Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.We provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof. Individuals both own their copyright ans share it with others.
Although that sounds like a nice idea, copyright issues have dramatic effects on creativity and profit. Law suits and million dollar court cases have proven that point to be true. A professor at University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne does not agree with the legal charges but explains that, “we teach our students that illegally downloading music is a threat to creativity. The work of an artist has monetary value. Being a musician is not a hobby.” A more bull-headed voice to the importance of copyright is Mark Helprin argues that, “copyright is important because it is one of the guarantors of the rights of authorship, and the rights of authorship are important because without them the individual voice would be subsumed in an indistinguishable and instantly malleable mass.”
In his quote he stresses the importance of an individual voice but with rigid copyright laws there are a limited amount of voices that can be heard. Greg Kot — a music critic at The Chicago Tribune since 1990 — contends that peer-to-peer file sharing and CD burning has empowered music consumers, while providing musicians with more “opportunities to be heard.” Creative commons allows there to be more of a voice, more of an impact, and more creativity surrounding music, art, and education. Film makers, artists, musicians, and CEO’s alike all agree on the benefits of creative commons not only for creativity, but also for revolutionary change. Evan Prodromou, a supporter of creative commons said, “I truly believe that within a generation we can open the world’s knowledge to all of its inhabitants and reduce or eliminate the misery caused by lack of access to information, and creative commons is a crucial part of the cultural compact that makes that revolution possible.” Indivual voice is extreamly important but we have been suffering a lack of it. The long tail is a testimonty to the limitless selection that we now have available at our finger tips.
CREATIVE video about creative commons:
Creative commons is being used by some of the most powerful names in today’s culture. To start with the big one, The White House, followed by Yahoo, Google, Best Buy, Wikipedia, Ebay, Flickr and Greenovation TV. Creative commons is not a “wishful idea” that sounds good on paper but would never work, it is an idea that has grown to have support by the middle aged auto worker who plays acoustic guitar is his garage, the top ranked CEO at a Communications Industry from the United States to New Zeeland.
There are understandable reasons for protecting copyright laws and shunning anything that challenges then, like creative commons. Millions of dollars are lost to record companies due to file sharing and internet downloads. This is true for television and educational companies as well. They see things like creative commons as a problem, not as an opportunity. The fact is, this is the future for these industries and it is time for them to deal with it. Charles Nesson, a Harvard law professor illustrates it this way, “If you are selling water in the desert and it starts to rain, what do you do? Go to the government and get them to ban rain, or do you sell something else?”
The following sites provide more information and were used in the creation of this blog:
http://creativecommons.org/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/business/global/02iht-riedmedia.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=creative%20commons%20copyright&st=nyt&scp=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/books/19kaku.html?scp=4&sq=creative+commons+copyright&st=nyt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-wojcicki/creative-commons-in-2009_b_366548.html
Photo Credit: Free to to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work.
Video Credit: Creative Commons alternative to Copyright
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