9.27.2007

which came first, the lawsuit or pain and suffering?

Hi all. Too little too late, I know.

But when someone so misunderstands law that they sue the creative commons for misuse of a CC licensed picture, I feel I must comment

Thanks to the filthy assistant for this link, which got me onto the trail.


The gist of it is, Virgin Australia misuses a picture that was CC licensed off of flickr. An image being free to use does not mean the model has signed a release for international promotional use. This is, as the French say, a big time mistake on the part of the mid to low-level internal promotions guy/gal at Virgin, who misunderstood the 'some rights reserved' approach as some kind of carte blanche -- take note, this is usually why happens when someone tries to make information free -- because business can't see freedom of use without seeing opportunity.

This is not the point, because a google search for 'flickr virgin australia' will explain enough opinions on this, in enough detail that I need not bother.

The issue is that the family, and moreover the lawyers they have hired, somehow think that the Creative Commons Foundation, or the EFF, or whoever is going to butt heads in court, either 1) has enough money to be worth suing, or 2) has ANY RELATION to the problem encountered.

If you take something as situation specific as a type of creator control license, and ignore the limitations, don't be shocked if issues arise. You don't sue the soap company because unwashed hands are dirty. You don't sue the Creative Commons because someone ignored another, vaguely related law.

When I read Lessig's Free Culture, he made the point that a society in which power comes from having enough money to lawyer issues out over the course of years is not all that just, at least in terms of people vs rich people, or people vs corporations. This is just another incident that makes me think law is an issue of throwing feces at the wall to see who will pay you a settlement first.

It's late and I'm tired, so I ask forgiveness on my lack of clarity, or my misunderstanding of any legal ramifications. Merci.

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