Instructions - Killer Whale Hat

[Chance Marmalade]

Fair use.
Fair use is one of the most important, and least clear cut, limits to copyright. It permits some use of others' works even without approval. But when? Words like "fair" or "reasonable" cannot be precisely defined, but here are a few benchmarks.

Uses that advance public interests such as criticism, education or scholarship are favored -- particularly if little of another's work is copied. Uses that generate income or interfere with a copyright owner's income are not. Fairness also means crediting original artists or authors. (A teacher who copied, without credit, much of another's course materials was found to infringe.)

Commercial uses of another's work are also disfavored. For example, anyone who uses, without explicit permission, others' work to suggest that they endorse some commercial product is asking for trouble! Yet, not all commercial uses are forbidden. Most magazines and newspapers are operated for profit; that they are not automatically precluded from fair use has been made clear by the U.S. Supreme Court.
[Link]via Franklin Pierce Law Center

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.
[Link]via Wikipedia

Thanks for the great pics Fitz! That particular balloon would probably be one of the most requested out here in Seattle. We love our Orca pod!

[Bumbles]

Don't let them get you down Fitz, keep up the good work, I have learned a lot from your posts and every one that you have done I have always noticed that you gave credit to the person who did the original design.

[pixcoco]

Oh, not THEM. You mean HIM.

[BubbleGuy]

Hello Clowns,
BubbleGuy here. Daniel is the person with the Killer Whale hat idea. Ralph Dewey was in collaboration with Daniel. Ralph took the photos and wrote the text explaining how to make it. That is how the Balloon HQ column was created. Neither Daniel nor Ralph was asked by Fritzwilly if it was okay for their work to be taken from the Balloon HQ web page and placed on the Clown-Forum. Then Daniel wrote Fritzwilly an email discuss discussing some improvements about Daniel's design. Daniel assumed that Ralph or the Balloon HQ had given permission to use the hat instructions. Then Daniel asked Ralph if he knew anything about the hat instructions being placed on the Clown-Forum. He did not.

I was trying to point out that taking the work of others from the Internet and placing it on another web page is wrong. I contacted Patricia Bunnell and found out her comments about freely taking work from the Internet had been taken out of context. Check what I posted and you will find that I didn't say anyone on the Clown-Forum was passing off the work of others as their own. Nor was I attacking anyone. I was merely asking why they had used the material without permission.

The Princess of Bozonia asked me what my interest in this matter was and what I would like to see happen. Instead of having the Killer Whale hat instructions by Daniel on the Clown-Forum, place a link to the Killer Whale Hat column which is copyrighted on the Balloon HQ web page. I'm all for sharing ideas. In fact, I've written free balloon articles every month for the last seven years on the Internet. Material from my balloon books plus some of my Internet balloon photos have been taken and exploited. All without my permission. I'd like to see that stopped. By the way, when I'm not the BubbleGuy, I'm usually called Ralph Dewey. Now isn't that just duckie.

[The_Princess_of_Bozonia]

Ok BubbleGuy, you've got it. Fitzwilly just left Clown Chat for the evening, but tomorrow he'll replace the post with a link to BalloonHQ's page with the killer whale. (Unless someone else can find the link for me sooner? I don't have an account there.)

[magicgeorge]

BalloonHQ Columns - Ralph Dewey

The entire archive of all the balloonhq articles (including all of Ralph's) can be viewed, by all, here:

Balloon HQ - Archive of Past Columns

[Bumbles]

Originally Posted by pixcoco

Oh, not THEM. You mean HIM.

Right you are

[pixcoco]

Dewey: I think maybe you could have handled this a little better.

No credit was taken, no harm was intended.

Do you think it could have been resolved nicely and in privite?

I seems as if you are blaming Fitz because OTHER people use your work and take the credit. This has happened to all of us. It is part of being an artist. I accept this knowing those who imitate can never achive the quality I create. I would think you would too.

I don't believe anything negative was intended at all. I am sorry if you felt there was. Not as an apology for fitz, that is not my place. I'm sorry you have such negative feelings in your heart that you would seek to embarase someone publicly and needlessly. I have always known you to share your creativity and want the best for all around you.

This has bothered me all night because you have been an important person in my life for so long. I hope I am seeing this wrong and you did not intend to retaliate against Fitz for what others have done. I honestly believe he only intended to help others with no benifite to himself.

[Duckie]

Here is the apology that I sent to Mr. Dewey via a private e-mail earlier today and he asked me to publicly post it here, so here it is:

Hello there Mr. Dewey,

I just wanted to apologize for jumping on my soapbox the other day. I just felt badly for Fitzwilly, because I thought he had done what he was supposed to. I was under the (obviously mistaken) impression that if you gave credit to the creator(s) and had permission, that the post could be made.

I was under the impression also that permission had been granted. You have now corrected that information and I was wrong and sincerely appologize for my mistake. BubbleGuy just seemed to be presented as a new member that seemed to be looking to stir up trouble and we here at the forum (and I'm not speaking for anyone else here) have a tendency to protect each other.

I'm glad that they are fixing things for you and I hope you won't hold it against us. We are just always trying to help each other out, and I truly don't believe that it was done in anything but the spirit of trying to help others.

Thanks for listening. Sincerely,
Duckie the Clown
a.k.a. Cheryl A. Wolf

[Chance Marmalade]

Originally Posted by BubbleGuy

I was trying to point out that taking the work of others from the Internet and placing it on another web page is wrong. I contacted Patricia Bunnell and found out her comments about freely taking work from the Internet had been taken out of context. Check what I posted and you will find that I didn't say anyone on the Clown-Forum was passing off the work of others as their own. Nor was I attacking anyone. I was merely asking why they had used the material without permission.

I have been trying to hold back from posting anything further but with the request for a public apology (if I am not mistaken) from Duckie I really feel the need to comment on this.

BubbleGuy: Placing others work on a web page for purposes of scholarship is not wrong. It would be if the authors were not given credit but Fair Use (see my other post) covers Fitzwillys post. You can nicely ask for your stuff not to be posted but that's really all you can do. I am sure Fitz would have taken it down if you had made a polite request though.

You say you were not attacking anyone but how exactly did you feel your original post should have been answered? Could it have been fairly answered by Fitz? In my opinion no. To me, you publicly called out Fitz with a passive aggressive post and continue to post as if your behavior was perfectly acceptable. It wasn't.

I don't know you so I would not dream of judging your character on this one incident however your post was offensive to me, and other clowns here who have publicly stated it and now you've requested a public apology from Duckie? How about an apology from you for your passive aggressive post that upset several of us? Personally I can easily let go of things so I am not truly requesting such a gesture from you. If this happens again some place else I hope you will handle it differently.

Jeremy