Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Glenn Otis Brown <glenn AT creativecommons.org>]

Creative Commons News

April 13, 2004

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A monthly newsletter from Creative Commons.

To unsubscribe, please visit
<http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-info> and scroll down.

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Contents:

*BULLETIN: Music Metadata Conference!
*Choice Blog Entries and News from February 2004
*Press Hits, March 3 - April 13, 2004

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Short Notice Music Metadata Summit

We're hosting a very short notice music metadata summit[1] tomorrow
3-6PM (Pacific) on the Stanford campus[2] and online (IRC)[3].

We hope to come to decisions on several concrete issues[4], including
metadata for tipjars, license buyouts, purchasing, and "remix ready"
content as well as discuss how various music metadata-related projects
[5] can better collaborate and encourage adoption by others.

Thanks to Christopher Allen[6] and Magnatune[7] for the idea, and a
visit by Rob Kaye[8] of MusicBrainz[9] for a reason to do it now.

See you there, or in the ether.

[1] http://www.socialtext.net/musicmetadata/
[2] http://www.socialtext.net/musicmetadata/index.cgi?first_summit
[3] irc://irc.freenode.net/musicmetadata
[4]  
http://www.socialtext.net/musicmetadata/index.cgi?first_summit_agenda
[5]  
http://www.socialtext.net/musicmetadata/index.cgi?links_and_resources
[6] http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/
[7] http://www.magnatune.com
[8] http://mayhem-chaos.net/blog/
[9] http://musicbrainz.org

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Choice Blog Entries from March 3 - April 15, 2004

School of Rock
2004-04-12

Today I had one of the best experiences of my time at Creative
Commons, which is saying a lot. I had the pleasure of visiting the
Chandler School[1] in Pasadena, CA, USA, to talk about copyright and
Creative Commons. Some 200 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders and I
talked about the ins and outs and dos and don'ts of file-sharing,
mash-ups, and music copyrights generally.

The students' questions were amazingly insightful and smart, and many
of them went straight to some of the most complex and interesting
issues in copyright law. I knew when I was setting up my computer and
a seventh-grader asked me if Creative Commons "does royalty-free
music" that this would be a sophisticated crowd. Here's a taste of
some other comments and questions:

When the Dixie Chicks did that song by Fleetwood Mac, is that
considered a remix? Did they have to pay for that?

What about Weird Al Yankovic?

What about those people on American Idol? Do they pay to sing those
songs?

So if a copyright lasts for my life and then another 70 years, does
that mean if I live a really long time, the copyright is longer?

What if the person who wrote the song has kids, and they want the
copyright to last longer?

What about a company? What happens when it dies?

Does a copyright last that long even if the work isn't that famous?

If I buy a CD, can I remix the songs on it?

At the end of the session I showed them Justin Cone's contest-winning
Building on the Past[2], to give them an idea what could be made and
accomplished without having to pay anyone or worry their parents over
possible legal woes. (Yes, such is our world[3] that kids online now
have to look out for their _parents_' interests.) The students gave it
a rousing round of applause; there were a few audible "wows," and a
couple of students asked when the next contest might happen.

I left the visit inspired to see Laura[4]'s and Neeru[5]'s ideas about
Creative Commons and education come to life in a big way. (More on
that soon.) In the meantime, I hope that the visit isn't CC's last to
Chandler -- and that it's our first to a number of schools across the
world[6].

[1] http://chandlerschool.org/
[2] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/movingimagecontest
[3] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96797,00.html
[4] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#19
[5] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#16
[6] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/

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Rick Prelinger in the NYT
2004-04-12

Rick Prelinger[1], of the Prelinger Archives[2], got his letter to the
editor[3] published in today's New York Times. In it he points to the
positive free distribution aspects of digitizing and sharing his works
under the public domain:

    Our experience may seem counterintuitive, but it has been
    overwhelmingly positive: the more we give away, the more we
    actually sell.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/rick
[2] http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/12/opinion/L12FILE.html

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The Bots Are All Right
2004-04-11

Some Creative Commons-licensed, political-mash music[1] from "the
Internet's first virtual band[2]."

