Creative Commons

Copyright protection is extensive in the US and most of the developed world. This stands in stark contrast to the Third World and most NYC streetcorners. Once your pen leaves the paper, or notes recorded, you have exclusive right to that for life plus 75 yrs after, for your kids & theirs. Thing is, there is so much content out there. We basically have a herd mentality and want to view/hear that which we think most other people are viewing & hearing. Copyright is not very meaningful to most people because it's so hard to get a foothold on popularity, they do not see themselves at all in the content-holder role. As powerless as they are as creators, they accept the same as consumers too! They allow themselves to be brainwashed into believing that they have no right to their own culture, the one they created, if only by watching it.

Meanwhile, large corporate interests that create the brainwashing, also target and cultivate the most talented artists, early in life, and then, in many ways, own them. So, these copyright "protections" are not in the interests of individuals or artists, they are in the interests of the owners, who duped and ripped off the real owners. It's the classic case of the tail wagging the dog. We see it with the drug companies, the food/obesity thing, tobacco, alcohol, firearms. Why do you think these are some of the most powerful lobbies in DC? These are all cases where you have large corporate interests basically at odds with the health and happiness of the public, and yet they succeed! Time after time after time. It's unbelievable. The only way to fight back is through educating people, or trying to. It's an uphill battle, even when you're offering people free music.

Often, artists don't want or need all that "protection". They like to have their art disseminated, enjoyed and used by others for their own creative purposes. Most people don't want someone taking their art and selling it for their own profit, but are happy to allow others to use it, make it better and more meaningful, as long as they get credit. For example, two of the photos uploaded to this blog were taken by others. I titled them and they enhanced my site while giving "airplay" to the talented photographers who put their photos on Flickr under a cc - creative commons license.

So, check out the Creative Commons website, the link is above. It's got a great little video on the White Stripes. I'm looking forward to putting more stuff out there, and using more stuff, under these oh so much better licenses. Even the ever-so-charming Hillary Rosen "Learned to Love Larry" ( Lessig, an article she wrote for Wired), and these very creative and hopefully increasingly common licenses.