Author Topic: Splitting the Flash collections  (Read 5299 times)

statisticus

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on: June 17, 2019, 06:13:53 AM
I have recently completed something that may be of interest to other listeners of the EA podcasts.  For some time I have been listening to the EA backlog and as I go I have been rating the stories (one star up to five stars) with a view to easily identifying the stories I like best to listen to again in future.  In doing so I have had problems with the various flash collections, as it would often be the case that I enjoy one story in a flash collection and not others.  Recently I decided to do something about this, and so I have gone through the many flash collections from the four EA podcasts and manually edited them so as to put each story into a separate file.  This way I will be able to listen to and rate them all individually.

Having done that I wondered if others might find it useful.  Accordingly, I have put the stories into a dropbox folder which can be found at the following link:

Dropbox link removed

Can someone tell me if this link works?  I am not certain that I have set the file sharing options correctly.

Also, I daresay someone will comment about whether this is something that I should share or not.  I have taken care to keep the stories themselves complete, but have (for convenience) removed the various intros and outros and am not sure if this breaks the creative commons license or not.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2019, 10:26:42 AM by eytanz »

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eytanz

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Reply #1 on: June 17, 2019, 10:55:22 PM
I'm not a lawyer, nor do I speak for Escape Pod in any way, but from my reading of the Creative Commons license, an edited version of an EA episode is a derivative work and therefore sharing it (without permission from EA) is in violation of the Creative Commons license.



Fenrix

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Reply #2 on: June 19, 2019, 01:55:58 AM

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I speak for Escape Pod in any way, but from my reading of the Creative Commons license, an edited version of an EA episode is a derivative work and therefore sharing it (without permission from EA) is in violation of the Creative Commons license.


What Eytanz said.

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statisticus

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Reply #3 on: June 21, 2019, 04:49:22 AM
I'm not a lawyer, nor do I speak for Escape Pod in any way, but from my reading of the Creative Commons license, an edited version of an EA episode is a derivative work and therefore sharing it (without permission from EA) is in violation of the Creative Commons license.

In that case it sounds like we need to get in touch with one or the other.  Someone who could speak for EA (and could therefore grant permission) would probably be more useful. Can you suggest someone?

I think the splitting is useful for the reasons mentioned- it lets listeners treat each story individually and to rate and revisit them with maximum effectiveness.  At least, I thought it useful enough to do for my own listening convenience, and having done so it seemed mean not to share with those who might wish to do the same.  Also, it is (arguably) not a derivative work in that no new content is being created, any more than (say) splitting an album into individual tracks is, something that has long been recognised as fair use for buyers of CDs.  At least, it would be odd for a creative commons license to be more restrictive that then RIAA.

Perhaps EA could host it somewhere, along with assorted caveats and links to the unedited versions.  Say, in the entry for each flash compilation put additional links to the individual stories.  Or, you could put the full collection in separate section - perhaps in the members only section.

Did either of you check the link, BTW?  I'm not particularly savvy with Dropbox and am not sure I got it right.

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astrokath

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Reply #4 on: June 24, 2019, 05:30:10 PM
I *could* ping Marguerite for you, but honestly? It's right there in the boilerplate (bolding mine).

Quote
Our episodes are released under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non-commercial - No derivatives 4.0 International license. That means you can download or listen to the episode on any device you like, but you can’t change it or sell it.


You have effectively re-published the stories. This strikes me as a rather... poor decision?
« Last Edit: June 24, 2019, 05:38:35 PM by astrokath »

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astrokath

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Reply #5 on: June 24, 2019, 05:44:40 PM
I note that you've also stripped off the licensing boilerplate entirely...

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Marguerite

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Reply #6 on: June 24, 2019, 08:28:57 PM
Also, I daresay someone will comment about whether this is something that I should share or not.  I have taken care to keep the stories themselves complete, but have (for convenience) removed the various intros and outros and am not sure if this breaks the creative commons license or not.
---
In that case it sounds like we need to get in touch with one or the other.  Someone who could speak for EA (and could therefore grant permission) would probably be more useful. Can you suggest someone?

Hello all, Marguerite here.

Short version: It's fine that you made these files for your personal enjoyment; please don't share these files with others.

Longer, more detailed version:

This is an impressive amount of work, and I appreciate that from your perspective, you're trying to share the results of that labor with others who might want to do the same type of per-story reviewing as you have done.

While there's nothing wrong with making these files for your own personal enjoyment, making them available to others isn't allowed by the Creative Commons licence under which they were released. In other words, yes, it 'breaks' the licence.

The reason EA uses the specific CC licence it does is because it represents the rights for which we pay our authors and narrators. EA itself can't exceed that use -- it can't, for example, make a movie from one of the stories. Your 'one song from a CD' analogy doesn't quite work here; a more accurate description would be ripping individual verses from a single song.

Finally, coming on to your request for permission, and/or to host the collection, we respectfully decline. Sub-dividing flash collections into their individual stories robs the episode of its editorial intention, especially when interstitial commentary is stripped out. Everyone at EA accepts and understands that not every story will be to every listener's taste, and we all work hard to make sure listeners can make informed decisions about their listening through content warnings. Regardless of whether your alterations are permitted by the applicable CC licence (they're not), it's not the way the episode was intended to be enjoyed. It's not the way those editors chose to publish the stories, and it's not a way EA supports making them available to its listeners.

I hope this has been helpful. What follows is a more detailed break-down of the CC licence as it applies here.

For next steps, kindly either remove the Dropbox link or alter its permissions so that others may not access it.

Best,
Marguerite

Creative Commons Crash Course

The Creative Commons is a licencing structure that lets the owner of a creative work make it available to the public using easy to understand shorthand about what they do and don't agree others can do with that work. All of EA's episodes are released under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence:

  • BY stands for 'attribution', which means the original source of the file and its CC rating must remain with all the content at all times. Stripping an episode down to just the narration removes the attribution. We regularly find YouTubers who do this and require them to take the content down.
  • NC stands for 'non-commercial'. Use beyond personal -- in this case, making the archive available to others, as you have with the Dropbox link -- can be considered commercial regardless of whether payment is required. Even 'marketing activity' is commercial; you can't slap a Marvel or Disney logo on a charity event poster.
  • ND stands for 'no derivatives'. Making alterations to the file in any form, such as removing intros and outros, is a derivative. Podcast episodes which permit derivatives are generally released under the 'Sharealike' licence.
  • Without getting into legal details, the Fair Use doctrine does not apply here. I recommend this article if you'd like to learn more.

Edited to correct typos which impacted clarity.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2019, 08:39:26 PM by Marguerite »

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eytanz

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Reply #7 on: June 25, 2019, 10:28:33 AM
Since the OP did not take the opportunity to remove the dropbox link after it's been both unofficially suggested that he ask permission before sharing and (when he didn't do so) it was officially requested he get rid of the link, I took the liberty of removing it for him.

Hope I didn't overstep my bounds as moderator emeritus.