[cc-community] ASCAP VS CREATIVE COMMONS

Paul Keller paul at waag.org
Fri Dec 22 12:38:04 EST 2006


hey drew,
not sure why you would want to do this with BY-SA works only. in general
such a provision is present in all CC licenses (talking about 2.5
generic/US here). the NC licenses retain the right to collect royalties
through collectings societies / PROs and all other ones waive this right.
assuming that pretty much all radio play would fall in the commercial use
category this seems like a solution that lets them forget the hassle.

now i know that you are arguing for a different scenario that enables them
if they do want to do the hassle to not pay for non-NC licenses works, and
of course this would be an ideal world scenario, but i do not think  that
this would have much appeal to radio stations. what collecting societies
offer to them is a enormous reduction of their transaction costs throuugh
blanket licenses. instead of negotiating every work individually they have
a one or to stop shop situation (the CSs boast to offer them the rights to
the entire world repertoire). looking into induvidual licensing situations
on a per work basis is probably every radio stations worst nightmare (will
be different of course once delivery is completely electronic and billing
goes via DRM - but that is another story). this summer i listened to a
presentation by the head of licensing of the BBC. he showed that the BBC
through all its stations plays on avaerage 200.000 different musical works
per week(!!) and that they payed 1.7 billion punds (or euros cant really
remember) in licensing fees in the last year fo these uses. he went on to
say that he would probably rather pay more than loose the current
one-stop-shop deal they have with MCPS/PRO (this was in the context of a
discussion about breaking up territorial monopolies of Collecting
SOcieties in the EU)

given this i do not think we should focus our energies on the issue you
are raising here. instead we should (and some of us are) continue to work
to make it possible for musicians (outside of the US) to be a member of a
CS and to use CC licenses at the same time...

all the best,
paul


On Dec 21, 2006, at 10:00 PM, drew Roberts wrote:

I have been pondering the possibilities of putting BY-SA works up with
collection agencies for a whaile now.

Would it be possible for the CC licenses to have a clause that states that if
you use the work and the work is with a collection agency, then you can
either pay as per your agreement, or you must make individual exemption
claims for each use? Assuming you are an entity wich would need an agreement
with said agency.

The example I am thinking of is a radio station that plays ARR and CC works.
They can frget the hassle and pay to use the Free works, or they can report
the individual uses and claim an exemption for them? Something like that.

I haven't thought this all through yet, but it seems like a decent time to
bring up the thought for people to discuss / chew on.

Of course, this would only apply to BY and BY-SA works with respect to
commercial uses.

all the best,

drew


On Thursday 21 December 2006 09:20 am, Fred Benenson wrote:
Fascinating. Such Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt here.

ASCAP seems to be missing the point that Creative Commons builds on top of
copyright, and while Lessig's books are copyrighted, so is virtually every
other cc-licensed object. All it does is explicitly define what rights the
artists are looking to preserve beyond copyright.

Another piece of FUD here: conflating "music" (one track) with "music"
(your oeuvre). In other words ASCAP makes it appear that if you decide to
go for CC once then you must license *all* your work under CC forever. This
is plainly not the case as cc licenses apply to individual works and they,
too, are non-exclusive, just like ASCAP claims to be. Which leads to
another confusing point by ASCAP: it would seem that collecting royalties
under via ASCAP with a CC licensed track (BY-NC perhaps?)  would be
something they'd object to, when, as far as I can tell, since they're both
non-exclusive licenses, it wouldn't be a problem.

Still, interesting that they're resorting to the ole' FUD line then
anything else. That means we must be doing something right.

F

PS: Can I forward this to the cc-community/cc-licenses list?


--
waag society | nieuwmarkt 4 | NL - 1012 CR amsterdam
e: paul at waag.org | t: +31 20 557 9898 | f: +31 20 557 9880





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