[cc-community] CC+?

Terry Hancock hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Tue Oct 9 19:49:22 EDT 2007


Elizabeth Stark wrote:
>>Let me say again that I find the idea of paying artists to free their
>>works to the public excellent and I wonder whether it can be implemented (
>>i.e. whether enough people would be willing to pay for this, or whether
>>funds/institutions/organizations can be set up with the purpose of freeing
>>works in this manner).
> 
> So my friend Ben Sisto has been mulling around a similar idea for a while.
> His idea would be to give artists grants (ideally community-funded) in
> return for the releasing of the product under CC licenses (ideally the freer
> ones). It's true that the sum probably wouldn't be huge, but it should be
> enough for living costs for a while and to cover equipment.
> 
> This may be a little different, though, as it's presumed that the grant will
> be to make the work in the first place, but I don't see why it couldn't be
> extended to pre-existing works as well.

Actually, this would be a great resource.

One of the biggest problems with commissioning work in advance is that
you don't really know whether you're going to be able to use the result.
You have to have a lot of faith that the artist is going to deliver
something you can work with (some artists are consistent like clockwork,
others a whole lot less so ;-) ).

Also, you find the artist who you think will be good based on what
they've already done. So in many cases, it'll be true that the best
thing is just to get a new license on an existing work.

Furthermore, if an artist is willing to list a price for releasing work
to the SA-domain, it's a good signal that they are someone you can work
with and who'll be willing to work with you on SA-licensed projects. It
indicates not only that you probably can commission SA-licensed work
from them, but also gives you an idea of what they're going to expect to
get paid for their work (something which can vary wildly, of course).

Putting work up under an NC license, along with a shingle that says "pay
me $X to release to SA -- or commission something similar" is not a bad
business model.

Cheers,
Terry

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com



More information about the cc-community mailing list