Hey folks,
When creating materials for DMS, is there a specific copyright that needs to be placed on it? Or would it be a copyleft? Or one of the Open Source blurbs?
I’m building a PowerPoint template for Vector for a training series we’re about to kick off and I want to make sure that I have this right on the slides.
Thanks!
Raymond
Since your creating it you can use whatever license you like. Even without a copyright notice YOU own the copyright. You can explicity place it in the public domain to remove your copyright.
Or you could use something like the Creative Commons license.
not entirely true. while yes, if one is able to prove they created it prior to anyone’s use of the material then the clam is valid but under the current state of copyright law without the copyright notice and registering of the copyright with the US copyright office then its generally considered public domain until contested in a court of law.
Mind you copyleft/creative commons, is the same process but without the overhead of federal registration. When one applies a copyleft/create commons licence they are immediately protecting their work with an open source licence that has been proven in federal court to be a valid copyright clam. One also gets the option of registered the work on the creative commons website to have further auditable proof of copyright clam.
A good resource on copyrights in today’s state of affairs is https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/ and the copyright 2.0 show https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1-Ycq70ZCyCw9k7-Rwa8nnWE-ob2uGZK
Not true. The author of a document is always the copyright holder, unless they are an employee and paid to produce document.
A document is only in the public domain if explicitly placed there.
tl;dr version: http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
Yes, that is what I’m saying the original author does hold the copyright but it becomes a matter of whom can prove they’re the first to create that. Hence why one should always register their copyrights in one form or another otherwise just about anyone can clam copyright then issue a dmca and force a long drawn out legal battle.
Cases of this has been known with RIAA/MPAA to name a few.
Technically, you are correct. Enforcing it, if you care, is the issue.
Used to be, you would mail a copy of it to yourself and keep it unopened to use the postmark as a time stamp. I have heard that is no longer true. I do not know.
Sending a copy to the US copyright and trademark office is a legally solid way to prove you have that document at that time. Someone seeking to challenge you would have to prove prior art.
correct and a pgp digitally signed version also is valid too so long as one still registers the work with either creative commons, their attorney, and/or copyright.gov
Guys,
I didn’t want this to devolve into internet lawyering. Please stop.
It’s painfully obvious that we don’t have any guidance here. I linked an instruction page on “how to use this deck” to Wikipedia’s entry on Creative Commons and stated that folks should adjust the slide master as required for their needs. I set the deck to have the CC BY SA graphic as a starting point since that’s something I feel comfortable with for materials I create that I’m not using in my own business.
I also put a note in there for folks to give credit for any graphics, videos, images, etc. that they did not create themselves. That’s a smart thing to do to keep folks in the mode of being excellent.
I’m waiting on a graphic from @Nick to finish up the deck.
Thanks,
Raymond
Slides decks are done…
@nickdangerous, @engpin, @Shawn_Christian
I did three color schemes since @lukeiamyourfather didn’t like the purple. 
Normally I’m a blue-over-red person (like the purple too) but in this case red looks pretty sharp.
My wiki access is fixed and they are uploaded! I also created a member page for myself and linked it to my name on the Vector Committee page.
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/VECTOR_Committee_Training
@nickdangerous, I created a page for the training series, but did not put any of the proposed class names on it. Not sure if that is something for Chuck or not… I have the list since I took a pic with my phone.
@Nick, I put the logos up on the Vector Committee page in .ai format (zip file) and in .png.
The slide decks can be used by ANYONE who wants to develop class materials for DMS. Feel free to remove the VECTOR logo if you’re not affiliated with VECTOR and follow the instructions in the deck to help create some great content.
The default for anything posted on the Dallas Makerspace wiki is “Content is available under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported unless otherwise noted.” ~ so I’d your choice fits in with our community pretty darn well! :dms:
Most Excellent! 
AWESOME ~ Thanks!! 
Thanks!
I’m happy to help folks with using the deck. This format is what we use at work when creating series of training and product updates at work and it works very well into organizing thoughts and making sure your presentation stays on target.
If you download this and have questions, message me and I can help.
Raymond
I haven’t saved them in older PowerPoint formats yet, but can do that if anyone can’t work with the newer pptx filetypes.