It’s Time to Revisit the Release Form Policies

Back in 2020–21, when I first got involved in trying to clarify the SCA’s release forms policies, my goal was for there to be an up-to-date reference that webministers, chroniclers, and social media officers could all share, which would incorporate the original policy written in 2009, and the various FAQs written in 2010, the policy interpretations that various Society officers had issued since then, into a single document.

In 2021–22 I put together a draft of that handbook — by and large a restatement of existing policy, with no significant changes — and handed it off to Society officers who then made some additional changes and published the result in early 2023. .

In the following months, as the new handbook was circulated, I talked to people serving in a bunch of different roles across the SCA to get their reactions, and wrote up a series of suggestions on how to improve the handbook based on that feedback:

However, the response from the Society Publications Manager — the officer that owns the Release Forms Handbook — has been to ignore me. The Society’s org chart shows that the Publications Manager supervises the Society Chronicler and the editors of the various Society-level publications, but they aren’t responsible for web publishing or social media, so the concerns of those offices are (understandably) less salient for them.

In 2024, I tried to find examples of people for whom the existing release forms were working well — who were able to publish a large number of photos, art, and text written by the membership each month, without experiencing a lot of friction around release forms — but I wasn’t able to find anyone for whom this was true… and when I wrote to various Society officers asking if they knew of any such success stories, they weren’t able to identify any either.

The Society Social Media Officer is able to publish a large amount of user-generated content without experiencing issues with the release forms… because they’ve decided that they don’t have to use the release forms. However, as far as I can tell, they never informed local social media officers of this policy interpretation, and dealing with release forms continues to be cited as a barrier by officers as a barrier to getting fresh material onto local websites and social media.

I think it’s time to have a round of discussion about updating the release forms policy to better serve the organization, but doing so is an uphill battle.

The release forms policy was written fifteen years ago by a cautious lawyer without a lot of Internet experience. The 2022 Release Forms Handbook restated that policy but did not update it to reflect the modern media landscape. The people who the current policy inconveniences have no power to change it, and the people who have power to change it aren’t themselves constrained by it.

Having a restrictive policy limits the organization’s legal liability, and if turns out that adhering to the policy causes so much friction that officers routinely ignore the policy, well… the Society’s leadership can just ignore that and hope that nothing ever goes wrong.

Written Consent Can Replace Release Forms for Social Media

Even with the addition of an email-only option for release forms two years ago, local officers that publish information for their SCA branches (including social media officers, web ministers, chroniclers, and others) have continued to describe the use of release forms as a burden to doing their work.

Given that context, I was excited to hear from the Society Social Media Officer that other forms of written consent can substitute for release forms.

They listed three distinct forms this consent could take:

  • a release form,
  • a written statement of permission, or
  • a hashtag that indicate permission, such as #sharemysca.

This brings the practices for copyright (photographers and artists) and likeness (models) in line with the existing practices for privacy (personal information), which also can be published after receiving a simpler type of written consent short of a full release form.

I hope that other offices will follow their lead!


From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Social Media Officer
Date: 21 September 2024

Good evening, Your Excellency,

Some of the social media officers I’ve spoken to here in the East have grumbled about the hassle involved in getting release forms filled out by photographers and people pictured in photos and videos, and then in keeping track of all of the resulting paperwork, and so I’ve been on the lookout for “success stories” of folks in the Society who are handling this challenge well in hopes that others can learn their techniques.

The Society’s official social media feeds on Instagram and Facebook share a dozen or more photographs every month and I’d love to hear how you manage the associated record-keeping.

Do you generally have people sign paper release forms, or sign the PDF forms electronically, or have them agree to the release via email? 

Roughly what proportion of the photos you publish are considered “portrait style” and require a model release?

How do you keep track of all of the release forms you’ve collected over the years?

Thank you so much for any information you’re able to share!

— Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin 


From: Society Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Date: 1 January 2025

Thanks for your patience.

The important thing is to have explicit permission for usage. Some groups have run education campaigns for use of hashtags that indicate the permission of the creator for use or have simply contacted the creator in writing and gained their agreement and kept this as a record. Examples of the hashtags include #regrammysca #sharemysca #regramcalontir

A full release will always be the ideal option but explicit permission from the creator reduces the risk exponentially.

Brigid


From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Social Media Officer
Date: 2 January 2025

Thanks so much for that explanation!

It is often simple to get explicit permission from the creator, but significantly more challenging to get them to sign a release form — lowering the bar will make it much easier to collect great-looking material for our social media feeds!

Does this looser “explicit permission” standard only apply to the social media office, or does it also govern other offices such as the webministry?

— Mathghamhain


From: Society Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Date: 2 January 2025

I can’t speak for other offices. This is for social media only.

Just remember you need documented explicit permission – so verbal isn’t enough 


In Search of Release Form Success Stories

For the last year, I’ve been trying to find examples of offices which had demonstrated success in using the SCA’s release forms to collect consent from people for their likeness or creative works to be used in Society publications.

I was hoping that if we could identify a handful of folks who were doing this effectively, we could document the processes they used and share them with others.

