Joanna Blackhart
@joannablackhart@tech.lgbthey yall I need some help
i'm cooking up some cool shit for 2023 & i kinda need some #accessibility #a11y input.
I'm thinking about ©'ing some of my accessibility stuff into public domain.
SPECIFICALLY to make sure corps can't © my work.
I would REALLY like some input because I'm torn about this.
I don't want to copyright my work.
But I also need it to be free. I don't want any corporation saying "yeah, this is ours, others cant use it"
I hate I even have to think about this.
Thoughts?
@joannablackhart @zkat I feel like you might have Thoughts about that kind of things
@zkat@toot.catYeah. Copyright can be a really powerful tool that works in your favor here. Are you aware of Creative Commons already? That would prevent a few abuses that putting things directly in the public domain would allow corps to do. For example, CC-BY-SA creates a free shared commons, CC-BY makes sure they need to at least attribute you, etc. Even without Creative Commons, you can literally put just about any licensing restrictions on who gets to use your work and how. (Note: I am not a lawyer, and DIYing this sort of thing is not a good idea but there might be examples out there that you can just reuse)
Copyright has been turned into this really nasty monster by corporations that abuse it and lobby to make it last longer than it ever should have, but it’s ok to use it to our own advantage to *defend* ourselves, our communities, and our commons from companies that would abuse our content. And in the end, public domain gives corporations the most freedom to exploit your content for their own profit (including selling it themselves, with slight modifications, and completely preventing others from doing the same to their modified one)
@zkat @Eramdam @joannablackhart Creative Commons was going to be my recommendation too. CC-BY-NC-SA, perhaps?
@joannablackhart @saltire I think Creative Commons licenses ( https://creativecommons.org/choose/ ) are what you want here. Everything you make is automatically copyrighted by you, but that’s a two edged sword: you can prevent people using it legally, but you can also permit people to use it, you’re the copyright holder, it’s your choice. A CC license is basically an easy to construct modular legally sound document specifying what you do and do not permit other people to do with your work.
@joannablackhart @saltire (this gets way more complex if your work is derivative of someone else’s work, which is why fanfic is legally complicated)
Joanna Blackhart @joannablackhart@bazzalisk @saltire thank you for the info.
and my works are not derivatives so i will take solace that im not writing fanfic 
@joannablackhart You are now my special hero!!!
@dean@urusai.social@joannablackhart Obviously, IANAL and don't know the full context behind your issue. But, if your stuff is in the public domain, corps can't say that it's theirs. It's a bit of a misconception caused by a photographer losing a court case with Getty. The court case was simply saying that the artist couldn't stop Getty from charging for using the photographer's works (which were in the public domain); it was not saying that Getty owned the copyright for the photographer's work
Joanna Blackhart @joannablackhart@dean this is *another* thing i'd like to avoid and a good argument for me to *not* put it in 'public domain' but instead a creative commons licence.
because i dont want corps charging for using my work.
@dean@urusai.social@joannablackhart I like creative commons for this purpose as well. Corps can still use your work, but they're required to attribute it to you. A great example of this is Kevin MacLeod's music which is pretty popular.
It's also entirely possible to treat individuals/businesses entirely differently too if that's what you're looking for. You could make your material free-to-use by individuals, but require businesses to pay for it. Not sure if there's any easy, pre-made licenses for it, though.
@dean@urusai.social@joannablackhart It's important to know that even with creative commons, I believe corps can still re-sell your work. However, they do have to attribute it to you. You might need your own license if you want to prevent them from doing that.
Joanna Blackhart @joannablackhart@dean i do all of my work on sliding scale. i *do* charge corps a *lot* for my services while working cheap-to-free for individuals.
i would like my CCs to work the same way.
@dean@urusai.social@joannablackhart Perhaps you could look at CC-BY-NC which is a CC license that only allows non-commercial use. This means individuals can use it for free for non-commercial use, but need to give attribution. Might be what you're looking for: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Joanna Blackhart @joannablackhart@dean you are the second person to recommend that *exact* license to me, and that means i need to look real hard into it
@dean@urusai.social@joannablackhart It's pretty good from what I understand. My only concern (as with many CC/Public Domain/Open Source licenses) is that, say, hate groups can use your work as long as it's for non-commercial purposes.
Might be good to add a clause saying that your work additionally cannot be used for violence/hate groups/politics/etc if that's something you care about.
Joanna Blackhart @joannablackhart@dean the very nature of my work is something that hate groups oppose by default and avidly avoid 
(i'm an accessibility designer)
but yes i'll keep that in mind
@joannablackhart Interesting answers here. I'm Commenting so I can see all answers. I copyrighted some stuff years ago. Working on new writing website and hopefully an eBook.
@joannablackhart A non-commercial clause and public domain don't sound compatible to me, but I'm sure there are several solid options for you to distribute your material without companies profiting from your work. I'm not an expert with #licensing, but perhaps consider CC-BY-NC-ND as a starting point in your search:
@joannablackhart I am not a lawyer, I am not *your* lawyer.
If your work is similar to software, there are a variety of licences that you can grab for free and apply to your publications. The GNU GPLv3 is probably the harshest on corporate work.
If your work is not similar to software (audio, visuals, ...) Creative Commons is the current standard, with a bunch of different licences giving all sorts of obligations, including forbidding commercialisation. CC-0 is the closest to "public domain".
@joannablackhart That being said, while licences can _prevent_ companies from doing certain things with your work:
* It does not prevent them from using your work at all. They can still use it without publishing it (e.g. internally), they can publish it behind a legal smokescreen (*cough* AI art *cough*), ...
* Licences can only be enforced in court. The legal systems are not designed to protect small, individual creators.