The purpose of this diary is to refute the claim that submitting a logo or creative artwork to Bernie Sanders' creative contest is the same thing as publishing content to Daily Kos. I hope that in the comparison and contrast, you may learn more about creative licensing and what creatives should consider before submitting/turning over their product.
Diary in which the comments in question exist.
The purpose of this diary is NOT to further debate the merits or ethics of the creative contest in question...the diary linked to now has discussed it exhaustively.
While I'll not link to the specific comment(s), there are several in the above-linked diary that say, to paraphrase: 'Hey, I write for Daily Kos and they make money off of it...how is that any different?' (different than handing over creative product to the Sanders campaign with no restrictions, no ownership and no compensation).
Below is a review of the two T&C's, and I'll explain the difference.
Daily Kos T&C, the relevant section:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Site content written by community members belongs to the individual authors. Those authors are free to determine their own copyright. Currently, that copyright defaults to an open content (public domain) license. Authors are free to change that license at their own discretion.
Obviously, if you are posting on the site, you’ve given us permission to publish it. It’s kinda the point of the site. And by doing so, you also give us the right to further distribute that content in our affiliated outlets, like our Facebook page, email, etc. If you’ve got something worth reading, we’ll try and get more people to read it. Again, that’s kinda the point of the site.
Sanders' creative contest T&C:
TERMS & CONDITIONS: By submitting this form, I certify that I own all rights to any photos, images, designs or materials used in this work. By submitting this work, I agree to transfer all rights in this work to Bernie 2016 for the campaign to officially reproduce, in whole or in part, and to incorporate into other works. In adherence with campaign finance laws, I made this work on my own time, personally and not through use of any corporation’s materials or a limited liability corporation or partnership donating in any way. Additionally, I have not incurred any expenses related to the production of this work and I have not paid anyone else to assist me with creation of this work.
Who owns the work?
Daily Kos: the writer owns the work. See here:
Site content written by community members belongs to the individual authors. Those authors are free to determine their own copyright.
That means that the authors of anything published here still own that work, may copyright the work, and may continue to use it for their own personal advancement/profit/reprinting/reproduction.
The Sanders' Campaign T&C on the same topic:
By submitting this work, I agree to transfer all rights in this work to Bernie 2016 for the campaign to officially reproduce, in whole or in part, and to incorporate into other works.
That means the work is THEIRS. No.longer.yours. They may prevent you using it, profiting from it, etc. if you've submitted it to them under this contest.
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How do the two parties get 'paid' from your work?
Daily Kos:
Daily Kos sells ad space...apparently they sell it to both Google (which runs ads based on search and content algorithms) and will sell directly. In addition, they also take donations/memberships...which they have to claim with the IRS. Unless I'm missing something, they are not selling your content...there are no books published with diaries from Daily Kos, nor are they reproducing the content for sales profit.
Sanders' Campaign:
They make money on donations, gifts, and swag sales. For the contest in question, you are certifying that the art work you send them sn't even a donation, so they don't have to claim it as a contribution.
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IN SUMMARY:
Daily Kos sells ad space. They get more clicks because of the content you provide, but the content you provide is YOURS, and Daily Kos only reserves the right to republish it to their other sites, and they tell you this in no uncertain terms.
The Sanders creative contest takes ownership of ANY submission you send them; you no longer have the rights to it. They can place it on swag, electronic ads, combine it with other work, ANYTHING...and the original creator has no rights to use it themselves, claim ownership of it, nothing. The Sanders campaign can make a billion dollars off of your work (I don't know the laws but I assume the work would be transferred legally to a re-election campaign if he wins the Presidency and any action organizations he creates) and the artist(s) get nothing, and the Sanders campaign can legally stop the artist from attempting to use the work they submit to support themselves.
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The Sanders' campaign is not a big bad corporation looking to exploit workers, but it is important (especially for aspiring and professional creatives) to understand the difference between a T&C like Daily Kos' and a T&C like the Bernie contest. I don't think that the explanation above would scare off every artist and I would wager that the campaign already has thousands of submissions.
The diarist is a professional in the digital creative industry.