Creative Commons and Airy Tales
Posted By Inflate123 on September 13, 2009
Airy Tales was originally going to be a for-profit venture, just to cover costs. I think the combined nature of the belief that “everything is free on the internet” and the inflation customer’s desire for anonymity makes this a losing battle, so I launched with a different concept and a lot less content. But if I’m a creator, shouldn’t I get something for my efforts? I think so — the answer is credit.
Recently, LutherVKane spotted a blatant case of plagiarism at Deviant Art — see BalloonFan’s original “Dark Red Hair” and its bold ripoff from the ironically named TheStoryWriter, dubbed “Her Dark Dark Brown Hair”. It occurred to me that even if you take credit for what you make, it’s only really given if people want to honor it. So, just out of a sense of feeling a little proactive, and to support the future of copyright in general, I’ve decided to add a Creative Commons license on Airy Tales. For instance, this license will cover everything posted on Airy Tales unless otherwise noted:
Airy Tales: Little Red Riding Hood And How She Became Not So Little by Inflate123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
It basically means that if you like it, you can send it to friends, post it on public archives, leave a printout in the hollow knot of the old tree in front of a spooky house — it’s officially free to distribute. The way I see it, I don’t have to fight piracy if I choose to give it away from the start. But that doesn’t mean there’s no copyright; it’s just a more sensible one. If you want to pass it around, you can — but you have to give proper credit to the file’s authors and origin (easiest if you don’t alter the file when you give it to someone, and most people don’t). And if you want to create your own version of on an Airy Tales work, you can do that too, so long as you a) still attribute the source material as above and b) don’t sell it.
I like this CC license; it’s fair to me as a creator, and, whether you want to put your own spin on something or simply want to share it with friends, it empowers you, too.
Also, this decision was not reached in a vacuum; I should have something interesting to post shortly!
Member of the inflatable fetish community since 1994
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