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cc-licenses - Re: Warranty, Representation, Indemnification (was Re: "Everyone can legally download when they see 'CC Share Music'")

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Sal Randolph <sal AT highlala.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Warranty, Representation, Indemnification (was Re: "Everyone can legally download when they see 'CC Share Music'")
  • Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 12:48:21 -0500


On Mar 23, 2004, at 11:40 AM, Evan Prodromou wrote:

It's more "remixers" who tend to have
concerns with these warranties.

I'd just like to comment that "remixers" are not some minor segment only applying to obscure electronic musicians. Besides the use of found sounds and samples in music there are also projects like Alice Randall's "The Wind Done Gone" a literary reworking (parody) of "Gone With the Wind" written from a slave's perspective. While the protectors of "Gone with the Wind" did eventually drop their lawsuit (intended to keep Randall's book from being published), "The Wind Done Gone" is certainly an example of an important literary and cultural project in legally controversial waters. Any kind of parody or commentary which tries to make "fair use" of copyrighted material is vulnerable to legal challenge in this climate. Also, virtually every imaginably possible movie will show some potentially trademarked or copyrighted material onscreen at some point. You certainly aren't free to film your own apartment, for instance. Every 'designed' object (and an increasing number of public architectural facades and locations) is potentially a legal bombshell. Big movie studios have whole departments devoted to getting clearances for every tiny thing that might appear, but obviously this is financially impossible for small independent producers.

We can't make culture without using culture -- every creative act is building on things which already exist. Legally ambiguous situations abound for all creative artists. The warranties, as you point out, just make it easier to sue artists for their creative acts, and I continue to think that's a bad thing.





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