For the blog: Research and discuss legal and copyright issues in design and art AND project proposals for design.
Make sure you have any assignments complete and in the the drop off or on the blog (as applicable)for mid term grading.
Be prepared to start in class a final design project proposal for this class (we will discuss individual needs based on each person's major and level in program).
Thanks, Off you go.
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Meh, I've been lookin' for some time now and I'm not findin' the type of thing I'm lookin' for, but maybe I'm not lookin' for the right thing, so I'll just post what I found. ^______^;;
So, to define copyright, it's something that exists for not just one, but two important reasons. The first is to protect an artist's rights to something they created so it can't be stolen or used without his or her consent. The other is to encourage artists to continue to be creative and develop new art and not fear that someone is gonna yoink their junk and lol at them.
I read that a "work of art is protected by copyright as soon as the artist creates a work of art." I'm not sure if this is bullhockey or what, cuz we still have people who mail their artworks to themselves in an attempt to use the postmark to establish the date, which by the way, I also read that that too is a BS because "the United States Postal Service does not require an envelope to be sealed before it is mailed."
So how long does a copyright last? 70-75 years after the guy/lady who created the work's death. If any of you ever wondered why when you go to a restaurant and it's someone's birthday and the chefs and waitresses come out and start singing "Happy Birthday to You" all screwed up and it sounds like crap and nothing like the real song, it's because there's actually a copyright on the song prohibiting its use like that. The copyright is going to expire in the year 2030, even though the song's melody was created by two sisters who were teachers at a school in Kentucky back in 1893. It was Not created as a birthday song, but rather a simple class greeting song that says "Good Morning to All" instead of "Happy Birthday to You." In the USA, the "Summy Company" (whoever they are) copyrighted the song in 1935 "as an arrengement by Preston Ware Orem." I know 1935 + 75 doesn't = 2030, but 2030 is still the year when we may finally hear non-WTF versions of the Happy Birthday song when we go to restaurants.
Oh yea, and here are the links where I got my above stuff from. ^___^;
Happy Birthday stuff
What's a copyright and stuff
mailing to urself = bull
As for the Project Proposal thing, I'm not finding what I thought I was gonna find for that either. Ughn.. I guess I suck today. Aaanyway, the stuff I find for Project Proposals are all things related to clients. It just feels like it's wrong cuz that's what we wrote about a week or two ago. But again, I'll post what I found.
The first place I went to just had some stuff I mentioned before, such as being professional, but they also said to make sure to provide a Satisfaction Guarantee. I completely disagree with that. I mean, if you're this big huge company, or you're reaching out to a buttload of people, then maybe you can provide that satisfaction guarantee, but if I'm struggling to find clients among the sea of competition, I don't see myself giving others the opportunity of saying "Actually, I don't like this anymore. Gimme my money back." Sure, I agree with him when he said that the majority of the clients will not be turning around and asking for their money back, but there will always be those who want to play the game, and I don't think I'm gonna have the time, or much less the will to fool around with that. It will make me look more confident in myself and in my work if I do that, and it will also show that I am primarily concerned with the satisfaction of others, but I simply don't believe that it will weigh out the suckness that is a client wanting his money back after I have completed an entire project for him. But hey, that might just be my personal opinion, because everyone who commented on that guy's Project Promosal outline thing only had great things to say about it. I was expecting to see others like me ranting and saying, "Wow, are you serious??" -__-;;
Other than that, the project proposal was pretty similar to the Designing for Clients thing. I guess that shouldn't be too unexpected after all. The other stuff I read was that we should ask the client many questions and make sure that they are not vague with their answers by asking for clarification so that we know exactly what they want. After we gather that info, we should summarize what we're gonna do with the project, and then create a "to-do list" for organization. (just like the Designing for Client thing said to create a "timeline" for the convenience of both ourselves and the clients). But when it comes to the timeline with the project proposal and the deadlines, this guy suggested that we "overestimate, but gently." I actually think that this can be good because it will not only take some stress off of us, but if we stay dedicated to the project, we will likely finish Much earlier than the deadline, and the client is likely to love us That much more. <3 But he also says to not overestimate TOO much, because if you do, people will start to think that you suck and it takes you hours to do something that takes someone else minutes to accomplish.
