First I would like I thank the entire community for all of their support. It is great to see that many people realized this was a very important issue and blogged about it and left comments about it. It also was very good that I got to talk to some of the people that disagreed with me. Also, I have no hard feelings towards any individuals at PodTech.

For anyone that does not know what I am talking about you can read my blog post here and others’ here and here and here and here and here and here and here to get up to speed on what this is about.

Since that blog was posted PodTech offered me $1000 and left it as their final offer. I was not willing to let them set the terms of the agreement, the fact of the matter is that they would have had a much better position from which to negotiate if they had been willing to talk to me in the beginning.

I didn’t want lower my offer because I didn’t want to set a precedent that others can steal work and then negotiate after the fact as though nothing was done wrong in the first place. What incentive is there for companies to pay creators up front for their work if they can just steal it then only pay up if they get caught, with no penalty, the same amount they would have paid up front? Negotiations are for normal business transactions, which happen before work is used… this was a different story. Although that was my position, I also didn’t want to drag the entire thing on for a long time, so I decided to lower my invoice to $2500. They didn’t accept my offer.

From the beginning of this I’ve told everyone that I was not looking for some quick easy free cash. This was, for the most part, about setting a precedent so companies (and individals) think about what they are doing and the repercussions that can ensue when they use others’ work outside of the copyright or Creative Commons license that is provided.

I believe in using Creative Commons, it allows my work to be used without someone going through the hassle of contacting me and waiting for me to grant them permission. I am ok with this as long as they follow the rules of the license, but just like if I had an all rights reserved copyright on a photograph, contact me before you use it outside of what Creative Commons grants. This goes for anyone using Creative Commons, you should expect others and companies to respect your copyright. You still own the copyright on your work if you release it under Creative Commons; you are just granting certain use of your work through a Creative Commons license. See here for more information on Creative Commons.

I have received a check for $1000 from PodTech. This came as quite a surprise since I had not agreed to take $1000. So what do I do now? It seems to me they want me to cash the check and leave it at that, happy that I got anything at all. And shouldn’t I be?

I believe the community will benefit from Creative Commons becomming widely used, known and respected. Since I am at the point that I have no desire to pursue this issue any further with PodTech, and in accordance with my original goals when I decided to stand up for my Creative Commons license, I have decided to donate the entire $1000 to the Creative Commons organization.