In music, the use of sampling to take snippets of one recording and
incorporate them into new creative works has become commonplace. In the
field of photography, image manipulation and collage are frequently
used. Since Napster hit the scene, large-scale copyright infringement of
all sorts of content has become a reality
The issue of people distributing and reusing digital media is a problem
for many businesses. It may also be a hidden opportunity.
Software - Out of control
Uncontrolled copying and reuse have been problems in the world of
software for many years. One of the results has been the growth of open
source software.
Open source applications have become viable alternatives to many
commercial ones. Companies like IBM and Red Hat are building their
business futures on open source technologies. Open source software has
also become a valuable part of much commercial software. Apple's OS X is
built on open source Unix components. This has helped a relatively small
company like Apple create an operating system that competes on a
technical level with Microsoft's Windows.
Open source software allows technology companies to compete in areas
where intellectual property can create barriers to competition and
innovation.
Content - Out of control
Just as open source licensing has opened up new possibilities in the
world of technology, it promises to do the same in the area of creative
content.
Creative Commons "open content" licensing represents the ideas of open
source, but tailored to creative content. Creative Commons' goal is to
create a system of flexible copyright that allows creators to protect
their works while encouraging other uses.
Copyright has created many barriers to innovation in the Internet. In
the US, congress has extended copyright terms 11 times in the last 40
years. This limits the number of works that are in the public domain,
reduces access to creative works, limits the creation of derivative
works, and can be a barrier to competition. Many of the new
technological and business innovations that the Internet has made
possible have been hobbled by the complexity and limitations associated
with copyrights.
The idea of "open content" opens up many opportunities. In a world of
digital content and high-speed connections, the cost to copy and
distribute a work drops to almost nothing. Open content is a good fit
for companies wanting to take advantage of person-to-person networks,
file sharing, and digital copying.
Inside the licenses
The Creative Commons licenses are built on several key ideas:
- You allow people to do things like copy and distribute your content;
- You maintain your copyright;
- You can limit how content is used.
- You can require permission to use your work commercially.
Key to the licenses is the idea that users are given the right to copy
and distribute your copyrighted works, yet you can retain other
commercial rights. Encouraging users to copy and distribute works, in a
legal way, makes these licenses a great match for the Internet. Content
creators can benefit, because they can use the Internet as a tool for
inexpensively distributing their works. Companies can also benefit
because open content encourages uses such as webcasting, sampling,
content aggregation, and other ways of using content to create new work.
Creative Commons provides the licenses in several ways. The
"human-readable" form is an easy-to-understand version. The
"lawyer-readable" version translates this into legal code, detailing
definitions and rights more specifically. The "machine-readable" form
translates it into HTML with meta-data.
The machine form lets you tag content so that it can be distributed
electronically, with licensing information attached in an easily
interpreted format. For example, if you wanted to distribute a
promotional MP3 via the web, you could encode it and include licensing
information in the file. It could be distributed using file-sharing
networks and other methods, and the licensing would follow it. This lets
users verify that the file is being shared legally.
The embedded license information may allow future file-sharing tools to
make it easy to find legal downloads. If you needed a piece of music or
a stock photo for a presentation, you could limit the search to files
that are tagged to allow commercial use. On the other hand, if you just
wanted to download some new music legally, you could search for any MP3
tagged as "open content".
What Open Content is available now?
Creative Commons is relatively new, and it will probably be years before
it achieves the prominence of open source software. However, there are
already many people interested in using open content licensing.
Magnatune calls itself the open music label, because it's built on the
idea of using open content licensing to make distributing music online
legal. Magnatune is building a library of "open music". This means that
you can listen to their stations, download their music, and share it
with anyone you like.
OpenPhoto is a stock photo agency. They license digital photographs for
free commercial and non-commercial use. The Prelinger Archives
distributes over 1,000 films in streaming media and downloadable
formats. The BBC is planning to give the public full access to all of
its program archives through the Internet.
Many sources of text are becoming available as open content, also.
Eldritch Press publishes public domain books online. MIT is in the
process of translating their course materials with their OpenCourseWare
project. The content of many weblogs and web sites are also being
offered as open content.
Why Open Content?
Creative Commons open licenses are designed to make it easy to share
certain rights over content, while limiting others. This is a good match
for the Internet, where many users are interested in getting and sharing
digital content. By opening up the rights to distribute and copy
content, companies can take advantage of the demand for digital content,
while retaining still controlling its commercial use.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Creative Commons is devoted to expanding the range of creative work
available for others to build upon and share.
http://creativecommons.org/
Common Content is a catalog of Creative Commons licensed content.
http://commoncontent.org/
