I've been wondering this for a while: who owns the copyright for the strips on this site? If it's Brad, is there anything stopping him from perhaps compiling a book of strips from here and selling it to raise funds? I'm sure that out of the 50,000 ish comics on the site, there would be enough good ones to fill a book.

Or at the very least, someone could bring out the "Kaufman-a-day" calendar.

My wife came up with that idea, as well. It could work, except for the big tangled mass of copyright. As far as I know, Brad has never claimed copyright on anything except the site's code. We could assume this means he owns all the stored comic code, too. Fair enough. But what about the art? All the stuff that I have drawn and submitted for use with this site is mine - I own it, and Brad (along with everyone who uses this site) is allowed to use them. If Brad wanted to make a book, I would not hesitate to give him permission to use my images (though if it sold a million copies, I may be a bit miffed *grin*).

...but what about Penny Arcade? Goats? explodingdog? These guys gave permission for their art to be used on a free website, not in a book, which is not free to all. What if one or more of the owners of this art said "Sure, use my art, but I want a share of the profit." Suddenly, Brad is in royalty hell, keeping track of percentages and margins. Yecchh...

Brad's own clipart characters might be a problem too. If Brad got the book printed, then got a nasty letter from some guy claiming that he drew the Asian girls, and they are not public domain... Yecchh (again)...

Of course, all this may not be a problem - everyone who has given Brad permission to use their art may give the thumbs up. Failing that, we could select only strips that use art with "permission to print", or even get all the regulars to write (or even rewrite) a whole book's worth of strips which only use the permissable artwork. (That last one was my wife's idea.)

...would it sell, though? That's the main question. Plan 9 or someone similar might print it, but if hardly any copies sell, there isn't much point, is there?

I must be honest - I think a big, prominent guilt-trip nag banner at the top and/or bottom of every page on the site would be the most cost effective, just something to remind users that, if they are enjoying the site and can afford to send a few bucks, the administrator would really appreciate it. *shrug*

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

Under UK law, I think the copyright would belong to the people who actually made the strips, not the person who owns the database they're stored on. But if the server's located in Canada, perhaps Canadian copyright law would apply, whatever that is?

No, you can't copyright creativity, Brad, Dexx and PennyArcade could get together and print and sell my comics quite happily without a care in the world.

I think the idea for a book would be cool and I'd love to be involved in the project if it went ahead, if credit was given to the right people it would be something we would all be infinitely proud of.

Something to show the Grandchildren.

Although, I don't know how I'm going to explain Cornholing to an 8 year old.

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Dad was flammable

This is a question I've been wondering about recently too. Brad, what's the nature of your agreement with the people who've donated art to the site? Are those images (not to say the characters they represent) in the public domain? Are they restricted to use in projects you create, on the Web in general, on stripcreator.com only?

I get the impression that Sam Brown has a relaxed attitude about copyright, but he's only one donor.

I doubt we could successfully navigate the legal issues involved in getting a book published, but if you ever need my permission to reprint my strips, you can probably have it.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

My agreement with the creators of the artwork extends only to use on stripcreator.com. I have permission to do "whatever the hell I want" with some of the art but others I know would probably balk at any sort of selling or printing of their art without their permission (and rightfully so).

One exception: the entire Three Reasons category is public domain.

As for the copyright of the actual content of the strips, you're getting into a very tricky subject which I'll do my best to explain my viewpoint on:

While they may look nicer and may have more immediate value to you, your comics on Stripcreator are functionally no different than the messages you post in these forums or anywhere else on the Internet. They're blocks of data that you entered into a public web site and saved on a private database server with no guarantee of any rights whatsoever.

You may have created your strips and your forum posts, but I as the webmaster am not legally obliged in any way to host them or keep them intact or pay for the bandwidth to display them to everyone on the Internet until the day I am murdered by loan sharks. If that weren't so, no webmaster could ever remove abandoned accounts, old forum posts or objectionable user-posted content without the permission of the creator.

That's the only part I'm concerned about and have given any real thought to. I haven't looked into printing a book or selling your strips, but if I were to do so I would request the permission of the creators (of both the artwork and the comic strip) out of both courtesy and the desire to not get sued.

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www.bradsucks.net

In that case, maybe you should have a quick chat with Plan Nine Publishing and see if they think it's viable.

I don't think it would sell many copies, but if we could find out how many would be required to break even and venture into "profit" territory, then we may find it is laughably unlikely, quite achievable, or whatever...

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

Sorry, ignore the above URL - that is the Canadian sales site. The main site is here.

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

I've been through this as a story creator for another site. I wrote sick, stupid stories and sent them in to be published on a pr0n site in order to get free access. After a couple years the site owner asked me if I wanted a story published in a book. I said okay so he gave the agent in charge of putting together a compilation book my email. The agent and I emailed back and forth - he was willing to give me $20 for all print rights. I told him to keep it and good luck with the book. I've never seen it on shelves.

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"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet

Maybe they have it at Barnes & Nipplerings?

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."