When someone wants to license your art, characters, photos, articles or music, how does it shake out? Chances are that these negotiations involve expensive lawyers on both sides of the deal.
If you're running an enlightened company, you might have a Creative Commons license hanging out there for non-commercial, "fannish" uses. (Creative Commons publishes a suite of widely adopted licenses that allow rightsholders to release their work for sharing, remixing, etc.)
But somewhere between Creative Commons and full-blown, lawyerly license negotiation is a rich, untapped source of income for creative people and firms with portfolios of iconic material. To cash in, you just need the courage to let go of a little control.
being a machine without sentience, does not create. frontpage hosting.it is programmed to carry out a task. The program, not its output, becomes the creative content which is copyrightable. The program itself cannot be an author
Actually, a copyright challenge would fail here, on grounds that a computer does not qualify as an author. The definition of an author was established as far back as 1885, when the US Supreme Court had to determine who the author of a photograph was.
To be an author, one must demonstrate a minimal level of creative input regarding the work in question. A computer, being a machine without sentience, does not create...it is programmed to carry out a task. The program, not its output, becomes the creative content which is copyrightable. The program itself cannot be an author.
Otherwise, one could claim that the programmers of Photoshop own joint copyright in all works created by users of the program.
If you want to get your stuff copyright protected, you need a lawyer to help you dot your I's and cross your T's. If you just walk into a law office your going to get slammed on price if you're not carefull. Or you can use what I use www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/carden_mf and pay a lot less. Yes I know its a shameless plug for my business, but it works well and will help you out in the long run.
Did I get you right in simple terms: "Mutual respect yields results"? Where todays copyright industry standard is based on protection and suspicion, you'd like to open up the creative potential with respect. I am all for it. Here's why in zero sum:
The thirty IBM super computers calculate all the potential non recorded sheet music (can be done with ease) and copyright them globally. Anybody who from that point on would like to compose or perform any new stuff would have to pay them. This is not sustainable - nor in the interest of any single company, but it goes on to show that nowdays we have reached limits that we thought earlier to be infinite. This puts the whole copyright system infront of a major challenge. Is there a way to define where and how creativity actually originates and are the capital means the only way to gain rights in our day and age?
In the instance you illustrate, I completely agree. I think at the time I was considering, some poor slob, getting duped into a "creative commons" agreement, winding up hitting the proverbial jackpot, and have a legal team from say Random House, come in and tear this piece of paper to shreads.
I guess we all carry disdain for lawyers in one way or another.
Do you know how to save a drowning lawyer?--- Take your foot off his head.
I believe your position is valid for people who want to make sure that all of their bases are covered should they decide to sue for copyright infringement in the future. But if this scenario is played out in a courtroom with a bunch of lawyers trying to sue me for using an image that you owned but made available to anyone under a "creative Commons license" specifically using the wording that Cory posted, on your website to grant me that permission, I don't foresee you and your lawyers being successful. Granted, I'm talking about common sense, and a lot of times the law and common sense are at odds. But in this instance you are the one who initiated the contract. And the onus of proof of breach would be on your shoulders.
I also fully agree that this whole situation seems to be a means to avoid involving lawyers (read: paying a lawyer) in commerce. And lawyers, in the view of Thomas Jefferson, "are all scoundrels and should have their hands bound up by the Constitution", should have already been involved in trying to squash this. But, for some reason they have not. To me this implies that Cory's assertion is correct.
You must believe that I tried very hard to resist this, but I just couldn't make myself do it. So, here goes:
Why don't lawyer jokes work? Because, lawyers don't think they're funny, and the rest of us don't think they're jokes. It couldn't have been worse, I have 1 million of them.
we are just giving lawyers more maps to learn, lessig is a lawyer, so lets not forget they can be innovative. in this age of the mind that is painting the invisible digitally online, lawyers are going to have to pool, to confirm info. in todays world, commision is everything, you make a mash up, the divying up process shouldn't be to hard to designate.
This is a great idea Cory, really nice and simple.
What happens though, if your work is a mashup of multiple things? If I use a bit of your book, three people's songs, and a couple of bits of video, do I end up owing 150% of my gross to all those licensors?
It makes sense to me that if I derive from more than one work, that I should have to pay less in license fees to each licensor. I'm probably using less of each work, for starters. There's no simple way to manage this that is immediately obvious to me, but I think it does need to be addressed. You need the derivative creator to still be rewarded, as well as all the owners of derived works, in some proportional way.
I agree that no lawyering up is necessary, particularly if Creative Commons or another entity comes out with simple (think t-shirt sizes) terms for DIY Digital Licensing.
This is where FairShare - the service that was launched in collaboration with Creative Commons in March - is headed (disclosure, I work on FairShare). We don't have a great solution for commerce, but are already testing sharing ad revenue to allows folks to free their work and let the Internet do its job.
Very interested in others thoughts on how this could expand to commerce as we don't have a solid plan here yet.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the old saying goes. So understanding how to use images in e-newsletters effectively is quite important. Here are a few tips to ensure that your images in email newsletters work to your advantage.
Arms merchant or army? That's a fundamental question for vendors in the cloud computing space. Do they just sell their tooling to any and all comers, who then become the actual purveyors of hosted infrastructure, developer platforms, and software? Or do they offer their own cloud-based services, perhaps even keeping much of their technology in-house for competitive advantage?
With the value of toxic assets on the rise, large U.S. and European banks face many challenges on the road to recovery. Sharing key information may help these firms effectively track the way forward.
Most of us go through life knowing that we’re expected to learn from our mistakes and improve. Those who are more conscientious about learning and personal improvement usually reap greater rewards.
Marketers are known for exaggerated claims and stretching the truth just a wee bit. But most marketers I know truly believe in what they sell. Their aggressiveness is based on a confidence that what they are promoting truly benefits the customer.
While Google introduces its new Chrome OS (which I'm hearing will be widely available in one year? Did I mishear that?), IBM announced 10 new products today to help companies using IBM System z mainframe technology.
Smarter Collaboration: How to Thrive in a Challenging Business Environment Market conditions are changing faster than ever, and organizations need to improve their agility and adaptability in order to provide better service and improve processes. The ability to work with customers, business partners, and employees as effectively as possible - while at the same time holding down costs - is a key to success. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Industry initiatives and government stimulus funds are giving enterprise software vendors a great opportunity to help build out and manage smart grid technologies.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
The US loses about $20 billion a year on pirated software, movies, and music. But public policy can help stem the tide of digital theft. For example, France has recently passed a 'three strikes and you’re out' law, whereby if after two warning letters an individual continues to download pirated software then his Internet access will be cut off. US policy makers should consider adopting similar policies.
Financial management planning does not need to include Voodoo economics, but it does help to tap into the knowledge base of your team through some sort of real-time system. We explore your options.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
The successor to the BlackBerry Bold 9000 – the Bold 9700 – will be available soon in the US. Is it worth upgrading? Reiter's got one, and offers advice.
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Email This
TWEET THIS