[1] http://thebots.net/
[2] http://thebots.net/

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How hard is it to put a book online, legally?
2004-04-09

Sometimes people ask us why we created the Creative Commons, and we
often say that we wanted there to be an easy way for you to share your
creations and also to build a large pool of creative work that is easy
to redistribute, print, (and if the license allows) collage, remix, or
even sell to others.

If you're wondering what the world without Creative Commons is like,
check out this helpful primer on the question "How Can I Tell Whether
a Book Can Go Online?[1]" The answer, as you can see, is quite
complicated, including the various laws around the world. The page
doesn't mention CC, but if it did, one of the top bullets would be
"look for a Creative Commons mark" and the permission and legal
questions that take up the rest of the page would be solved.

[1] http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html

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Tell Tale Weekly's audiobooks
2004-04-09

A New York Times article[1] recently pointed to Tell Tale Weekly[2],
an audio book site selling MP3s as cheap as $0.25 each. They've also
committed to licensing the books under a Creative Commons license
after 5 years or 100k downloads, whichever comes first.

It's not easy to find good, cheap, DRM-free audiobooks and Tell Tale
Weekly looks like a pretty cool new provider of such work.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/technology/circuits/08diar.html
[2] http://telltaleweekly.com/

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Everyone in Silico
2004-04-07

Everyone in Silico[1] is a futurist sci-fi novel set in Vancouver,
2036. It came out a couple years ago[2], but this week the author
decided to license it under Creative Commons[3] and produce free
downloadable ebook versions. As the author says "So if you like the
book, send pals this link, e-mail it to friends, fileshare it on
illegal networks -- you'll be helping me out. I know from experience
that I'll reap dividends."

[1] http://nomediakings.org/IMadeMain.htm
[2] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1568582404/
[3] http://nomediakings.org/writing/free_ebook_released.html

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Playing the web's music on Webjay
2004-04-06

Webjay[1] is a cool little hack. You toss in a URL[2], and it scans
pages for mp3 files, making iTunes/winamp/realplayer playlists on the
fly. As an example, Common Content's audio page[3] as a MP3 playlist
looks something like this[4].

[1] http://webjay.org/
[2] http://webjay.org/playthispage
[3] http://commoncontent.org/catalog/audio/music
[4]  
http://webjay.org/scraper? 
url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommoncontent.org%2Fcatalog%2Faudio%2Fmusic

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Woody Guthrie free culture
2004-04-05

Joel Blain[1] recently wrote in with an interesting observation:

"I've been reading a bio on Woody Guthrie[2]. It's pretty interesting.
The book reprints one of the "Copyright Warnings" he included on his
recordings in the ealry 40's

    "This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #
    154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it
    without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause
    we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it.
    Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."

It just made me think of Creative Commons. I dunno if you've seen or
heard it before, but I thought I'd pass it along."

Nice find, thanks Joel!

[1] http://www.joelblain.com/
[2] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385333854/

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Nature Open Access Debate
2004-04-02

_Nature_ is hosting a debate on open access science publishing[1]. At
the center of the debate are Public Library of Science[2] and BioMed
Central[3], two open access journal publishers using the Creative
Commons Attribution License[4]. The PLoS evidence paper[5] presents a
good summary of what is wrong with the current scholarly publishing
model, why open access is important, and an open access business
model.

Even as the much needed debate on open access journals heats up, it is
just one part of a bigger picture where science, creativity, law, and
society collide. Perhaps with this in mind, note the recent post[6] on
this weblog concerning the launch of the Science Commons exloratory
phase[7].

[1] http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/
[2] http://plos.org
[3] http://www.biomedcentral.com
[4] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/
[5] http://www.plos.org/downloads/HCEvidencefromPLoS.pdf
[6] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4073
[7] http://creativecommons.org/projects/science/proposal

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VIBGYOR
2004-04-01

I recently stumbled across a nice photoblog from Australia, called
VIBGYOR[1]. It's sporting a Creative Commons license that allows for
commercial use, too.

