Who actually owns Gen Chan?

Starline · Post by **Starline** » Fri May 25, 2007 7:58 am

Would someone just own the copyright on their own version of the character?

Jops · Post by **Jops** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:12 am

starline wrote:Would someone just own the copyright on their own version of the character?

That's kinda how the thing is percieved, tho it turned out that things are a bit more complicated.
However, if we all agree on stating officially that Gen-Chan, as a character, is public domain (while individual drawings aren't), then the whole issue should be over (and your say here has a lot of relevance, i guess).
For my part there's no problem: anyone's free to draws Gen-Chan with the very same look i designed or their own modified varsion of it.

Mr.Bob wrote:Not Euro Cup. It was club football, not an international contest. AC Milan beat Liverpool and won the UEFA Champions League.

Guess what Bob said is the right thing...
Anyway, you're talking to one of the very few italians who honestly don't give a damn about soccer.

Starline · Post by **Starline** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:01 am

I'm totally cool with the Public Domain thing.

I think I would be upset if someone (otherthan the CG company) started making a ton of money off of the character, though.

Kirb · Post by **Kirb** » Fri May 25, 2007 1:30 pm

That's what I was trying to state initially. That Gen-chan as a character is essentially public domain.

Fesworks · Post by **Fesworks** » Fri May 25, 2007 4:14 pm

haha, awesome!

Why do things gotta be so complicated sometimes?

Well, I'll still give props and links to Starline, Jobs and CG when it comes up. I might draw the scene a bit bigger as a seperate page in this case them.

But yea, no money is meant to be made. I'm not planning to put this Jenny comic into print at all.... it'd kinda defeat the purpose of the story I'm trying to convey as well.

Jops · Post by **Jops** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:04 am

Kirb wrote:That's what I was trying to state initially. That Gen-chan as a character is essentially public domain.

The problem with public domain is that it would allow someone to make profit with the use Gen-Chan.
And i agree with Starline about not wanting this to happen.

Fesworks · Post by **Fesworks** » Sat May 26, 2007 5:17 am

then agree to make it Open Source:

Open Source: This is a copyrighted work that carries a general permission by the author for free use of the product. There are generally a few rules (such as "can not be used as a for-profit product without explicit permission") that go along with its use.

and when this is all said and done, add this too the CG Wiki, and make it official.

EDIT:

Actually, would you allow use of her KINDA like Jenny Everywhere, where people can make a comic with her in it? (as long as its not for profit) Or just allow as Cameo and Extended Cameo basis? Or even for Comic Jams?

That would be important to specify when looking at this.

Personally some collaborative Gen-Chan comic might be pretty damn cool.

Jops · Post by **Jops** » Sat May 26, 2007 7:56 am

I guess "Open Source" would be the right option.

For my part, you can use her as a regular character, or even give her a main role in your comic.
It can be "Gen-Chan's amazing adventures" and it's all fine to me.
Just make sure to state that Gen-Chan is Comicgenesis mascotte, give credit where it's due and not make profit out of it.

Hogan · Post by **Hogan** » Sat May 26, 2007 8:02 am

Profit? Our of a webcomic?

You are kidding... right?

Jops · Post by **Jops** » Sat May 26, 2007 9:36 am

Hogan wrote:You are kidding... right?

No, not at all, since the permission to use Gen-Chan would not be limited to webcomics alone.
...and, as unlikely as it sounds, you know the saying: better safe than sorry.

Fesworks · Post by **Fesworks** » Sat May 26, 2007 9:37 am

Hogan wrote:Profit? Our of a webcomic?

You are kidding... right?

Believe it or not, It happens some times

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sun May 27, 2007 6:31 pm

Mr.Bob wrote:Not Euro Cup. It was club football, not an international contest. AC Milan beat Liverpool and won the UEFA Champions League.

Euro Cup is next year.

I knew what it was, I just had trouble translating it.

Fesworks · Post by **Fesworks** » Sun May 27, 2007 6:50 pm

Here is my proposition for the entry... please adjust my inaccuracies, but this should be something to work from to finalize this whole thing:

__________________________________

Gen-Chan

Gen-Chan is a black and blue haired, space girl who is the mascot of the Comic Genesis community and webcomic hosting site. Gen-Chan comes from a "Chan family" of mascots that was mostly created by Starline in on May 27, 2005. This "family" originally existed as an extention of mascots for related Keenspot websites. Most importantly, Gen-Chan was based off of Rpin's original creation of Space-Chan. Where Space-Chan represented KeenSpace webcomic hosting, Gen-Chan represented Comic Genesis webcomic hosting. When KeenSpace ceased to be, Comic Genesis took it's place, as well as Gen-Chan taking Space-Chan's place.

The official design of Gen-Chan to be represented as the mascot of Comic Genesis, as determined by Joel Fagin, the site's designer, was the design made by Jops. The design is based off of Starline's original Gen-Chan, which is younger and a bit naive or ditsy, especially when compared to Space-Chan. The design includes a sleek black outfit with futuristic boots, arm gloves, and a pair of goggles. As a staple of her appearance she also has black hair with blue bangs, and an assortment of blue, glowing accesories.

As a tradition, webcomickers hosted on Comic Genesis have been welcomed to create their own version of the Gen-Chan mascot to be cycles on the main site. The actual copyright of Gen-Chan is a bit sketchy as there seems to be descrepency because a few parties can actually be credited. As a general rule of thumb, each person who creates their own version of Gen-Chan, will typically retain the copyright to their individual creation.

As far as the idea of Gen-Chan, the official creator and official designer of Gen-Chan (Starline and Jobs, respectively), have opted that Gen-Chan become an "Open Source" character. As an open source character, anyone can ulitize Gen-Chan for their own creative purposes as long as they do not go against Gen-Chan's typical character persaonlity; approximate, yet recognizable design; and that she may not be used for profit whatsoever.

1jim1 · Post by **1jim1** » Sun May 27, 2007 9:37 pm

I ... I want to help ... but I can't ... for various reasons ... however, I suppose I could mention a few things before you put up that description ...

1. Open Source -> The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is made available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions. This allows users to create user-generated software content through incremental individual effort or through collaboration. Straight from Wikipedia. Gen-Chan isn't software, and Open Source is almost exclusively a software term.

2. Open content, coined by analogy with "open source", describes any kind of creative work (including articles, pictures, audio, and video) or engineering work (i.e. open machine design) that is published in a format that explicitly allows the copying and the modifying of the information by anyone; not exclusively by a closed organization, firm or individual. The largest open content project is Wikipedia. From ... Wikipedia, again. There will be a pattern here.

3. Copyleft is a play on the word copyright and is the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions. Yes, friends, trust the 'pedia (sometimes).

4. Finally, you need to find a good open content/copyleft type general non-exclusive license, copy it, and apply it to these circumstances. You can exclude profit activities (or commercial activities, there IS a difference) but modification"against Gen-Chan's typical character personality" may be protected speech depending on the circumstances.

Note that NOTHING SAID HERE SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE and you should see a lawyer versed in copyright to draft a license for such purposes. It wouldn't likely take very long or cost very much (an hour or two at most, as you know who was involved with what). Heck, some would do it pro bono. Just be very careful about what you do ... the way this license (and it WOULD be a license) is written currently could have unfavorable results.

Yeah, I wish I could be more specific too.

Jops · Post by **Jops** » Mon May 28, 2007 12:35 am

fesworks wrote:Here is my proposition for the entry... please adjust my inaccuracies, but this should be something to work from to finalize this whole thing:

__________________________________

Gen-Chan

Gen-Chan is a black and blue haired, space girl who is the mascot of the Comic Genesis community and webcomic hosting site. Gen-Chan comes from a "Chan family" of mascots that was mostly created by Starline in on May 27, 2005. This "family" originally existed as an extention of mascots for related Keenspot websites. Most importantly, Gen-Chan was based off of Rpin's original creation of Space-Chan. Where Space-Chan represented KeenSpace webcomic hosting, Gen-Chan represented Comic Genesis webcomic hosting. When KeenSpace ceased to be, Comic Genesis took it's place, as well as Gen-Chan taking Space-Chan's place.

The official design of Gen-Chan to be represented as the mascot of Comic Genesis, as determined by Joel Fagin, the site's designer, was the design made by Jops. The design is based off of Starline's original Gen-Chan, which is younger and a bit naive or ditsy, especially when compared to Space-Chan. The design includes a sleek black outfit with futuristic boots, arm gloves, and a pair of goggles. As a staple of her appearance she also has black hair with blue bangs, and an assortment of blue, glowing accesories.

As a tradition, webcomickers hosted on Comic Genesis have been welcomed to create their own version of the Gen-Chan mascot to be cycles on the main site. The actual copyright of Gen-Chan is a bit sketchy as there seems to be descrepency because a few parties can actually be credited. As a general rule of thumb, each person who creates their own version of Gen-Chan, will typically retain the copyright to their individual creation.

As far as the idea of Gen-Chan, the official creator and official designer of Gen-Chan (Starline and Jobs, respectively), have opted that Gen-Chan become an "Open Source" character. As an open source character, anyone can ulitize Gen-Chan for their own creative purposes as long as they do not go against Gen-Chan's typical character persaonlity; approximate, yet recognizable design; and that she may not be used for profit whatsoever.

Wow, i guess this is just perfect. I'd only change 2 small things:
* Remove "space" from "space girl", for the simple reason that there are non-space versions of her aswell (like Komi's sword-fighting dragonslayer version).
* Gen-Chan never really had an actual personality, since she never did anything more than a posing on the main page. However, i think the general feeling is that she's way less naive than Space-Chan.

Fesworks · Post by **Fesworks** » Mon May 28, 2007 5:23 am

This could be good to be used by any Wiki. If there is an official Wikipedia Entry, I can create the page or edit it, as well as add it to Wiki's Open Source character page (which only includes Jenny Everywhere at the moment). If anyone else with the power wants to add it to the CG Wiki go right ahead. I'm not picky on being credited for all of this jargon, especially since its mostly a collaborative construction.

Through some PMs and such, here is an updated, proposed re-description:

Gen-Chan
______________________________________________________________
Gen-Chan is the name of a cartoon character featuring black and blue hair and usually furturistic clothing and accessories. Gen-Chan serves as the mascot of the Comic Genesis community and webcomic hosting site. Gen-Chan comes from a "Chan family" of mascots that was created by Starline in on May 27, 2005. This "family" originally existed as an extention of mascots for related Keenspot websites. Specifically, Gen-Chan is derived from Rpin's Space-Chan, the mascot for Keenspace. When KeenSpace ceased to be, Comic Genesis took it's place and Gen-Chan became the mascot for the new entity.

Gen-Chan was later further altered by Jops under the direction of Joel Fagin, the Comic Genesis website designer. The design is based off of Starline's original Gen-Chan, which possesses a more youthful and less naive appearance by comparison and is far removed in design from Space-Chan. The current design includes a sleek black outfit with futuristic boots, arm gloves, and a pair of goggles. As a staple of her appearance she also has black hair with blue bangs, and an assortment of blue, glowing accesories. She has no official age, and has been represented as a young girl, a teen, or as a grown woman, accross several variants.

As a tradition, webcomickers hosted on Comic Genesis have been welcomed to create their own version of the Gen-Chan mascot to be cycles on the main site. The actual copyright of Gen-Chan is a bit sketchy due to multiple instances of authorship and the history of collaborative work from which Gen-Chan is derived.

However, Starline and Jops have granted a royalty free public license to the Comic Genesis web comic community so that fellow webcomickers may prepare their own Gen-Chans. This license entitles the licensee only to create a derivative work and publish such derivation if such use of the work is not impermissible. Impermissible uses include, but are not limited to, commercial use, using Gen-Chan or derivatives thereof as a trademark or further licensing Gen-Chan or any derivatives thereof to third parties. Commercial use, for the purpose of this license, includes any use that is for profit or used to promote a profit generating activity. Furthermore, any adaptation of Gen-Chan to materials that generally disparage or ridicule Comic Genesis or Gen-Chan is an impermissible use. Moreover, use of Gen-Chan to associate Comic Genesis or Gen-Chan with any third party without the express permission of Comic Genesis, Starline and Jops is an impermissible use.

________________________________________________

I don't honestly think we need Rpin's permission in this aspect, however being the name is pretty much based on Rpin's Space-Chan name, It might be a nice curtesey to ask his opinion, but it is not technically required for the sake of Gen-Chan.

Jops · Post by **Jops** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:57 am

yeah, I think we can put this on the wiki.
I'd create a new article and put a link to it in the "Mascotte" page.

Feswork, the login for the wiki is the same for the forums, so you can just go ahead and submit it. Or, if you prefer, i'll do that myself later

Starline · Post by **Starline** » Tue May 29, 2007 8:37 am

I dig it. Sounds great for the wiki.

I also thought Gen-chan was a bit more violent than Space-chan in her later renditions...

Fesworks · Post by **Fesworks** » Tue May 29, 2007 9:30 am

Jops wrote:yeah, I think we can put this on the wiki.
I'd create a new article and put a link to it in the "Mascotte" page.

Feswork, the login for the wiki is the same for the forums, so you can just go ahead and submit it. Or, if you prefer, i'll do that myself later

Actually it does not work for me :/ Won;t even let me create an account, but you can go right ahead and take care of that. it does not matter to me who puts it in.

Jops · Post by **Jops** » Tue May 29, 2007 10:42 am

starline wrote:I also thought Gen-chan was a bit more violent than Space-chan in her later renditions...

heh yeah... gotta blame me and War for that.