However, consider the cases like Illusion Mage 3D (putting aside their use of copyrighted art works for advertising). They aren’t violating the GPL, but they are still being unsavory and dishonest in certain ways. I think similar things can happen with Creative Commons licenses. People can follow the letter of the license, but still be misleading or otherwise sleezy.
I guess I just mean there are still circumstances where I think it makes sense to hold someone socially accountable for poor behavior, even if their behavior is within the letter of the law. Which I suspect you agree with as well, I’m just laying it out explicitly.
I absolutely agree that putting something under Creative Commons By is both explicitly and implicitly telling people that you’re okay with them using it for derivative works without asking permission–the license itself is giving that permission. There are other Creative Commons licenses that are appropriate if you want people to ask for permission first. Specifically, the Creative Commons no-derivatives license.
Come on, anyone asking for $251,000 - “twohundred and fifty-one thousand dollars!!” - without clearly stating how and with whom he’s planning to do this project is just silly.
mcla3d has never posted on this forum so we know nothing about him or his skills. If he posted some artwork on this forum or was a frequent contributor on this site or any other blender community I would think otherwise, but my spidey senses are tingling and I would advise any gullible person -I don’t think there are any on this site btw- that this would be a very, very bad investment. fortunatly no one has taken the bait and the counter is still at $0.
Given others have commented, at length, on the matter - I guess I’m free to do so as well. Here goes…
Frankly, I think the calls of “fraud” are a step too far. He hasn’t pretended to be the Blender Foundation, he hasn’t pretended the first Sintel movie was something he put together (as part of the Blender Institute or otherwise), and he hasn’t pretended that he can do just as good as they did. Hell, his pitch doesn’t even have enough information to say he’s overstated his teams abilities.
With that all said, I get the feeling this guy is just like some of the (many) folks that come onto the forums bright-eyed & bushy-tailed ready to make an open film with Blender and they’re looking for funding / team-members. This guy has just gone that one step further and made a Kickstarter. Naivety is not fraud and is much easier to spot. I think this guy is either woefully naive as to what goes into making a film, woefully naive in how to pitch for making a film, or both. Either way I don’t see it getting off the ground.
As for the legalities, my understanding is that the Creative Commons License is about copyright, which means the rigs, meshes, textures, scripts, music, and so on are all covered… but if the name ‘Sintel’ was trademarked, you’d still need permission to use it. Just as the code for Blender is all open-source but the name “Blender” is a trademark owned by the Blender Foundation. I don’t know if ‘Sintel’ is similarly protected, and if it isn’t there are no problems… but it is the kind of thing one should be checking BEFORE creating a Kickstarter campaign using it.
Releasing Sintel as an “Open movie” means that it is - surprise - an open movie. Quite funny that all the FOSS heads are up in arms about ‘copyright’ now. ROFLAMO!
If the effort and time he invested in creating that “funds breakdown” graph are any indication for the viability of this project, I project doom and gloom… (bad alignment & spacing, spelling mistake, etc.)
The chances of him successfully raising that money is slim at best, and with KickStarter you only get the money if you successfully reach your goal. If this were an IndieGoGo campaign, configured so that he keeps any money raised, then sure, that would be more suspicious. But as it is, this looks like a gung-ho fan who doesn’t fully understand everything that goes into making something like this successful.
If your definition of “FOSS head” effectively excludes reasonable people by definition, then sure. But I’m very pro-FOSS. Whenever reasonably possible, I avoid proprietary software. And so far all I’ve done is defend this person’s right to do what they’re doing.
As another member of the team, I agree with Cessen ^^^
This is indeed part of the deal with Creative Commons. It’s something I’ve long wondered about, especially with some of the more ethically dubious uses (have you seen the Big Buck Bunny slot machine? ugh). At least this project is an attempt to do something in the same spirit as the original.
But yeah, you really should supply a better outline of your plans, and some proof of your abilities.
I think it would be fairly reasonable to expect that if they had something to show and were competent, that this obvious logic would spill over into the other areas of the production to some degree at least. I think people who actually have worked in this business on a professional level or even students or non professionals who are actually able to show talent/promise, understand, at the very least, the concept of proving one self in the context of raising support, praise etc.
So I’d say there is a good chance that stating these obvious points - as I already wasted my time doing - lol… is well, a waste of time. This person is not even likely on the charts.
And further if they understood the first thing about internet marketing they’d be all over this thread with a mere 60 days to raise money.
So far complete silence which is certain death.
Meaning a) they have no clue at all about art as a professional endeavor and b) have no idea how to market something on the internet.
Likely they just folded after the first 2 posts. And we’ll never hear from them again.
We would not have to point these things out to people with the talent and ability to actually do something.
I personally think this guy is doing a cash grab, but it is an open movie. It would be nice if someone were to take the assets of Sintel and make something else (possibly in Cycles).
