Video Pre-Announce

Hi everyone.

I am planning on posting a video this coming Friday April 28, 2006 barring any problems. I have gotten permission after permission and thanks to the entire community for their patience and kindness.

I am intent on releasing the video under the attribution noncommercial share-alike creative commons license. This will allow others to take parts of my video and use them in their own works as long as they attribute the original video, make it noncommercial and release it under the same license as the one I have used. Those are the rules of that particular license. There are other creative commons licenses that do allow for commercial licensing of samples used from an original work. Normally I would prefer to license mine in a manner similar to the GPL, but I am choosing this one at this time.

A warning: In the spirit of being open and forthcoming I just want it to be known that someone could take pieces of this video and alter them to show someone or something from it in a very negative light. I believe that is the potential with many works though, not just this video. Plus people do have freedom of speech and can be critical of whatever they like. But since the licensing requires anyone using pieces of this video attribute the original source and with the other stipulations of the license, I would hope others would then look at the source of any derivative made and be able to see how someone took and altered the original. And furthermore, something like parody is protected, at least in the USA as far as I know.

But if anyone who was at that April 1 meeting, or who knows otherwise that they will be in this video and does not wish to be, please contact me either by sending me an IM here or in SL world and I will see if we can either work out a reasonable arrangement or if it is too problematic, I can scrap the video and try another project at another time.

That said, I do hope that people will give this a chance and let it be published. It is not very cinematic in it's quality. It is intended to highlight using all open source tools in the development of a video. Maybe hopefully will inspire someone else to see that one can create neat videos using open source software. It is my opinion that despite limitations open source graphics/video software can still make some neat creations. Thanks for your time all.

You asked at the meeting (several times) everybody agreed to and knew that you were doing some filming, and that the intention was to publish it on the web.

I really don't expect anybody to have a problem

Sorry everyone, but I have decided to scrap the video unless I can find a way to get in touch with everyone from that April 1 meeting to get permission from each and every person whose avatar potentially appears in the video. Those of you who have responded to my IM's have all indicated you are fine with being in the video and the video being licensed under creative commons licensing and I thank you all. Unfortunately, there are a number of avatars in the various shots in the video, more than have responded regarding my requests for permissions.

I haven't given up though and have started working on another project using a green screen. The only permission required in these is my own. I think when I do video groups again, I will ask for volunteers willing to be part of a video licensed under creative commons licensing that is similar to the GPL licensing to gather someplace where the owner will not mind including her/his site in my video and does not mind the licensing that I wish to apply.

My apologies for my errors here. I think being so new here and realizing the exciting possibilities with video for Second Life, I excitedly dove in head first and cracked my head a few times instead of trying to first get my feet wet a bit. Second Life is very different and with each person's avatar and creations being copyrighted intellectual property as well I would rather take the conservative approach of knowing I have all my permissions set in advance. I am sorry I can't at this time share the video I made, it had a number of nice effects in it, meant to show how one can achieve nice results with open source software for someone who is willing to put forth some effort in doing so. Again, my apologies, and I thank all those who have been helpful with me as I stumble along here. Thank you.

P.S.: If I ever manage to get all the permissions necessary, I would love to post this very short film. In addition to the video footage from the meeting, I used creative commons audio sources and samples as well as public domain video for this production. Sorry.

Ummm.... this isn't France. Fashion designs aren't copyrightable. Ant the fact of the matter is: you can't steal an avitar from a person easier with video than just plain old immitation.
And I could go on a rant about how Intelectual Property isn't Property, but that's for another time.
If you need legal guidance, I suggest you talk to a leader of the Free Culture group or the CC HQ Team.
Regards,
Jesse, Free Culture member

Keep in mind this has to be done withen the SL TOS.

Rizz, if you need help chasing people up, IM me a list of names and I will help you tick them off.

I dunno, taking video in a public area of a group of avatars would likely not be a problem if the video is basically a recording of events. This is why news media doesn't have to get permissions from every person at a riot to show video footage. I would, however, not release it under a "do as you please with attribution" licence under any circumstances.

Why open yourself to potential problems? Simply release it under the "no edit without permission" licence (I don't remember the correct terms atm) . The thing about copyrights is the fact you have to defend them, it isn't automatic. You don't have to defend them if you choose not to but if someone does something totally egregious with your material you have a legal means of stopping them through copyright, whereas giving licences gives you no recourse as long as they stay within the licence.