Creative Commons: A Love Story


Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a form of copyright. Right now, when you write a story or a novel or a screenplay it is immediately under copyright to you until 70 years after you die. It's similar for other mediums, but since I'm not really into those other mediums, I'll leave them for someone else to explain. Right now, you don't need to actually register a copyright, though doing so might help if you are reasonably convinced that you might someday find yourself in court over it.

Anyway. Creative Commons licenses are a type of copyright that opens up your work to other people by default. Right now, when you make something, you own everything about your work from whether it's recorded or translated, to who gets to read or share it. When you get a Creative Commons license, you are immediately giving certain rights to the public. This way, people can use, reuse, remix, and share your work without any expected financial compensation to you (well, this is one type of CC license). I think this is a GOOD thing.

I LOVE Creative Commons. The idea encompasses for me an artistic ideal. It's the understanding that other people need a library of content in order to create, be inspired, and generally move culture forward. It allows for a give-and-take cultural community. By locking every piece of artwork, every book, and every bit of music behind a pay wall, we're stifling the good that might come of exposing that work to others. Creative Commons lets artists, writers, and musicians, set their work free without the strings attached by copyrights - just in case some future-version of the copyright holder might want to litigate.

I've recently benefited from Creative Commons. I've been working on a video-project-thing and I needed intro music. What I found was Steven O'Brien, who has graciously recorded works that are already in CC and opened them up to anyone who wants to use them for free. I found the perfect music and I never have to worry about someone coming out of the woodwork later, waving a sign and demanding a check.

My little project has nothing to do with music (other than using it in the intro) and by using the music, I'm not hindering it's marketability or value (I think), so this is a win-win! Additionally, Mr. O'Brien has what's called an "attribution" license, so I can (and must) tell others where I got the music so they have the option to commission him for a piece of music, or donate on his website. He helps me by letting me use music for my videos, I help him by (hopefully) sending business his way. Everybody wins!

In my ideal world, everything I make would be CC. Unfortunately, we live in a world that punishes those who live idealistically - even if those ideals are (in my opinion) morally right - in this case, by limiting their financial gains and ability to support themselved. My videos and my art (when I get there) will be CC, but I'd like make a decent living from my writing. That means my books won't be in the commons for a while(assuming I finish anything *sigh*). Hopefully, when I'm making a steady living off of my work (what a dream!) I can phase older stuff out to the CC and give it away to everyone. Until then, here's to hoping!

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