http://videoworks.um-gallery.net 

Our Belief in Sharing

After releasing our stock photos for public sharing for more than 1 year, we consolidate our belief in our move to embrace free licence. Last year we released our calendar under creative common licence but we decided to releasae our works under our own free licence for some considerations. Now it's time for us to tell the public our thinking.

Someone claim that the majority of people may enjoy wealth generated from their creative work. So our legislators  have drafted and passed a series of law for the protection of intellectual property. However, under the copyright ordinance, we cannot be sure if a piece of work is allowed to be copied, shared, distributed, reproduced or modified without a complete knowledge about the details of license even though we are willing to pay for the use of it. For the peace of mind, we must create everything from the very beginning together with a thorough prior art search confirming that there is no similar wrok in the world.  However, the new ordinances have not helped too much in protecting our creative works. Customers, including government departments, are expecting "free  demo design service" early  in the stage of tendering quotation for jobs involving the elements of creation.    

The problem is not limited to this. Nobody is able to tell if his idea would coinside with someone living and working in elsewhere of the world. This intrinsic defect of the so-called intellectual property have given rise to the overwhelming rent seeking activities of a group of professional litigators who take advantages from champerty and maintenance. These brave new ordinances, to some extent, have legalized their legal extortion from innocent people. In Hong Kong, their victims are mainly SMEs, especially small retailers or service providers. It's hardly for outsiders to imagine how and why a well lawful and disciplined retailer keep receiveing legal letters from prominent law firms representing prominent content providers or trademark owners claiming hundred thousands dollars for the infringement of copyright just for selling stationery of dollars and cents only because it  is deemed by these smart heads to be "too similar" to what they possess. In Western countries, even the wealthy gigantic corporates are their targets. 

Then some people stood up and vowed that this "permission culture" was not the thing they want but that they valued the joy of sharing and recognition of their idea more than money. They realize that whether  or not a piece of work can generate profit relies on the popularity but not the promise of law. In software industry, some vendors introduce the idea of "SAAS" (software as a service) and support the open source movement. In creative industry, some artists start to release their work free of charge to the public for gaining the  popularity and make their money from the provision of service. Thus a number of free license like "creative common", "copyleft", "wiki-common" or "GPL" were created to get around the restriction of copyright which is granted to the creator automatically as a natural right by most of the prevailing legal systems in our world. To the astonishment of a lot of ordinary people, in just a few years, more and more authors have joined the camp of "free culture" and released their work under various kinds of free license.  They contribute their effort in building a more beautiful world. 

However, do not confuss piracy with "free culture".  Advocates of free culture only share with others their own creation but not pirated property from others. Actually, they respect the right of the author of all intellectual property. Whether or not to release their work under free license remain their own choice. 

This point is important when using our hyper-links to these 3rd party web site providing free resources to artists all over the world. We respect the will and the right of the author of all intellectual properties. When we provide the information and hyper-link of these web-sites, we believe that their activities and content are lawful and ethical. Hence, before you visit those webs, please read our disclaimer once again. If you find any abuse or obsession, please email to "abuse@um-gallery.net".

Taking the most pragmatic point of view, the action of releasing free works to the public may be regarded as a "free demo service" like what a contractor provides in  tendering a quotation for a project. Nevertheless, as a humble person, we should believe in the pure intention of some people who only demand for  echo in return for what they have shared with  the world.