[Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon

[Ken.]

BlueSteel, there's nothing wrong with bringing up the question because if it turns out that we shouldn't be running the strip then we need to know that. 

Because of all the feeds that they offer with no signup or payment I'm going to say that it has to be OK to run the strip.

The RSS page has it all listed, strip, blogs, etc... and all you have to do is grab their code/link.
http://dilbert.com/rss/

Meanwhile... I'm trying to reach someone at their 800 number for clarification, or if that fails I'll send them an email to ask about this issue.

[Freddy]

Thanks Ken, I did think about ringing them but it would cost me a small fortune.

I tend to wonder why they bother supplying a free RSS if they wouldn't want people to use it.

But yes I agree, there is nothing wrong with you bringing attention to this BlueSteel and I am glad you did 

[Ken.]

Here's where my research stands at the moment:

On the 800 number I reached Gary, he's a service rep for Resolution Inc., which is "an independent e-commerce company with an exclusive license to sell items on the official online Dilbert store."

After talking to him for a few minutes it became clear that this question was all news to him and he left the line to talk to his boss, who was in the dark as well. Turns out a different department handles the website, so they (Resolution, Inc.) had no idea that the daily cartoon was freely available in several different ways including RSS... and so they had no answer as to the correct status of our block code feeds.

At this point they are going to start an internal dialog to see what to do about the situation and will let me know something within a couple of weeks.

[Freddy]

Wow, it's hard to believe they are selling stuff without knowing that they are also giving it away too 

Thanks for that Ken 

It pays to be sure, because apparently the Dilbert site is one of the top 10,000 visited websites on the net.  Forget where I read that.  So they could have a lot of clout !

[Ken.]

Welcome.
I'm hoping they say we can keep the feeds, but we'll just have to wait and see how it works out.

[Lesmond]

Most that run this block on there site are none profit, and run the sites for friends and family, so that may or may not make a difference IMO!

[Ken.]

Most that run this block on there site are none profit, and run the sites for friends and family, so that may or may not make a difference IMO!

Hopefully it will Les.
I used the FamilyForum as an example of the kind of site that would maybe use the feeds and they will be looking at it during their discussions.

[ZarPrime]

Well, though I do believe that it was good to check on it, if they decide that everyone who is using these feeds will need to license them, they are definitely going to tick off a lot of people at this point should they decide to enforce it.  Besides the feeds, their website has literally invited millions of people to use their widgets on all manner of sites like Facebook, Wordpress, Blogs, etc., along with a bunch of other different types of sites.  In fact, their widgets work fine in a TP html/javascript block as well and use by TP users would just be a small tip of the iceberg.  One of their widgets, as I said, works in a block (Scroll to the bottom on on my test site ~ http://talesofthehavenexpanse.com/smf2test/index.php)

While I haven't read their full terms of use (http://dilbert.com/terms/) on their site because it's so long and involved, I got the idea that licensing in their mind had to do with stuff like how many mugs were imprinted with a particular strip and passed out at a company's annual convention, and stuff like that.  I think if they decide to change things up now for individual strips that are generally shown once on a website, they are definitely going to have their hands full.

ZarPrime

[Blue Steel]

lol.. thats what i found confusing too.. and why i posted that warning .. its not just dilbert bat other stuff too.. (nothing pops to mind at the moment .. but a lots of web sites now are charging to access their content for use on other sites eg: java appelet games , chat clients, some rss feeds, { some are free to public but id you want to use them on your web site then you have to pay etc.. } . )  A lot more of this type of licencing will be apearing as time goes on as they are reselling their content. that other sites like to to improve the attractions to use their site as opposed to going to the original site for that content.

[Ken.]

[Update]

We are now starting into the 4th week waiting for the Dilbert folks to get back with an answer on the license question and I've not heard anything at all from them. And, my Dilbert feed still works just fine.  :coolsmiley: