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How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

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Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#41

Post by gonehome »

j_c wrote: post #21
pavel_lishin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. As far as I can tell, the original artist wasn't selling his works, right? And apologies in advance to all the designers reading this, but the posters are a sentence fragment in a standard font. They're not printing off bootleg copies of the Mona Lisa here. I suppose I'm being immoral and disrespectful, myself. Should I send Dos Equis a letter of apology, see if KC Green sells prints of his comics, and tr…

"But the posters are a sentence fragment in a standard font. They're not printing off bootleg copies of the Mona Lisa here." --- A 63-year-old Picasso got out his pen and paper and sketched the woman, who passing by had asked for a quick self-portrait of herself. It took him 30 seconds, once finished, he asked for 500,000 US dollars. 'Why? It didn't even take you a minute!' she replied. 'Madam, that sketch took 63 ye…

I think many people on hacker news recognize good design skill takes years to develop, but this is an extreme. They took a simple four word sentence and printed it in red. Do you think the public benefits by having this designer have a ~150 year copyright monopoly on something as simple as this sentence?

It's a simple poster people were excited about and when it was unavailable went out to make it themselves.

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#42

Post by motoford »

This Barry guy is seriously mad about a sign using his unoriginal slogan?

Here is a solution:

I release the following to the public domain:

STAY FOCUSED AND KEEP SHIPPING

There you go, just copy and paste this into your design program of choice, pick a big font, and send it to the printers.

Crisis averted

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#43

Post by brennannovak »

imajes wrote: post #27

Hey. As the hacker behind the version at http://print.imaj.es/ - I figured I'd share my response here too. Ben's response is understandable - designers and hackers alike are proud of their creations and often are quick and strong-willed in defending their work. However, the project that he's been running internally at FB itself aped the original British Ministry of Information project during wartime - the keep calm a…

So @benbarry made some cool posters. Solid idea. Good job buddy. But seriously, everyone involved in this needs to contemplate the ridiculousness of these whiny teenaged first world problems. Print your posters. You can't copyright text on a page.

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#44

Post by georgemcbay »

brennannovak wrote: post #43
imajes wrote: post #27

Hey. As the hacker behind the version at http://print.imaj.es/ - I figured I'd share my response here too. Ben's response is understandable - designers and hackers alike are proud of their creations and often are quick and strong-willed in defending their work. However, the project that he's been running internally at FB itself aped the original British Ministry of Information project during wartime - the keep calm a…

So @benbarry made some cool posters. Solid idea. Good job buddy. But seriously, everyone involved in this needs to contemplate the ridiculousness of these whiny teenaged first world problems. Print your posters. You can't copyright text on a page.

"You can't copyright text on a page."

uh... what? Of course you can.

Granted, Fair Use may or may not come into play depending upon the length of the text being reused, but "text on a page" is exactly what copyright was invented for in the first place.

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#46

Post by rickmb »

trotsky wrote: post #16

Article A: Geeks super pissed off about someone daring to copy their work Article B: Nerds insisting that content producers are too dumb to understand that piracy is just a marketing channel. (repeat ad nauseum)

Article C: Wiseasses that don't distinguish between the ethics of copying and the ethics of (enforcing) copyright.

(stop repeating, please)

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#47

Post by rickmb »

The most astonishing part in this whole story seems to me the fact that people apparently think that it is a good idea to hang "inspirational" slogans in uppercase on the walls of a modern tech company, in a way that is clearly not meant ironically.

I would run like hell from a company that did this.

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#48

Post by chippy »

rickmb wrote: post #47

The most astonishing part in this whole story seems to me the fact that people apparently think that it is a good idea to hang "inspirational" slogans in uppercase on the walls of a modern tech company, in a way that is clearly not meant ironically. I would run like hell from a company that did this.

hah! Yes!

Better to have read:

IPO TIME.

YOU JOB IS AT RISK.

WORK HARDER.

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#49

Post by Zancarius »

georgemcbay wrote: post #44
brennannovak wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So @benbarry made some cool posters. Solid idea. Good job buddy. But seriously, everyone involved in this needs to contemplate the ridiculousness of these whiny teenaged first world problems. Print your posters. You can't copyright text on a page.

"You can't copyright text on a page." uh... what? Of course you can. Granted, Fair Use may or may not come into play depending upon the length of the text being reused, but "text on a page" is exactly what copyright was invented for in the first place.

> Granted, Fair Use may or may not come into play depending upon the length of the text being reused

Sort of. Judging by a cursory glance at the USPTO indicates that there's no real hard-and-fast rule on just how much you can use, legally, before copyright kicks in. It's really something that has to be decided on a per-case basis:

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html

In short: You can copyright text on a page. That much is obvious--that's why we have copyright, as you pointed out, but it doesn't just depend on length. It depends on presentation, typography, stylistic decisions, and so many other things that this particular situation is probably a legal gray area. That said, I very much doubt a judge would be willing to hear this, and I seriously doubt the designer would bother himself with pestering Facebook to take it to court.

Another argument worth considering is this: At what point does it become copyright and at what point does it become protected speech?

Re: How our tribute to “The Hacker Way” pissed off a Facebook designer

#50

Post by Zancarius »

chippy wrote: post #48
rickmb wrote: post #47

The most astonishing part in this whole story seems to me the fact that people apparently think that it is a good idea to hang "inspirational" slogans in uppercase on the walls of a modern tech company, in a way that is clearly not meant ironically. I would run like hell from a company that did this.

hah! Yes! Better to have read: IPO TIME. YOU JOB IS AT RISK. WORK HARDER.

Seeing your post brings the following to mind:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

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