Ha, and one last thing that made me laugh when reading the stuff at that website (I'll post the link below), is that he said we should write and format professionally when typing up your project proposal. Hehe, basically, don't write how I've been writing in this blog. ^___^;; Don't mispell stuff, have grammatical errors, or type stuff like you're on an Instant Messenger or cell phone. Like, totally.
Linky.
Not particularly related to this week's blog, but an awesome article none the less. Check it out:
http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/sound-design.html
Copyright Law protects such works as videos, Digital media paintings,Drawings, writtings, and much more. Anything that is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression" quilifies for copyright protection.
Any piece of work must be original, that is, independintly created by the author. It doesn't matter if an author's creation is similar to existing works, or even if it is arguably lacking in quality, ingenuity or aesthetic merit. So long as the author toils without copying from someone else, the results are protected by copyright.
No underlying idea is protected by copyright, only original and creative expression, not the ideas or facts upon which the expression is based. Ideas can not be monopolized, if they were it would undermine copyrights in creating and copyrighting new works.
As long as a person or company maintans creativity in their work, no issues will be apperant. Researching the copyright.gov web site and doing a little footwork in relation to the design you are working on befor you design your main project, will help you avoid any copyright issues.
Can anyone confirm breaking copyright law for educational purposes, is fact or not?
While researching about copyright laws for art i stumbled upon the same article as Roberto so i tried to avoid it and found two other sites that contradicted that site.
First site was dictionary.com where they gave the deffinition for copyright as the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video. It then goes on to say that works will remain copyrighted until 50 years after the person death of the artist. Which in the first site said 70 - 75 years after the artists death.
I also went to http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html
where it says in order for one to copyright their work of art one must mail a copy of the work of art a two completed application forms VA and CON and a $45 payment to register of copyrights and mail the envelope or package to the Library of Congress. The site then goes on to say that your work will be copyrighted the day that the office recieves your envelop or package with everything filled out. It then takes roughly six months before you get certificate of your copyright.
As far as researching about project proposals for design found a cool site http://tutorialblog.org/writing-a-project-proposal/
The site breaks down how to go about wrighting a proposal and highlights what should be included in your proposals. The site for starts off by telling you to make sure to ask questions so that you know exactly what your proposing. Then it tells you to summarize the project, make a to do list, split the project into phases, create a timeline, give a satisfaction guarantee, end with a call to action, and lastly wright and format professionally
One copyright issue I found is when you're modifying something (i.e. a website most likely) that another developer originally designed. That Original developer probably owns the rights to that design and thus creating derivative works of this design is copyright infringement. Modifying or changing what they made falls under the derivative works label.
I order to get around this you would have to have the original developer's permission, have them sign the rights over to the client, OR have them sign only certain rights over to the client (enough for you to change what you need to change.)
Here's some stuff from a website I found of a few things that can happen:
Derivative works: You're a "Dilbert" fan. (Who isn't?) You're an especially big fan of Catbert, Evil H.R. Director. You create a fan site for Catbert, and you link to the image of every "Dilbert" strip featuring Catbert that you can find at http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert, so that these strips appear on your pages. Friend, you've just created a derivative work, and the lawyers from United Media will soon be breathing down your neck.
Reverse passing off: Take the Dilbert example above. Only this time, when you link to the Catbert strips, you include an introductory paragraph suggesting that they are your own original works. Or you just post 'em on your site with no attribution, so that a third party viewing your site (a particularly dense third party, in this instance) may well believe the strips are your original work.
Defamation: Just because some shortsighted politician killed a funding bill that would have meant an increased allocation for local library services does not mean that you can create a link to his legislative page from your site using words that insinuate he is a pedophile.
