It was pointed out on Reddit that some of my Gridfinity Stuff is not posted under the correct license, though it was not noted what the correct license is. I had thought that Gridfinity was more a spec, but after looking around for info on it, I'm not sure if that is the case or if I need to attribute a specific source. I pulled the models down temporarily while I look into this. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it's important to make sure I can get it right.
Update - after an hour (or more) of sorting through a dozen websites, and the VoidstarLabs discord, I'm still looking for a way forward. First for some context though, I would l like to keep some of the Gridfinity stuff I have made under the Standard Digital License, for several reasons:
Back to how I can manage to keep the Standard Digital License (or in some case the CC BY-NC-SA license), while also correctly attributing Zach Freedman's work to create the Gridfnity Standards? Well that will take some more research, since there are a few factors I need to look at. The MIT license, which Zach Freedman used to unleash Gridfinity on an unsuspecting world, does not require that derivative works use that same (or any particular) license. It is considered a very permissive license apparently, only requiring attribution by the posting his MIT license with the derivative work (though again the derivative work does not need to be distributed under the same MIT license. I have some other concerns though, which I need to research, and I'm not a lawyer. So it's gonna take some time, but I want to get this right so I don't need to do this again.
Update 2: Digging deeper, I think that I can keep the Standard Digital License on the models where it is already applied, however I will need to add Zach's MIT license to the description. I have never actually seen Zach Freedman's MIT license on any Gridfinity designs though, so it makes me wonder why I was called out for it on Reddit (but it's good that it happened, so I can fix this). I suspect the user may have thought I should be using one of the CC licenses and not the restrictive Standard Digital License. However (I think) that the CC licenses, by themselves, do not technically satisfy the MIT license for Zach Freedman's work either. That is because they do not attribute, and do not include Zach Freedman's MIT license. It's all really confusing, which is unfortunate, since it seems the MIT license was chosen because it's one of the most permissive, not to cause confusion.
So I will need to add some text to make it clear that the MIT license is for the Gridfinity elements of the design only, or the "gridfinity spec" as I would call it, and added to satisfy Zach Freedman's MIT license requirements. However, the MIT license will not be the license which my models are going to be licensed under, since that is not required (the only requirements seem to be that there is attribution and that Zach's MIT license is displayed). But again I AM NOT A LAWYER, so don't take any of this as advice, I'm just trying to work through this, and figure out the best way forward.
I'm gonna try and think up some text to add and explain Zach Freedmans's MIT license in the description of my designs, and also thank him for introducing the world to Gridfinity, in the least confusing way possible (lol, wish me luck). Once I get some boilerplate, then I will start working through each model to update the descriptions, so they will be compliant. After that the models will be made public again. I don't plan to change the existing licenses used for my models though.
In the meantime if there are questions on the designs, please contact me via PM on Printables, and I will do what I can to assist.
Update 3 - 8/17/2024: I think I have some "boilerplate" that explains Zach Freedman's MIT license and gives proper credit for the Gridfinity design elements (or specification) used in my designs. However before I go all in, and update every one of my Gridfinity models, which is a bit of work that I'd rather not do twice, I asked the Reddit community in r/Gridfinity for their advice. I also asked if there is a known example of how to do it.
Update 4 - 8/17/2024: r/Gridfinity came through, and I feel better about the text I was planning to add, and added a bit more based on the discussion. I'm still working on it, But things will back up soon (definitely this week and probably much sooner).
Update 5 - 8/18/2024: After reading through the posts on Reddit and thinking about this, I decided to add an attribution and thanks comment to my models with Zach Freedman's Patreon and Youtube links. I did not post the MIT license, since it is the Gridfinity specification that I'm using (or at least something close to it that is compatible), and I did not directly remix Zach's original models (which I had to go looking for on his Thangs account, when I first started this side quest). I am not a lawyer though, and this is not by any stretch of the imagination, advice. But that is how I'm attributing him for sharing the Gridfinity system with the world, and I hope it's correct. I'm updating the models now, and have everything on Printables back up, aside from a few older revisions of some designs, which I decided to leave down since they are not maintained anymore. I'm having a problem updating the MakerWorld stuff though. I was able update a few things on MakerWorld, but the last several I updated did not seem to take. I'm gonna circle back later today and see if I can finish those up and get them updated.
Update - after an hour (or more) of sorting through a dozen websites, and the VoidstarLabs discord, I'm still looking for a way forward. First for some context though, I would l like to keep some of the Gridfinity stuff I have made under the Standard Digital License, for several reasons:
- I want to be able to maintain the designs, which means I want to control which repositories they are available on (currently MakerWorld and Printables). The CC licenses are very permissive about redistribution (not a surprise, since that is an obvious goal). What that means for 3D designers is that models can be copied and uploaded by anyone, to any repository. That is great from an open source standpoint, but sucks when a designer wants to get feedback and maintain a design. Add to that the financial incentives some repositories stack on, and it becomes a bit sour tasting to find ones models on random sites, where somebody is collecting points for simply moving your design from A to B.