Instead, I’ve found that nearly all offices fall into one of two groups:

Continue reading “In Search of Release Form Success Stories”

Who Has Rights To Heraldic Illustrations Submitted to the College of Arms?

There’s often a bit of confusion about the rights to the pictures people submit to the SCA’s College of Arms when registering their personal devices and badges.

Does the SCA “own” or “have rights to” those heraldic images?

Continue reading “Who Has Rights To Heraldic Illustrations Submitted to the College of Arms?”

Draft Licensing Agreement for SCA Software Developers

TL;DR: If you write or manage software for the SCA, I’d love to get your feedback on this proposed license agreement intended to document the Society’s ability to continue using and maintaining the software even if you someday become unavailable.

Given the high proportion of technical professionals in the Society’s ranks, it is no surprise that the SCA has a long history of informal software development: folks developing small custom applications to facilitate some part of their office’s or local group’s operations. However, this process has by-and-large been uncoordinated, and policy for it has been slow to coalesce.

One recurrent issue in this area has been the lack of clear licensing practices. In a few cases, copyright has explicitly been transferred to the Society, but in the majority of cases the issue has not been considered, leaving the copyright in the hands of the original developer. In most cases, there is no written license agreement, which is usually fine while the original developer remains involved in local activities, but can become problematic if they move away or drop out of Society activities, as nobody knows for sure if the group has the right to to continue using the software, to make changes to it, or to share it with other branches of the SCA.

Continue reading “Draft Licensing Agreement for SCA Software Developers”

Are Releases Needed to Re-share Social Media?

Someone asked an interesting question over on the Known World Discord server this evening, and after I wrote up my answer I thought I should also post it here (lightly edited) in case it was of use to anyone else:

Is sharing posts from individuals […] acceptable by SCA social media rules for official accounts, or is a written release required?

Continue reading “Are Releases Needed to Re-share Social Media?”

Update: SCA Disclaims Copyright to Heraldic Officers’ Work

Earlier this year I learned that the SCA has long relied on an unwritten interpretation of copyright law that does not seem to be well supported.

I’ve encouraged Society leadership to reconsider this approach, motivated in part by the fact that this would have implications for my work on the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art, but it’s been difficult to make much headway and now a month has passed since my last email without any reply.

While I am not a lawyer, I am profoundly skeptical that the Society’s interpretation holds any water, and so I have decided to move forwards without giving it any credence, as laid out in the letter below.

[Update:] I’m very happy to report that the Society Seneschal has responded, stating that they are not claiming copyright to the armorial depictions produced by heraldic and scribal officers.

It remains unclear to me on what grounds they claim copyright for some creative works created by volunteers but renounce it for others — however, as a first step in the right direction, I am pleased by this declaration.

Continue reading “Update: SCA Disclaims Copyright to Heraldic Officers’ Work”

Release Form Improvements

When the new Release Forms Handbook was published earlier this year, it included updated versions of the release forms themselves.

Although I had a chance to provide feedback on the contents of the handbook, the new forms unfortunately weren’t shared with me prior to publication, so I wasn’t able to proofread them or provide suggestions for their appearance.

Continue reading “Release Form Improvements”

Implicit Transfer of Copyright in Official SCA Documents

I’ve long been curious about the legal reasoning behind a carve-out in the Society’s release-form policies which stated that it is not necessary to obtain written consent when publishing routine operational communications.

Continue reading “Implicit Transfer of Copyright in Official SCA Documents”

Local Officers May Grant Permission to Redistribute Copyrighted Materials

When an author/creator sends material to be published by the SCA, they’re asked to fill out a Creative Works Grant of Use form, which offers several options including having the author assign their copyright to the Society.

While I’m not fond of this approach — in most cases, I’d rather see people retain rights to their work and merely grant the Society a license to use it — it is in widespread use, and it’s worth grappling with its consequences, including the following: If the SCA ends up owning the copyright to these contributions, what steps are needed to grant others permission to use them elsewhere?

I posed this question to the Society Webminister, who replied that local officers could grant others permission to republish those works, without requiring approval from further up the Society’s chain of command.

Correspondence attached below for additional context.


From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Webminister
Cc: Society Publications Manager
Date: March 10, 2023

Greetings from the East!

I have a policy question I’m hoping you can help to answer, which is related to this sentence in the standard site disclaimer provided by the Webministers Handbook:

For permission to use photographs, articles, or artwork from this site, contact the Webminister.

If someone follows this guidance and contacts a webminister for such permission, does the webminister have independent authority to grant it? 

In particular, if I’m serving as a local webminister and have published some educational material for which the author filled out a Creative Works Assignment form to transfer copyright to the SCA, can I make the decision to allow someone else to re-print it? 

Or if the request must be forwarded up the chain of command, at what level of authority should that decision be made?

Thank you!

— Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin


From: Society Webminister
Cc: Society Publications Manager
Date: March 15, 2023

It is my understanding that as long as there is a document in place (i.e. Release form) depending how that form is worded, you may either grant the request or ask that particular individual for permission to redistribute. It should not have to go any higher on the chain for that.