I got a response back on the query I sent to DA.
"We also require that you provide us with permission to allow a third party to handle your material; this is necessary primarily in the event that you wish to use our printing service. "
Then why not explicitly state this in the Sumbission Agreement? Right now it leaves DA open to do what they wish with artist's submissions.
Where in the FAQ did you read this? This is technically a mistatement that we should have corrected.
It should be noted that the Prints program IS, in fact, not something that can be done under the Submission Agreement alone - this is why we could not simply print your work and sell it without your involvement. But it is not an exception for the reason quoted above.
To answer your question about sublicensing more directly, deviantMOBILE is perhaps a better example. deviantMOBILE is a tool we provide to subscribers that allows them to make their art available to cell phones. In order to make this available, we worked with a company who helped us provide this technology for people. In order to do that - work with another company - we had to grant them a limited sublicense. Technically, they're the ones who are sending the art to phones, so they need to be granted the right to do so THROUGH us.
Sublicensing, when done correctly, is a transparent process. You won't realize when we're sublicensing your art because the reasons for which a sublicense is granted is completely integrated into the website. Therefore, should you decide to remove your art or terminate the Agreement, the sublicense is instantly terminated as well. Abuse of sublicensing is conspicuous, not to mention dangerous for us. If we tried to abuse that and were unable to immediately honor the Artist's termination of the agreement, we could be sued.
Next, there's this: "to cover the costs of our defense if someone claims that we do not have the right to so use the materials (or that you do not have the right to allow us to so use the materials)." So, if someone sees my gallery and thinks that my work is stolen and decides to try and sue DA for it, I am expected to pay any/all fees on DA's behalf? I highly doubt this would ever happen to me, but it still does not sit well with me.
That's not how that scenario plays out, but yes. You are responsibile for your artwork. If someone should try to sue us because we hosted your artwork for which you are responsibile, then you would be expected to pay for that. If you're not uploading stolen artwork, that wouldn't be a problem - a facetious copyright infringement suit against you or us would be thrown out and the plaintiff would probably be forced to pay for the defense. But if you ARE doing something culpable, then you would be responsible for paying our defense should your culpable usage result in legal action against us.
If DA sublicenses an artist's work (with or without the artist's consent), how can DA NOT be held responsible if the 3rd party does not comply with the original artist's wishes?
Because the agreement says we're not. But you have the wrong example in your head. We're not going to simple give/sell licenses to your art to the highest bidder. There's no sense in doing something like that, business or otherwise. Your art won't appear at other websites like DA just for the hell of it.
What you should be thinking of with regards to a clause like this is an affiliate program, like the one we used to have. We might start an affiliate program again.
Let's say you're a print seller, and I like your work. Under an affiliate program, I could open an affiliate store at dygel.net that displays your work and directs traffic to your DA store and hopefully helps sell some of your artwork. Because the affiliate store is at dygel.net, that would be a "third party website." What that clause says is that if you don't like me, deviantART will not MAKE me remove your art from my affiliate store. Similarly, we won't MAKE a user not post on someone's userpage, so long as they're obeying the rules. So, if you really wanted your art to not be available through my affiliate store, you would be responsibile for asking me.
Does that help clarify things?
--
E. A. Kolb - $dygel
Director, Artist Relations
Director, Contest Development
Product Manager, Internal Development
I responded back:
"""We also require that you provide us with permission to allow a third party to handle your material; this is necessary primarily in the event that you wish to use our printing service. "
Then why not explicitly state this in the Sumbission Agreement? Right now it leaves DA open to do what they wish with artist's submissions.
Where in the FAQ did you read this? This is technically a mistatement that we should have corrected."
I found that on this page, fourth paragraph. http://help.deviantart.com/226/
I understand that it would be detrimental for DA to do what it wished with artits' works and therefore highly unlikely that it would happen, but the Submission Agreement is worded in such a way that it leaves it open (or seems to)--that's really the main issue I have. Thank you for the response; it helped clear things up and I appreciate it.
-Becky Allen"
work wasn't so bad, except the high number of stiffs tonight.
To the guy that paid his tab with a $100 bill in front of my face and did not tip me a damn thing: Fuck you, you asshole. I hope after you die, you get reincarnated as a maggot.
And to the people that left me a 16 cent tip: What the fuck? You're just as bad as Mr 100-dollar-bill-guy. Fuckin A. I hate you. I know you come in every once in a while, and if I get stuck with you next time, you better belive you're gettingcrappy-ass less than stellar service. Same goes for the rest of you jerkwads that don't leave a tip. GRRR.
But to the people that only looked like white trash: My apologies for misjudging you when you first walked in. You were super polite. Your kids got a little annoying running around everwhere, but my manager was giving out free slushies to all the kids so I'm sure they must have had one heck of a sugar high. And thankyou thankyou for picking up the large chunks of food your kids had thrown on the floor. <3 <3 You rock.
