers?
|
|
|
|
You might want create a "volunteer policy" that you share with everyone.
|
|
Here's a start, feel free to use this or base something new off it:
|
|
|
|
> Thank you for offering to help with our league! Because we have
|
|
> a tight budget, we can't afford to spend money on anything that can
|
|
> be done by volunteers, even if the quality is less than professional.
|
|
> We rely heavily on our volunteers in order to bring the sport to our
|
|
> fans, and we are truly grateful to everyone who helps us do so!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Conclusion
|
|
----------
|
|
|
|
People have different ideas about how they want their work to be used.
|
|
Some want to be paid. Some just want credit. Still others want to
|
|
make sure nobody makes money. Small town leagues usually don't have
|
|
the money to pay anybody, so to avoid hurt feelings later on, you need
|
|
to be very clear about this right from the start.
|
|
|
|
Understand that some folks are going to say you're being unreasonable.
|
|
But it's better to get a little of this early on, than to deal with the
|
|
big drama that will crop up later once it's clear to everybody what
|
|
everybody else expects.
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------
|
|
|
|
* 2012-Sep-18: Added the paragraph about photographers, and a few links
|