Rebloggable by request...

The official Neil Gaiman Tumblr, but honestly no better than the unofficial Neil Gaiman Tumblrs out there. Will sometimes have stuff about my dogs or my wife in it.

Archive You can ask things here. Sometimes I answer. (I don't answer things sent as "Fan Mail" here though.)

February 20th, 2013 at 5:13PM

Rebloggable by request…

“The legal terminology is entirely different from what Neil Gaiman said on his Tumblr. It legally strips you of all rights to the art. To even claim you did it. Blackberry can use it, alter, redistribute it for 20 years if they want, with absolutely no mention of you. Zero…When you click submit, you also agree that you can never come back at them about it. You give up all rights to sue them.” Please address this, Neil. About the Calendar, from the site. Are we not protected???

ispirazione

I’ve talked to BlackBerry about it: they are embarrassed, and told me they are drafting a new set of Terms and Conditions which actually reflect that the art is solely for use in relation to the Keep Moving Project, A Calendar of Tales, and is not to be used by them for any commercial purposes beyond the project.

And as they explained to me, “Regarding us taking ownership of people’s work (i.e. – them losing the copyrights), in fact this is not what the T&Cs say! I think we’ve suffered from an unfortunate case of misconstrued legalspeak. We’re licensing people’s artwork for use, but they retain all rights to their own work. To do with it what they will!”

I’m hopeful that the new set of T&Cs will be clearer, and have asked them to put something up to clarify all this for the worried, the troubled, the confused, or the nervous.