"We also require that you provide us with permission to allow a third party to handle your material; this is necessary primarily in the event that you wish to use our printing service. "
Then why not explicitly state this in the Sumbission Agreement? Right now it leaves DA open to do what they wish with artist's submissions.
Where in the FAQ did you read this? This is technically a mistatement that we should have corrected.
It should be noted that the Prints program IS, in fact, not something that can be done under the Submission Agreement alone - this is why we could not simply print your work and sell it without your involvement. But it is not an exception for the reason quoted above.
To answer your question about sublicensing more directly, deviantMOBILE is perhaps a better example. deviantMOBILE is a tool we provide to subscribers that allows them to make their art available to cell phones. In order to make this available, we worked with a company who helped us provide this technology for people. In order to do that - work with another company - we had to grant them a limited sublicense. Technically, they're the ones who are sending the art to phones, so they need to be granted the right to do so THROUGH us.
Sublicensing, when done correctly, is a transparent process. You won't realize when we're sublicensing your art because the reasons for which a sublicense is granted is completely integrated into the website. Therefore, should you decide to remove your art or terminate the Agreement, the sublicense is instantly terminated as well. Abuse of sublicensing is conspicuous, not to mention dangerous for us. If we tried to abuse that and were unable to immediately honor the Artist's termination of the agreement, we could be sued.
Next, there's this: "to cover the costs of our defense if someone claims that we do not have the right to so use the materials (or that you do not have the right to allow us to so use the materials)." So, if someone sees my gallery and thinks that my work is stolen and decides to try and sue DA for it, I am expected to pay any/all fees on DA's behalf? I highly doubt this would ever happen to me, but it still does not sit well with me.
That's not how that scenario plays out, but yes. You are responsibile for your artwork. If someone should try to sue us because we hosted your artwork for which you are responsibile, then you would be expected to pay for that. If you're not uploading stolen artwork, that wouldn't be a problem - a facetious copyright infringement suit against you or us would be thrown out and the plaintiff would probably be forced to pay for the defense. But if you ARE doing something culpable, then you would be responsible for paying our defense should your culpable usage result in legal action against us.
If DA sublicenses an artist's work (with or without the artist's consent), how can DA NOT be held responsible if the 3rd party does not comply with the original artist's wishes?
Because the agreement says we're not. But you have the wrong example in your head. We're not going to simple give/sell licenses to your art to the highest bidder. There's no sense in doing something like that, business or otherwise. Your art won't appear at other websites like DA just for the hell of it.
What you should be thinking of with regards to a clause like this is an affiliate program, like the one we used to have. We might start an affiliate program again.
Let's say you're a print seller, and I like your work. Under an affiliate program, I could open an affiliate store at dygel.net that displays your work and directs traffic to your DA store and hopefully helps sell some of your artwork. Because the affiliate store is at dygel.net, that would be a "third party website." What that clause says is that if you don't like me, deviantART will not MAKE me remove your art from my affiliate store. Similarly, we won't MAKE a user not post on someone's userpage, so long as they're obeying the rules. So, if you really wanted your art to not be available through my affiliate store, you would be responsibile for asking me.
Does that help clarify things?
--
E. A. Kolb - $dygel
Director, Artist Relations
Director, Contest Development
Product Manager, Internal Development
I responded back:
"""We also require that you provide us with permission to allow a third party to handle your material; this is necessary primarily in the event that you wish to use our printing service. "
Then why not explicitly state this in the Sumbission Agreement? Right now it leaves DA open to do what they wish with artist's submissions.
Where in the FAQ did you read this? This is technically a mistatement that we should have corrected."
I found that on this page, fourth paragraph. http://help.deviantart.com/226/
I understand that it would be detrimental for DA to do what it wished with artits' works and therefore highly unlikely that it would happen, but the Submission Agreement is worded in such a way that it leaves it open (or seems to)--that's really the main issue I have. Thank you for the response; it helped clear things up and I appreciate it.
-Becky Allen"
work wasn't so bad, except the high number of stiffs tonight.
To the guy that paid his tab with a $100 bill in front of my face and did not tip me a damn thing: Fuck you, you asshole. I hope after you die, you get reincarnated as a maggot.
And to the people that left me a 16 cent tip: What the fuck? You're just as bad as Mr 100-dollar-bill-guy. Fuckin A. I hate you. I know you come in every once in a while, and if I get stuck with you next time, you better belive you're getting
But to the people that only looked like white trash: My apologies for misjudging you when you first walked in. You were super polite. Your kids got a little annoying running around everwhere, but my manager was giving out free slushies to all the kids so I'm sure they must have had one heck of a sugar high. And thankyou thankyou for picking up the large chunks of food your kids had thrown on the floor. <3 <3 You rock.
