MariaLoikkii

This post is about licences: I've noticed that many stock providers have licenced their stock under CC BY-SA -licence.
Which says:

"This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects."

My attention is on the sentence "All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use."

I've been reading the licence -text, also the legal version of the text. Have to say that this is a bit hairy stuff.

My question is that if I make a piece of art, for example a photomanipulation, and partly use stock which is licenced under this SA-licence, what does this mean for my artpiece? Does it mean than that anyone can copy or/and sell it? Do I have an obligation to share it? The licence says that my artpiece will also be under SA-licence, because I've used stock which has been put under SA-licence.

I love the idea on SA-licence: I use Wordpress, which to my understanding is based on this licence, as is the whole Open Source -sharing. I love it and applause for it.
But concerning individual artpieces the SA-licence raises questions. And yeah, I've been reading the legal text where it does something about the copyrights in the first section where the definitions are:

Section 1 - Definitions
d. Copyright and Similar Rights means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section 2(b)(1)-(2) are not Copyright and Similar Rights.

Section 2 – Scope.

License grant.

1. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:
   1. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and
   2. produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material.
2. Exceptions and Limitations. For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.

This implies that an individual art piece is ruled out of the licence influence based on copyrights, even though material under SA-licence would have been used as stock. But is it so?

Any thoughts on this?

I just would like to know has anyone any experience or legal viewpoints on this so that it would be clear what does it mean for the art piece if someone uses stock which is licenced under SA-licence.

Ps. I found this: How to use a work with a Share Alike licence

The Rules, the Rules! Here they are

The material on my Deviant Art stocks is unrestricted for all the artists inside and outside of Deviant Art, and unrestricted for non-commercial and commercial projects. Use it the way you need.

If you represent a commercial company and are collecting free material, go somewhere else. This material is NOT for commercial enterprises or multinational companies, like newspaper or news companies/enterprises, or commercial magazines, marketing companies and enterprises. You can afford to pay people for the material you need. Make sure you pay decent fees.

For me one artist trying to make a living or a group of artists trying to make a living by working together in co-operation is not a commercial enterprise. So all this here is for You. Make use of it the way You need. I hope I can provide more within time.

If you need stock/resources from my account but are unsure "if I approve" you as an artist (for example "one person running a private publishing company and in need of pictures for the book covers etc." or "one person running a small culture magazine which needs pictures") send me a note and ask.

And I do approve both by the way, as long as you mention the source of the picture, which is a standard procedure anyways making a book or a magazine! Faster way to contact me is to email me at sielunmaisemia(a)gmail.com. Just ask, I won't bite.

Crediting:

As I said above, it is a standard procedure especially in commercial use to state the source of the picture, because doing otherwise implicates that the picture is "taken by the publisher him/herself" and that is considered an act of stealing if one actually uses a photograph taken by a another person. It is a standard procedure to mention the source of the picture and the name of the photographer when using the picture as it is without any modification, like publishing it in a magazine or in a newspaper.

The idea of a free unrestricted stock photo is that it is "a stock photo which can be used for an artwork and be freely modified by the artist". The artist is free to use the stock photo as she/he needs, without having to think about permissions regarding the use of the photograph. This act constitutes the USE of a stock photo.

There is a world of difference in working with a stock photo like this and in "just taking a stockphoto and publishing it such as it is", which is an act of stealing.

All the photos on this stock are taken by me, and if edited, it is done by me. Most of the photos are unedited because unfortunately I don't have time for making clear cuts.
All the brushes are made by me.

*Selling, re-selling or redistributing of my material is NOT allowed! *
Redistribution or selling of my stock is an act of stealing.

Crediting in DA, meaning leaving a feedback to under the stock image in question, is highly appreciated. And I think it's only fair: someone lets you use their resources, so it's fair to let them know what has been done with the resources

Enjoy making Your art and bringing Light into this world!

Maria

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Edit 26.04.2016: If you want to make stock out of my stock, for example brushes, ask first.

At the moment I am considering allowing it under CC BY-SA -licence which means that the stock created with my stock must be shared forward under the same licence. And I add to that it must be shared for free, without asking for payment. Stock and everything created with this stock can be used commercially meaning that one can sell individual artpieces created with this stock but cannot sell the stock itself. Once the licence is applied it cannot be revoked (so it's not possible that one person could later on take all the rights to his/her new stock and not share it - even I can't do it if I apply this licence). The licence obligates sharing all the stock with the original CC BY-SA conditions and with the possible additions the original creator of the stock has set, in this case me as I have made the stock.

Under these terms I can consider giving permission using my stock to make stock - with the exception that clearly individual artpieces created with this stock have their own recognizable copyrights and the sharing obligation of the licence does not apply to these artworks. So that everyone has right to do what they want with their artpieces, even sell them. But no-one has the right to sell the original stock or the derivations made with my original stock.

The original CC BY-SA licence also obligates always to tell if the stock and it's derivations have been made under this licence. This is how the people using this stock know that they are obligated to apply the licence as well. And also to give credit to the original source of the stock. So if and when making and sharing stock under this licence it means that the person sharing the stock should always clearly mention that the stock is under CC BY-SA licence, and also mention the original stock creator.

So I'm thinking about this, we'll see how it goes. In the meantime if you want to make stock out of my stock consider what it means and then contact me: this is how it propably will go, and that when you share your stock, you need to credit me and mention that this CC BY-SA licence is applied. Basically you have no obligations to explain to anyone what the licence means, but I think it would be appropriate to link to Commons Creatives webpages.

Edit:

Have to say that the Rules in this community amazes me: people make this wonderful material and they share it. And yet they put all sort of rules in that "open sharing" (it's not really open if you say take this tool or photo and then you've hidden your rules somewhere and it says in the rules "that in order to use this tool you have to do this, this and that").

And when talking about commercial use many say "note me" if you want to use it outside DA.
But when you send a note, you never get an answer. This seems really odd and makes me think is all this really necessary.
I think it's okay "if you put up rules and expect people to follow them, but if you're never there and don't answer the messages you don't keep your end of the bargain.".

So this is why I want to share my stuff with artists without restrictions: you are free to use the pictures the way you see fit, and you don't need to wait around for answers to the notes you ever needed to send