Before announcing his page, Matt contacted me directly to ask about
proper copyright protocol. I gave him some pointers, but unfortunately
he didn't have time to make the changes before getting clobbered by the
public outcry.
It might be good to restate the often-made suggestion that, when
talking by email, we should always strive to assume the best about the
other person. Never attribute to malice what can be equally explained
by simple incompetence. If you are kind to someone, then someday
they'll be kind to you.
Solving the global conservation problem will require great trust and
forebearance among all the participants. To make true progress, we will
ocassionally have to trust the in the good intentions of our former
"enemies".
Think of the CP listserv as a training ground for international detente.
When we can pull it off here, then maybe our politicians will figure it
out too :-).
However, this brings up the question of what the copyright policy should
be for the CP database.
It has never been explicitly stated, but I've always assumed somthing
like the following:
CP Database Image Copyright Policy (Draft for Comment)
1) All copyrights are held by the original photographers.
2) By submitting an image to the database, the submitter certifies
that he/she is the copyright holder, and grants
to the CP Database project the right to make the images available
free of charge on the WWW. The submitter further grants
permission to the ICPS to use the images in derivative products -
any financial proceeds from such products to be used to further
the conservation and education goals of the ICPS.
3a) Third party use of all images for non-commercial use
(e.g., WEB page, class reports, conservation posters, etc) is
permitted as long as the original copyright statement from the
database photo caption is reproduced verbatim as an
acknowledgment.
3b) A possible alternative to 3) would be to allow users such
as Matt to simply make a statement that "All images are
courtesy of the CP database at http://...". This might make
the attribution problem a bit less tedious. - However, we'd
need to get agreement among all the contributors before making
this statement.
4) Commercial uses (other than by the ICPS) of the photos must be
cleared directly with the original copyright holder, as indicated
on the photo caption as it appears in the CP Database.
5) Any other specific restrictions stated on the photo caption
supercede and take precedence over this general policy statement.
That's an attempt to put my assumptions into legalese. Please feel
free to give me some feedback. Once we reach a concensus, I'll make sure
and post the statement prominently within the database.
Any comments?
I'm willing to go along with whatever the group likes.
My only suggestion is to make the pictures as widely usable as possible.
In a sense, these images are "our secret weapons" into the hearts and
minds of the public - the people who will either support conservation or
continue with the habitat destruction. We are currently getting about
7000 hits a month on the database, and it would be a shame to curtail
this wonderful source of PR by overly restricting the use of the photos.
Personally, I'm thrilled if some of my photos are used by other people
to promote CP. While it is nice to always be acknowledged and
appreciated, it seems far more important for the images to be widely
circulated. It would thrill me "to no end" to have one of my photos
become an anonymous cultural icon.
However, all the images remain the property of the original
photographers. The CP database can only make them available, with the
permission, and by the good graces of the contributors.
Please let me know your wishes,
-- Rick