Trademark infringement: You decide to create a Harry Potter page for your youth services department site. You think it would be a good idea to link to the image of the Harry Potter shield logo at http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/web/platform/index.jsp so that it appears on your page. AOL Time Warner's attorneys would beg to differ with you. (Disclaimer: Although I am not a lawyer, I am an AOL Time Warner employee, and they have lots and lots of lawyers.)
Deep linking: You have a community calendar of events on your Web site. One of the upcoming events is a rock concert for which tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Good librarian that you are, you seek to facilitate access to the key information by linking directly to the page on Ticketmaster's site that announces the concert. You soon find out that Ticketmaster has lots and lots of lawyers, too. (Heck, they even sued Microsoft: http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dlip/tick.html.) Ticketmaster doesn't like it when its home page, with its rich collection of advertising and links to affiliates, is bypassed.
There was another thing about framing but I didn't understand it so I didn't put it up.
Wikipedia Definition of Copyrights:
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other, related rights. It is an intellectual property form (like the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret) applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete.
Copyright initially was conceived as a way for government to restrict printing; the contemporary intent of copyright is the promoting the creation of new works by giving authors control of and profit from them. Copy rights have been internationally standardized, lasting between fifty to a hundred years from the creator's death, or a finite period for anonymous or corporate creations; some jurisdictions have required formalities to establishing copyright, most recognize copyright in any completed work, without formal registration. Generally, copyright is enforced as a by civil matter, though some jurisdictions do apply criminal sanctions.
I found a website that is really in depth on copyright issues for many things that include music, movies, and internet rights, as well as some other things.
Copyright for your eyes. When we look at copyright in the visual domain, we see movies, television shows, photographs, sculptures, and artwork. We also see things that form the basis for such works, such as screenplays, teleplays, and blueprints. The hot issue here - trying to mix all of the above without infringing someone's copyright.
Heres that one site
http://www.benedict.com/Default.aspx
Copyright
Copyrighting can be simply defined a action or document that protects a particular idea, or creation for others who want to use the same idea or creation without any acknowledgement or compensation towards the designers of that idea or creation. Often a business will copyright a particular thing in order to protect it from being recreated under a different brand or name, however some business will confuse copyright law. An interesting quote I found from a particular website states that they describe the differences between copyright and trademarks, “Trademarks identify source. They are intended to help consumers distinguish your product or service from a competitors’ product or service and assure that other businesses don’t try to profit from your good name. Copyrights, by contrast, protect an actual creative product. For example, a Harry Potter book is a creative work covered by copyright. The name of the character “HARRY POTTER” may also be a trademark identifying a series of books and related products.
Copyrights cover creative works themselves, whereas patents cover products and processes that “do” something useful. Trademarks identify the source of such products or services. For example, Microsoft might patent a new computer software based on its ability to perform certain functions. It will have copyright protection for the software’s source code. It might also obtain a trademark on the name of that software.”
So an example of a trademark would be the logo or brand name that is placed on the item so that one can identify the source, and a copyright is the documentation that protects the item from being duplicated and reproduced illegally from an outside company.
Copyright laws don’t protect the thought or process that went into created the “thing”, but they will allow the user to protect his “thing” from other people who want to copy the exact same “thing”. A person is free to go about creating the same type “object” only revised in their our methods, words, and outcomes. Other people have the ability of copying an idea, but redesigning it so that it is their own creation, but still similar to the copyrighted design.
Website for the quote:
http://library.findlaw.com/2000/Nov/1/127856.html
copyright and trademark PRINCESS!!!!
Click these and be educated…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ekUPHSxVXk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh9T5yhc3Z0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBfsAf3hnug&feature=related
Project Proposal:
A project proposal is a way in which one gets ready to design a particular idea. The person might identify the history of origins of the idea, references, the idea description and how it may function or relate to something else. It can also be described as an idea description that requires approval usually from a organization or business.
