creative commons

This is the clearest article I've ever read about Creative Commons - about what it is, about what it is not, and about what many people incorrectly think it is. Creative Commons is not a step towards revolutionizing the music industry and putting the RIAA out of business. Creative Commons is a set of legal tools to enable artists (and scientists) to voluntarily release some of their legal rights, to take a personal stance that they choose not to charge people who wish to use their work in certain ways, such as non-commercial copying or derivative work creation. It is a tool to enable small-time artists to ensure that people who want to spread their music can do so. This benefits the artists, by spreading their name and allowing them to make more money off of their other works, such as non-CC music CDs and live performances. This recognizes that each CD is not a world in and of itself, but a piece of an artist's larger collection.

And it certainly does not advocate stripping copyright holders of their legal rights. This perversion in particular is disturbing. Liberty is only fully realized by allowing individuals to freely enter themselves into binding contracts of their choosing. Assuming that those who contribute their works to the CC do so freely, i.e. they are aware of their alternatives and of the pros and cons of both CC'ing and retaining full legal copyright (a concern which Lessig addresses - I told you his post had everything), their decision to do so, and the existence of legal tools to enforce their decision, is an ideal expression of freedom.

Now, CC's trickiest challenge is its marketing. There will always be people who CC works that they otherwise would abandon - but this isn't enough to make the CC domain rich, to make ordinary people want to explore the CC domain for music to listen to or scientific ideas to adapt and develop. But in order for CC to contain valuable content, and to continue to get valuable content, it must provide something of value to its contributors. I am skeptical that charitable contributions of valuable cultural and scientific material will continue once the heady initial enthusiasm and energy wears off; this has always been my concern. But if CC develops an active marketplace of content, one with an effective interface to allow contributions to be classified and to allow users to find what they're looking for, so that contributors of content find that their content is frequently downloaded and used, then it will continue in its significance long into the future.