Wednesday 21 July 2010

The konomark: will it sink or swim?

Discovered on Eric E Johnson's website is news of the konomark, "a new way to be friendly with your intellectual property". As Eric explains:
"The konomark is a symbol – a circle with a pineapple in it – that lets visitors to your website know that you are generally willing to share your copyrighted content, such as photos, educational materials, music, etc., with folks like yourself, for free. The konomark is an invitation to e-mail you and ask you for permission.
Let’s say I see a konomarked photo that I want to use. What should I do?
Just e-mail the photographer, explain how you want to use it, and wait for a response. You won’t be bothering anyone – the photographer has invited you to ask. It’s all good.
Who is allowed to use the konomark?
You are, as long as you comply with the following three rules:
• You use the konomark only to mark your own copyrighted works.
• By konomarking a copyrighted work, you intend to invite people to ask you for permission to use that work.
• You are generally amenable to letting people use, without compensating you, the copyrighted content you’ve konomarked – even though the konomark does not legally obligate you.
Technically, legally speaking, these three rules are the conditions upon which you are granted a revocable license to use the konomark logo and word mark. Just be aware that the rules are subject to change – after all, the konomark project is new, and still in an experimental stage ...".
I've not spotted any konomarks in general use up to now, and the relatively small number of Google 'hits' for the word (c.5,300) leads me to suspect that it's not yet about to oust the rather more complicated Creative Commons from its roost. Still, I shall be keeping my eye out (to mix my metaphors) to see whether the little black pineapples sink or swim: will they take root in the fertile soil of enthusiastic cooperation or wither on the vine of indifference?

3 comments:

johndrinkwater said...

It will sink.

This comment licensed as CC BY-SA.

Crosbie Fitch said...

Compare with the Free Culture Logo. That is ultra-laissez faire. You can even change the logo if you want to.

See The Flower of Free Culture.

Ultimately, we have to wait for copyright's abolition before we end up with the most sensible default that people are once again, naturally at liberty to copy each other's published work, i.e. no permission, licenses, or logos necessary.

Lisa said...

Nicely said @johndrinkwater What possible benefit does this pineapple thing have over using a CC license? It just adds the complication and waste of time of having to email someone and hold a conversation about use instead of being able to instantly see the CC license and know how the content generator will allow you to use the material.