Don’t Be A Dick Public License for Digital Artwork

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After conversations online and witnessing various dramas, it seems pretty clear that common practice & belief with regards to IP and licensing is not only not in line with law, but is so far removed from it that it is unlikely standard IP rights will ever be respected in the public domain.

So I have adapted a public license from the open source programming community which I believe could help set some standards for using other people’s work without making it too complicated.

The original public license known as “Don’t be a dick public license” can be found here: http://www.dbad-license.org/

I welcome your feedback for improving this.

PS: If dick is too gendered, jerk may do but it didn’t seem strong enough

 

DON’T BE A DICK PUBLIC LICENSE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY, DIGITAL ARTWORK AND VIDEO

Do what you like with the original work, just don’t be a dick.

Being a dick includes – but is not limited to – the following instances:

  1. Not giving credit – ie failure to link back to the original work or at least name the creator
  2. Outright copyright infringement – copying the work and putting your name on it
  3. Making money off the work – this includes selling it as your own or using it for advertising, in commercial publications, to drive ad revenue on your site, etc or even to raise money for your charity
  4. Modifying the original work to misrepresent facts
  5. Using the original work to promote or support causes not supported by the content creator
  6. Cropping or photoshopping the work to remove watermarks

Special mention
7. Saying you don’t know who the creator is without making minimal effort like reverse image search or keyword search

 

Failure to compensate the creator – either simply by giving them credit, buying them a coffee or paying a proper commercial rate makes you a dick.

The easiest way to avoid being a dick is to ask the content creator for permission to use the work and then respect their response.

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