Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin's Totally Unofficial Musings on the Business Side of the SCA
The SCA does not have an established procedure for reporting or addressing technology security vulnerabilities.
In correspondence with the Society IT Manager, they suggested sending vulnerability notifications by email, either to them, or to the relevant kingdom officers, or both.
Continue reading “Procedures for Reporting IT Vulnerabilities”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”The Social Media Handbook issued in October 2021 introduced a new requirement:
IV.C.3.d. On Facebook, Events are to be created through Official Kingdom Pages rather than Groups.
SCA Social Media Handbook, page 9
This creates a significant challenge, because local branches can create hundreds of Facebook events every year, and requiring all of those requests to pass through this bottleneck would create a serious burden on the Kingdom Social Media Officer who operates the Official Kingdom Facebook Page, and would likely lead to delays and coordination challenges.
Continue reading “Creating Facebook Events”I have sent the following letter regarding the sanction of Brian De Moray to the Society Seneschal, the Board Comments address, and the Ombudsman for IT, with copies to the Society IT Manager, Society Webminister, East Kingdom Webminister, and Brian De Moray himself. As always, I included my modern name and member number. Receipt was acknowledged less than two minutes later; I suspect they’re having a busy weekend over there. I will update if further action is taken.
To the Society’s Seneschal and Board of Directors, greetings from the East.
I write to you today to ask you to reconsider the January 2020 sanction of Brian De Moray, as the information available in the public record suggests that this decision may have been made in error.
Continue reading “Letter: Reconsideration of Sanction of Brian De Moray”TL;DR: Brian De Moray is a Master of Defense and of the Pelican in Atlantia, who was sanctioned by the Society in January 2020 for an innocuous 113-word Facebook post commenting on software development work he was doing as a volunteer for the kingdom.
As far as I can tell from the information available to me, this sanction appears to have been an error, made in haste by a Board that misinterpreted some technical jargon they didn’t understand, and should be reversed.
I first became aware of this case when it was mentioned in the context of the Wistric Saga, being discussed by Aeron Harper in the second part of his “Tale of Six Sanctions” essay. Aeron’s article was focused on the procedures and policies of the sanctions process, and understandably glossed over some of the technical details, but as a software developer, my curiosity was piqued.
At the time, I was disappointed to learn that Brian was reluctant to discuss the details for fear of additional sanction, but ten days later he published additional information, including technical details of his work, after the Chairman of the Board of Directors assured him that he would not be sanctioned a second time for the same offense.
Continue reading “The Sanction of Brian De Moray”When the SCA launched its new online membership system (based on NeonCRM), they encouraged people to reach out to them with questions.
Continue reading “CRM Privacy Policy Questions”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”I recently came across a mention of a “Local Officer’s Handbook,” buried in the depths of the Society Seneschal’s Handbook, but wasn’t able to locate a copy online.
Out of curiosity, I ordered a copy from the SCA Marketplace, and will keep an eye on my mailbox to see what arrives.
When I wrote to Society leadership for additional information, I was told that this handbook was out of date and would need to be reviewed and revised before it could be made available again. (See below for the email exchange.)
Continue reading “The Local Officer’s Handbook”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.
Back in January, as I was watching the video feed from the SCA’s Board of Directors quarterly meeting, my attention was piqued by a discussion of online petitions.
You can find this conversation at the half-way mark of the video recording, starting at 2:22:12: Continue reading “Collecting Petition Signatures Online”