Nina Paley, the creator of the animated musical Sita Sings The Blues, relates an interesting anecdote about creating some Hindu-style artwork for the Brooklyn Museum.

It was quite interesting how the Museum's legal team failed to understand the ramifications of Creative Commons licensing (most significantly requesting that Ms Paley agree to a non-compete clause). There are also some valid lessons, and alternative approaches, for aspiring artists when negotiating terms for contracted work.

Oh, and her artwork is top-notch as well.

So true.

But if lawyers don't know anything about the CC licence, do judges?

Very interesting information and bears further reading.

Her Mimi and Eunice cartoons are adorable.

So much for the pursuit of happiness ...

LOL you gotta love clients.They always want something for nothing.
I constantly run across those willing to pay 1 dollar an hour for 20 or so pieces of work.
But of course they want them all done within 24 hours. And all the rights to the finished product.
Sad thing is many other countries oblige them.One dollar an hour is a treasure to them.

Mike Hinge was a wonderful artist I met early in my career. He gave me some good advice in the form of a lesson:

at the time he dealt mostly with publishers. Once you were hired to do a cover (for example) generally the editor would ask the artist for several mock-ups. Mike said he would make 5 or 6, then would look them over and decide which was the WORSE one. He would then discard that and NOT bring that one to show the editor.
He would only show the editor the best 4 or 5 .

Mike said that if he had brought the worse one THAT is the one the editor would want to use. Every Single Time.

Mike knew that businesspeople have no taste and you should never trust their judgment about such matters.

Artist should also insist on respect. Never do something for nothing. Hold that as a RULE. now, between you and me, we sometimes do certain projects for free, but the point is that it should be OUR choice and not dictated by the other person. Sometimes a project is worth it because it will get you cred, so doing it for free now means more money for future projects. But only YOU can know which project is that kind of valuable. Others can't decide that.

The real trick is to discern the difference between people who only want to use you and people who Value your work. Avoid the first, be loyal to the second.

I wasn't familiar with the works of Nina Paley until learning about her then project Sita Sings The Blues. At the time she was blogging about how even public domain works could still have other licensing issues, as was the case with the music from Annette Hanshaw, that she uses in the work.

This quote from the site http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/ on making money from the film is something I find to be notable:

"Conventional wisdom urges me to demand payment for every use of the film, but then how would people without money get to see it? How widely would the film be disseminated if it were limited by permission and fees? Control offers a false sense of security. The only real security I have is trusting you, trusting culture, and trusting freedom."

Thanks for pointing to her recent work saulgoode. It's refreshing to see an artist such as herself embrace Creative Commons and realize the potential in such licensing for culture as a whole.