I found this one website that talked about designing a proposal through a collection of steps and sub-steps, I will mention the basic steps and provide the link at the end. They talked about identifying, design concepts, design specifications, procedures and methods, budget, the objectives of the project, and finally the appendices.
Site goes more in depth:
http://www.bre.umd.edu/Courses/ENBE485&486/Proposal.html
Also I looked at the link posted by Joshua and found some interesting info at the bottom talking about precautions one could take. Here they are…
1. Pre-Screen Your Clients - To save both you and your clients time and energy, it’s important to be sure that they are as informed and as prepared as possible before they contact you. This is where your website can step in and do its job. After they’ve browsed through your portfolio and decided to go for a price on your services, it’s important that you provide a clear path to follow. Create a page specifically for those interested in working with you. Outline the types of projects that you do and the processes that you use. Don’t hide your prices. As well as offering an hourly rate and flat rate estimates for various project types, I recommend mentioning that you’re always open to creative negotiations. You can often end up with “free projects” that more than pay what you would have charged them.
2. Respond Quickly - While not always possible, when you’re able to, respond to your prospective and active clients immediately. If you have an expected delay, let them know that you plan to be unavailable. Be punctual with all your appointments and make sure that you meet your deadlines. If you miss a deadline and you’re at fault, take a hit on your earnings. This will let the client know that you mean what you say and it will also help you to make sure it doesn’t happen again
by: Joseph Kresz
Game Art and Design
Brian's site on the blog website is a very good and basic example of how to go about a project proposal. I also reference this site.
(Ken beats me to the post by one freakin minute, *sigh* jk)
first off it sucks being one of the last after everyone has already posted a bunch of info, so i'll make an attempt to respond.
from the over all sound of it nothing is really protected as the simple idea or representation of an idea can easily be changed by the smallest amount and be reregistered. All we can do as creative minds is attempt to add to the world what we can and hope that what we do won't be stolen, or at least stolen completely.
One thing that is very topical at the moment is is the selling of M-rated games to minors. It is illegal to sell an M-rated game to a person under the age of 18. Regardless, the people who choose to believe that games like the Grand Theft Auto franchise point their fingers at the game developer/publisher. When I child obtains a game that is clearly not meant for him or her to whom does the legal liability fall? It most certainly does not fall only Rockstar Games or Take Two Interactive. They are not responsible for where the game ends up once it leaves their factories, especially with the ESRB ratings board, sales clerks, and parents between there and kids' hands.
I feel video game emulators violate copyright laws. The article I researched brought up some very valid points. It can be found at:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/cls99/sempaper/brick331.html
The author, Matt Brick tells his audience of certain instances in which major companies have sued smaller more independent ones for the illegal use of their material. One such case mentioned dealt with a company called Coleco. They were responsible for ColecoVision which was a video gaming system with very few games. Since Atari was their main rival at the time, the company came out with a $60.00 adapter for their gaming machine which allowed the user to play every Atari game on their console. Although they were taken to court by Atari for the violation of copyright and patent laws, the company surprisingly won the case.
I personally feel that the use of emulators is a major slap in the face to all the designers, artists, and programmers of each video game. Many feel that they are just playing the same exact game and no harm is done, however, they are actually violating the law. Video game companies not only make money off the games they sell, but also off the consoles that need to be used in order to play the video games in the first place. If you take away that medium then there is no point to even buy the system, which in turn cheats the company out of a lot of money.
Matthew Garbatini
Game Art & Design
The copyright protections are important for us artists since we could show our work to a possible client and if you let them they might show it to a third party who would reproduce a similar design to yours and end up not giving you the jub but they still have your ideas. There are alot of people out there that are trying to save money so they might be more apt to take what they can get. The website on the syllabus for the Proposal has a good copyright to put on your written work.
Copright gives creators exclusive right to created materials for 50 to 75 years depending on the media used, then after such time the media fall into an "open market" allowing anyone to use the copyright material without the owners permission unless the owner re-registers they copyright material. Controlling owner of copyrights can trade over all copyright material to another owner an exchange for royality check of used copyright materials.
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