- I may in the future want to start a Printables Club, and would like to offer some designs exclusively. Nothing that is currently available would be moved to an exclusive design, but I have some things in the works that could be.
- Traditionally the concept of "remixing" has been loosely defined as making a substantial change to an original model, where the "remix" has some new function or aesthetic difference. The CC licenses however are much more permissive of what is considered an adaptation, and they way I read it, it seems that can include simply scaling or rearranging the parts of a model. So (again from how I read it), the CC license concept of an adaption, would commonly be referred to as a "copy" in the 3D printing world, with some changes made in the slicer covered as "remixes". The repositories sometimes go a step further than the CC license though, and try to remove obvious copies which clutter the space - but that is inconsistent at best. If you haven't guessed, I'm not a fan of slicer or low effort remixes, which either scale or rearrange a designers models, without adding anything substantive or new on their own.
- I do not currently license my designs for commercial work. Originally that was because this is just a hobby and I could afford to use up filament to test and get designs ready for being shared. But over time, the expenses have added up, and it would be nice to defray some of the costs involved. The Standard Digital License should allow me to have that option if I want to use it. On some models with the CC BY-NC-SA license, I've been told by sellers who were inappropriately selling my stuff, that they thought it was OK if they "threw it in as a freebie", or in other cases they found my designs through remixes which were not correctly licensed for NC.
Back to how I can manage to keep the Standard Digital License (or in some case the CC BY-NC-SA license), while also correctly attributing Zach Freedman's work to create the Gridfnity Standards? Well that will take some more research, since there are a few factors I need to look at. The MIT license, which Zach Freedman used to unleash Gridfinity on an unsuspecting world, does not require that derivative works use that same (or any particular) license. It is considered a very permissive license apparently, only requiring attribution by the posting his MIT license with the derivative work (though again the derivative work does not need to be distributed under the same MIT license. I have some other concerns though, which I need to research, and I'm not a lawyer. So it's gonna take some time, but I want to get this right so I don't need to do this again.
Update 2: Digging deeper, I think that I can keep the Standard Digital License on the models where it is already applied, however I will need to add Zach's MIT license to the description. I have never actually seen Zach Freedman's MIT license on any Gridfinity designs though, so it makes me wonder why I was called out for it on Reddit (but it's good that it happened, so I can fix this). I suspect the user may have thought I should be using one of the CC licenses and not the restrictive Standard Digital License. However (I think) that the CC licenses, by themselves, do not technically satisfy the MIT license for Zach Freedman's work either. That is because they do not attribute, and do not include Zach Freedman's MIT license. It's all really confusing, which is unfortunate, since it seems the MIT license was chosen because it's one of the most permissive, not to cause confusion.
So I will need to add some text to make it clear that the MIT license is for the Gridfinity elements of the design only, or the "gridfinity spec" as I would call it, and added to satisfy Zach Freedman's MIT license requirements. However, the MIT license will not be the license which my models are going to be licensed under, since that is not required (the only requirements seem to be that there is attribution and that Zach's MIT license is displayed). But again I AM NOT A LAWYER, so don't take any of this as advice, I'm just trying to work through this, and figure out the best way forward.
I'm gonna try and think up some text to add and explain Zach Freedmans's MIT license in the description of my designs, and also thank him for introducing the world to Gridfinity, in the least confusing way possible (lol, wish me luck). Once I get some boilerplate, then I will start working through each model to update the descriptions, so they will be compliant. After that the models will be made public again. I don't plan to change the existing licenses used for my models though.
In the meantime if there are questions on the designs, please contact me via PM on Printables, and I will do what I can to assist.
Update 3 - 8/17/2024: I think I have some "boilerplate" that explains Zach Freedman's MIT license and gives proper credit for the Gridfinity design elements (or specification) used in my designs. However before I go all in, and update every one of my Gridfinity models, which is a bit of work that I'd rather not do twice, I asked the Reddit community in r/Gridfinity for their advice. I also asked if there is a known example of how to do it.
Update 4 - 8/17/2024: r/Gridfinity came through, and I feel better about the text I was planning to add, and added a bit more based on the discussion. I'm still working on it, But things will back up soon (definitely this week and probably much sooner).
Update 5 - 8/18/2024: After reading through the posts on Reddit and thinking about this, I decided to add an attribution and thanks comment to my models with Zach Freedman's Patreon and Youtube links. I did not post the MIT license, since it is the Gridfinity specification that I'm using (or at least something close to it that is compatible), and I did not directly remix Zach's original models (which I had to go looking for on his Thangs account, when I first started this side quest). I am not a lawyer though, and this is not by any stretch of the imagination, advice. But that is how I'm attributing him for sharing the Gridfinity system with the world, and I hope it's correct. I'm updating the models now, and have everything on Printables back up, aside from a few older revisions of some designs, which I decided to leave down since they are not maintained anymore. I'm having a problem updating the MakerWorld stuff though. I was able update a few things on MakerWorld, but the last several I updated did not seem to take. I'm gonna circle back later today and see if I can finish those up and get them updated.
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