[cc-community] ASCAP
Terry Hancock
hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Mon May 12 13:36:50 EDT 2008
Brenda Kayne wrote:
> I haven't even applied for a Creative Commons license yet.
Oops, misconception alert! :-D
It's not you being "licensed", it's just you choosing "a license" for
your work.
It's like a boilerplate contract from a collection of standard forms. CC
doesn't "approve you" or anything like that, nor do you "join" (there
may be such a thing as "joining CC", but it's not like a collecting
society where you have to be a member to use the system).
> I had just figured that I wanted to get out of ASCAP, be free and clear of
> it, and then sign up for my Creative Commons license.
Okay, to clarify the issues a little:
1) You do not have to "apply" for anything with CC, it's just a service
providing licensing tools for you to use (you are a free agent; CC
licenses are themselves free-licensed; CC is NOT a collecting society;
CC won't pay, promote, or endorse you; and you do not pay CC to use
their licenses)
2) You do not have to leave ASCAP to be able to use CC licenses
3) There MAY be some weird stuff in your ASCAP contract that interferes
with CC licensing (people who are supposed to know say there isn't --
but personally I know nothing about ASCAP or their contracts), or that
allows ASCAP to continue demanding licensing fees on your behalf, but
equally, there may NOT be such a legal basis.
It's possible that ASCAP is abusing your contract and making ILLEGAL
demands for money from people using your work under CC licenses. Or
maybe, they are simply confused. It definitely sounds like they are not
dealing fairly with you.
The unanswered question here is "does your ASCAP contract actually allow
them to collect on music by you which is used under the terms of a CC
license?" I'm not positive what the answer is on that, and I'll have to
hope that someone who understands the issue will fill you in on that.
Cheers,
Terry
--
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
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