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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] sampling + 1.0 and remix competition, with prize for winner

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Terry Hancock <hancock AT anansispaceworks.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] sampling + 1.0 and remix competition, with prize for winner
  • Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:31:34 -0500

Nova Christopher wrote:
Well, I'm re-reading and getting more thoughts from others off-list,
so here's the two main points of the license again:

(This is from the CC "Sampling Plus" license, I take it?)

"You are free:

- To sample, mash-up, or otherwise creatively transform this work for
commercial or noncommercial purposes.

That's interesting. Now I want to see CC's "Use cases for 'creatively
transforming' " paper (like the NC paper they did awhile back).

Sounds more free than NC at this point, though. (Oh no! My
color codes are all wrong now! :-O)

- To perform, display, and distribute copies of this whole work for
noncommercial purposes (e.g., file-sharing or noncommercial
webcasting)."

Okay, that's basically saying the work is treated as NC when it
is distributed as a whole.

So basically, as long as the work is 'creatively transformed', it can
be used commercially. sampling, mashing-up and creatively
transforming is further defined:

"Your Derivative Work(s) must only make a partial use of the original
Work, or if You choose to use the original Work as a whole, You must
either use the Work as an insubstantial portion of Your Derivative
Work(s) or transform it into something substantially different from
the original Work. In the case of a musical Work and/or audio
recording, the mere synchronization ("synching") of the Work with a
moving image shall not be considered a transformation of the Work
into something substantially different."

Wow, that'll keep lawyers employed for some time.

Gosh, I should've gotten a law degree instead of studying all that
science and technology stuff. ;-)

But seriously, it does sound like you're okay for your use case.

I think I was misreading this whole license! It clearly states that
the creatively transformed derivative of the original Work can be
used commercially (or noncommerically) and then explains what
creative transformation entails.

Yeah, you should be in the clear for actual sampling.

--- Terry Hancock <hancock AT anansispaceworks.com> wrote:
> I'm sorry, I just haven't read the 'sampling' license, and I'm not
> familiar with its terms. I know the By, SA, ND, and NC modules
> fairly well.

Caveat: This is still true, except for the bit you quoted.

Here's what I'm wondering, though. What happens if you cut a song
track in half and swap the halves. Then into quarters, and swap
those, etc. How many swaps before you can use the work commercially?

What if I break out the lyrics, put a song jingle over it, and synch
it to a commercial?

Suppose I don't use any of the actual sound, but I extract the musical
score and re-render it (entire) on a different synth. Legal?

Translate the lyrics and re-record?

Tape "I smooch the devil. Woo! Woo! Opus is the cool potato!" backwards
and mix it with the track?

The mind boggles at the possibilities.

Cheers,
Terry

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





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