Salutations Colour Nation,

I just received a message from thoughtful and concerned colour citizen purpleRegal about an app in the Google store which provides ColourLovers patterns as wallpapers:

Google Pattern App Link

Does Google have some sort of licence agreement with ColourLovers or is this just a wholesale miss-use of our creations?

Any information about this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Luna.

Get a beautiful pattern wallpaper every day on your Android!

Pattrn is an unique wallpaper app for phones and tablets that gives you access to the huge collection of patterns created by the COLOURlovers community.

They probably have some agreement with ColourLovers, I think :/

Is it technically stealing if the patterns are credited to their creators (under the creative commons license)? Or does this work similarly to Flickr?

I saw this app in the store too and was shocked!

After some thought and looking at licenses, though, I think the following is true:

EverydayMiracles wrote:

Is it technically stealing if the patterns are credited to their creators (under the creative commons license)? Or does this work similarly to Flickr?

One other thing to consider is Fair Use. This is how Pinterest runs. It's legal as long as the person using the item has done commentary on it, unless I'm mistaken. There was a whole hullabaloo about the thing on Squidoo.

I am wondering who created this app? Is it a made by one of the admin here or by some other person? Is there anything we can do if it was created by someone outside of our camp? There has to be something we can do... but then again, it may be something like the whole Pinterest situation, etc.

EverydayMiracles wrote:

One other thing to consider is Fair Use. This is how Pinterest runs. It's legal as long as the person using the item has done commentary on it, unless I'm mistaken. There was a whole hullabaloo about the thing on Squidoo.

Someone named Lucas Rocha created the app pointed out by Luna.
There's also this.
And this

Feel free to refer to the other thread we have going: CL Pattern Thievery This is becoming so common place that I'm no longer surprised. -_-
By the way, didn't Pinterest have some legal trouble because of all of that?

Personally I don't really mind so long as I'm given appropriate credit, after all I want people to use and enjoy my patterns, it's why I make them. I just thought that if ColourLover's didn't know about this then might want to take a look at it. Also, I think those of us who have created the patterns should maybe get the app for free, though I have an iPhone not an Android so that point is a bit moot:)

Agree with Luna.Love people enjoying my patterns as well but it was new info for me that apps are using them.Hugs to all creative minds here:))

Thanks for the heads up Mei:)

OrigamiMei wrote:

Someone named Lucas Rocha created the app pointed out by Luna.
There's also this.
And this

Feel free to refer to the other thread we have going: CL Pattern Thievery This is becoming so common place that I'm no longer surprised. -_-
By the way, didn't Pinterest have some legal trouble because of all of that?

OrigamiMei wrote:

By the way, didn't Pinterest have some legal trouble because of all of that?

Yes, but Pinterest is apparently considered to be entirely legal provided that a comment is made on the image that is being uploaded, as this is considered to be "Fair Use." Fair Use, however, is exceptionally confusing and has been causing a lot of trouble for people who want to be able to use celebrity images or movie stills for articles, etc. I had a huge problem with it when I wanted to create an article about Seneca Crane's beard; I couldn't find any images that I was "allowed" to use for this purpose (considering that it was commercial and not commentary).

The thing with Pinterest is that the site itself is not responsible for the images that are uploaded, and this is in their TOS. Violators would need to be assessed and prosecuted individually, which is more hassle than it's worth, especially if you take into consideration the possible problems with Fair Use.

The difference with this APP is that its creator is directly responsible for the content that's being shared using it, and that is a serious offense.

We know of this app and the other free android apps that load our patterns. None of them are paid apps, so they're aren't violating commercial usage rights. And every app should have the pattern name & credit on them respecting the terms here.

So in short, the solution is to make any patterns that one doesn't want used "All Rights Reserved." In theory then these won't be loaded into the apps, I assume?

I noticed that app about a week ago. First thing I checked was if it was legal, and it does follow the copyright in everything except that there's no credit for template creators. I'm really bothered by that, even though it's fun (but very shocking) to see patterns made with my templates as base there.
A friend mailed the owner of the app, and he says he would include it if Colourlovers.com API had that information:

"The reason is very simple: the COLOURlovers API
(http://www.colourlovers.com/api) doesn't give us, third-party apps,
access to the source pattern template information. In other words,
there's no way for us to know what templates are used in each pattern.
I'll contact COLOURlovers to check if they have any plans in this
regard.

[...]I will definitely add credits in some way once the API allows me to :-)

Cheers!

--lucasr"

So he's aware of it and has been nice about it too.

Atleast this should get some cred already - for me and Nobokkan - as it's used in their logo, :


Anyway whatever, fun idea and all, but would be better if Colourlovers.com released their own wallpaper app and letting the community be involved and have some control over it.
Speaking of apps, when does the official colourlovers app come to android? Or has it already? Would love to be able to make palettes on my phone..

ETA: forgot to add the entire mail and errr reworded my post a bit..:)

Also Luna, it is already free otherwise it would be illegal (but you've probably understood that already) and I agree about the credit thing.

And Darius, if it's true what Lucas says, does this mean the other apps that use patterns from here through the API also do not credit the template creators? I know this site is very protective of it's users and wouldn't violate the copyright they set themselves, so that must be an oversight. A smaller link (compared to the pattern creators name) as used on the site would work..?

Hi Anomalin,

Patterns created using templates have the credit to the template creator on their pages here on CL. Patterns loaded through the API don't include the template creators information, but linking to the source for that colored pattern, ie the pattern detail page here on COLOURlovers would show that information.

Having apps include both the pattern name & creator + template name & creator would be a lot of information for any app to try and fit in.

And yes, it does seem like there are still some open places in our API where ARR content is still showing up. We'll close that off asap, so if any of you don't want your patterns or templates showing up in 3rd party apps like this, you can change the rights.

+B

Look at that pattern I linked to, for example:

Pattern License

Credit must be given to Nobokkan & Anomalin.
Commercial use is not allowed.
Derivative works are allowed, but must be shared with this license.

CC-BY-NC-SA

If "linking back to the source" counts as "crediting" (haven't checked if Pattrn etc does) why would the colorers name have to be there in the App?

Ridiculous if one person gets sole credit for a joint effort. It looks very bad. And hey, if it's perfectly legal to leave it out, why not leave out both names?
Would the people in here like that? No?
Well, if space is such a problem, that would be the best solution.

Sooo.. People of this community know how this site works. They know there is (often) a template creator, and a separate colorist.
All the people getting apps with content from here probably have no idea that Screenname782397423 is NOT the person that painted that wallpaper. (..or cupcakewrapper.. or whatever)
In fact, all it says is that the sole creator is Screenname782397423.

Is it possible for us non-Android users to browse what's being used? I'd just like to see what's being used.

I agree. Credit all involved in creating a pattern or don't credit at all.

Anomalin wrote:

Ridiculous if one person gets sole credit for a joint effort. It looks very bad. And hey, if it's perfectly legal to leave it out, why not leave out both names?
Would the people in here like that? No?
Well, if space is such a problem, that would be the best solution.

Sooo.. People of this community know how this site works. They know there is (often) a template creator, and a separate colorist.
All the people getting apps with content from here probably have no idea that Screenname782397423 is NOT the person that painted that wallpaper. (..or cupcakewrapper.. or whatever)
In fact, all it says is that the sole creator is Screenname782397423.