I want you to “take” my work, it’s free: as in “free speech” not “free beer”.
This means you may use it with only three conditions:
- You must credit me, preferably in proportion to my contribution to the derivative work, and I request the credit include how people can view the original material;
- You must share your work as well, again in proportion to my contribution to derivative work; and
- You must not imply an endorsement of your work by myself or any other creditor of work on this site.
[module type=”aside” width=”half” align=”right”]How to Get and Use My Work
Getting Video
I live stream in 720p when connected to a LAN line and 360p when using my mobile devices. These videos can be found on my YouTube page here: www.youtube.com/joeycolemanCA
As soon as possible after an event, I will post key clippings to my Vimeo page in minimum 720p, often in 1080p. I allow for my Vimeo videos to be downloaded, including my original .mp4 upload. These videos are here: www.vimeo.com/joeycoleman/
If you need the original video without graphic overlays or the original .MTS files, please contact me directly and we can arrange to transfer the files.
Using my Work for a Political Campaign
You may use my work under the terms of the CC BY SA license. You do not need separate permission.
For example, you may use video of your candidate at a campaign event in a campaign ad.
I do request campaigns make clear no endorse is implied by including a credit to the effect “Video by Joey Coleman, used under Creative Commons License. Use of video does not imply an endorsement by Joey Coleman or www.joeycoleman.ca”
Please use video in context and informatively.
I ask you encourage individuals to visit JoeyColeman.ca to see more election coverage, including coverage of other candidates.
You may embed video of candidates interviews on your website, again, ensure that no endorsement is implied.
You are invited to repackage the video to, for example, create a video of all responses to a similar question or issue.
I believe strongly in open access to information and this includes my work on this site.
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Creative Commons License
All of my work, unless otherwise stated, is published under a Creative Commons “Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada (CC BY-SA 2.5 CA)” License.
In short, this means you may use my for any legal purpose provided you credit the source and you **ShareAlike **(meaning you share your work under the same, similar, or more liberal licensing). You may not imply any endorsement by use of the work available under the license, and you may not use it for any illegal purpose.
CC-BY-SA licenses fit into the category of “Free Culture Works” because it allows works to be “freely studied, applied, copied and/or modified, by anyone, for any purpose.”
Why Free Culture Works
Providing my work a free cultural works license enables others to build upon my work to further these goals.
I want others to use videos of public meetings to further public discussion of issues, I want neighbourhood associations to be able take video of, for example, a zoning matter from the sub-committee, committee, and finally Council to put together the story of how something passed (or didn’t) at City Hall.
I want this to happen without any restriction of copyright beyond credit and seeing the derivative works available for others to build upon. There should be no monopoly upon public knowledge or information.
Journalism as Part of the Community Network
Traditionally, a journalist is one who takes information from the community, and decides what of that information to give back.
This “tradition” resulted from limiting platforms for distribution and communication of information. It wasn’t possible to efficiently share and distribute multimedia content prior to the Internet. Nor could “unlimited” amounts of raw content be shared.
Today is different, a journalist can be more valuable to their community than ever previously possible.
A community is at its best when it’s most prolific members are giving more to the collective than they take from it. I want to build a better community and this is why I strive to give more than I take.
The Practical Benefits of An Open License
So why an open license? Why not just grant each individual request for permission to use my work?
I, even with the open license, receive frequent requests to use my work. Each time, I reply with the terms of my licensing.
Each week, my work appears on others sites across the world. Not much of my Hamilton work mind you, but much of my photography from when I worked for *Maclean’s. *
My contract specified that I retained the copyright for my work, and I uploaded all of my photography to my Flickr page under a Creative Commons License.
It’s common for my photos from Qatar to be used in stories about that country, and even more common for my student protest photos to be used by Canadian student newspapers. (This photo was widely printed by student newpapers, as “mainstream media”, I had access to the upper levels of the Legislature to get this crowd photo)
I used to rely heavily upon the work for student newspapers to find good stories when I covered post secondary education, I’m glad to return the karma with photos that my media access granted me the ability to capture.
Summarized, an open license allows for others to use my work as I intent, and they can do so at 2:00 a.m. (facing a 2:15 a.m. deadline as can be the case at a student newspaper)
Building Community
During the state funeral for Lincoln Alexander in 2012 in Hamilton, I had media credentials and was able to move across the parade route to capture photos of the entire event.
In theory, I didn’t need others photos to tell the photographic story of the funeral.
Others without media access had to choose one place to capture the Procession, by sharing my photos, I gave those who wanted to cover the entire Procession the ability to do so on their sites. In return as others, especially with greater photographic ability than I, share their photos under open licenses, I have access to photos that better capture the public record of such important days.
By adopting open licenses, especially ShareAlike that ensures others share as well, Hamilton’s community can come together to better tell our stories.
Take my work, it’s free as in “free speech”. All I ask is that you become part of the online community we’ve built and all benefit from.