[1] http://www.karmakars.com/photoblog/

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Pointers to Public Domain sites
2004-03-31

This Google Answers post[1] about public domain sites brought up a
wealth of good answers, in all sorts of categories. [via kottke[2]]

[1] http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=189815
[2] http://www.kottke.org/

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Squarespace website service CC-enabled
2004-03-31

Squarespace[1], an easy to use website and blog creation and hosting
service, recently made it easy for users to license their content via
our remote licesning application[2].

[IMAGE: 'CC-Squarespace screenshot'
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/cc-squarespace-2.png]

Here's what Squarespace says within their site management application
about Creative Commons:

    We've integrated a utility that lets you generate Creative Commons
    licenses for your site. A Creative Commons License is an excellent
    alternative to default copyright, and lets you retain very
    specific rights over the works you place on your website. The
    process for generating a license is one step, and free. Takes
    about 30 seconds. We recommend giving them a look!

Well said! We recommend giving Squarespace and other CC-enabled
applications[3] a look.

[1] http://www.squarespace.com
[2] http://creativecommons.org/technology/developerdocs
[3] http://creativecommons.org/technology/ccapps

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Autres Directions in Music
2004-03-30

My french isn't too good, but I'm going to guess that Autres
Directions in Music[1] is a new internet music label based in France
releasing their songs under Creative Commons licenses. So far their
releases consist of these four albums: (1[2], 2[3], 3[4], 4[5]) all
ready for download as MP3s or you can drop them 5 euros to get a disc.
[via Aeiou[6]]

[1] http://www.autresdirections.net/inmusic/
[2] http://www.autresdirections.net/inmusic/moulin001/moulin001.html
[3] http://www.autresdirections.net/inmusic/moulin002/moulin002.html
[4] http://www.autresdirections.net/inmusic/moulin003/moulin003.html
[5] http://www.autresdirections.net/inmusic/moulin004/moulin004.html
[6] http://www.fluctuat.net/blog/

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CC Remix Music -- Lisa Rein
2004-03-29

Lisa Rein[1] is one of the earliest adopters of Creative Commons.
Wander[2] is one of my favorite CC licensed songs and is licensed
under an Attribution[3] license -- free to copy, remix, or even synch
to a movie, as long as you give Lisa attribution.

[1] http://www.lisarein.com
[2] http://www.lisarein.com/wander.html
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/

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Holy Cow -- a CC PSA!!!
2004-03-29

Filmmaker Andy Pavis has made an eight-minute-long public service
announcement about Creative Commons and our mission, entitled Some
Rights Reserved[1]. Andy cleverly frames the copyright debate between
two extremes in the context of a talk show hosted by "Larry Commons."
The PSA then explores an example of Aaron, a musician who goes through
the process of choosing a license to put his song into the commons.
The PSA ends on an inspiring note when a filmmaker, a dancer, and a
musician find Aaron's song and build upon it. The PSA itself is
licensed under an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike[2] license --
so feel free to distribute noncommercially, or even remix as long as
you give Andy credit.

[1]  
http://www.msp.sfsu.edu/intensive/cabaya/dvi_info/clips/ 
pavis_somerightsreserved001.mov
[2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/

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Translating Creative Commons animations
2004-03-29

Several of our iCommons[1] partner groups have asked if they could
translate our movies, Get Creative[2] and Reticulum Rex[3] into other
languages. Thanks to the licenses we applied on each movie, those are
definitely allowed and we'd like to encourage others to contribute to
this effort. Towards that end, we've put up all the raw audio, script,
and flash files[4] for translation purposes.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/
[2] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/
[3] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/reticulum_rex/
[4] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/translating

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Internet helping record sales?
2004-03-29

Ran across a couple interesting bits related to musicians having their
songs online and record sales.

In a roundtable interview with the Chicago Tribune[1] (registration
required to view), Creative Commons chairman Lawrence Lessig and the
online manager of the band Wilco[2] talk about the internet and music.
The gist of is that putting Wilco's music online helped them sell more
records and greatly increase attendance at their live shows.

Cory Doctorow points[3] at a recent Cato Institute[4] study[5] (PDF)
that shows popular searches on a P2P network didn't correlate with
lower sales.

[1]  
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi 
-0403280175mar28,1,7931083,print.story?coll=chi-leisurearts-hed
[2] http://www.wilcoworld.net/
[3] http://www.boingboing.net/2004/03/29/empirical_data_on_fi.html
[4] http://www.cato.org/
[5] http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf

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Roger McGuinn of the Byrds uses Music Sharing License
2004-03-29

Legendary musician Roger McGuinn[1] of the Byrds[2] is using the new
Creative Commons Music Sharing License[3] for all the songs in his
Folkden[4] project. You can see the Share Music[5] tag at the bottom
of each song's page, as it's displayed here for the song

[1] http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/
[2] http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/mcguinn/ByrdsFAQ.html
[3] http://creativecommons.org/license/music
[4] http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden/php/search/
[5] http://creativecommons.org/images/public/music.gif
[6] http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden/php/search/individ.php?mid=92";

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dadaIMC codebase used by Independent Media Centers supports CC
2004-03-26

dadaIMC[1], a content management system that offer a codebase for the
operation of Independent Media Center sites, now supports Creative
Commons licenses for users uploading content[2] to the system. There
are currently twenty eight Independent Media Center sites that run on
dadaIMC.

Independent Media Centers, like the one in Baltimore[3], are based on
a philosophy of open publishing. Their newswire is open to public use,
and anyone can post articles, audio, video, or images to the site. The
interface for posting media includes a section for selecting between
copyright, public domain, or any of the Creative Commons licenses.
dadaIMC has also innovated to offer a new logo that explicity signals
the allowance of derivative works, something our current license
engine doesn't support.

[1] http://www.dadaimc.org/
[2] http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/index.php?function=publish
[3] http://baltimore.indymedia.org/

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Winksite adds CC to mobile blogging
2004-03-26

Winksite[1] is a popular mobile blogging application that lets you
both post to a blog from your phone or PDA and read other blogs, in
addition to a slew of other community tools. They've recently added
Creative Commons support[2] for blogs hosted on the service, so you
can make it clear to readers how your content is licensed.

[1] http://winksite.com/
[2] http://winksite.com/site/help_bl_view.cfm?blog_id=1208

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Creative Commons expanding to Australia and Jordan
2004-03-25

Today Creative Commons has begun discussion of licenses in Australia
[1] and Jordan[2]. Professors at Queensland University of Technology
and law firm Blake Dawson Waldron Lawyers will be helping out on the
Australian efforts[3] while Jordan's licenses[4] will benefit from the
folks at Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property. Those wishing to join the
discussion can find the links here[5] and here[6].

[1] http://creativecommons.org:9000/press-releases/entry/4083
[2] http://creativecommons.org:9000/press-releases/entry/4084
[3] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/au/
[4] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/jo/
[5] http://creativecommons.org/discuss#australia
[6] http://creativecommons.org/discuss#jordan

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Free Culture released
2004-03-25

Creative Commons chairman Lawrence Lessig has just released his new
book, Free Culture[1] today, both online as a licensed downloadable
PDF[2] and in stores[3]. The book covers the current state of
copyright law and what it means to our culture and society. Give it a
look, and if you like what you see, ordering online[4] will contribute
a small percentage of this organization.

[1] http://www.free-culture.cc/
[2] http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/
[3] http://www.free-culture.cc/get-it/
[4] http://www.free-culture.cc/get-it/

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Full-Time Intimacy
2004-03-24

The Berkman Center's Mary Bridges[1] and Benjamen Walker[2] -- the
sound designer behind Creative Commons' animations[3] -- recently
produced an audio postcard[4] for NPR[5] on the SXSW[6] Interactive
conference. It's subtly funny, and a nice self-exemplifying piece of,
and about, instant bricolage media. (Listen closely for the voices of
Creative Commons board member Joi Ito[7] and Mediarights.org[8] tech
chief and Fourth Wall Films[9] panelist David Jacobs[10].)

[1] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/mary_bridges
[2] http://yourlight.org
[3] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org
[4] http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1783600
[5] http://npr.org
[6] http://sxsw.com
[7] http://joi.ito.com/
[8] http://mediarights.org
[9] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4063
[10] http://hello.typepad.com/

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SoundShelf.com offers CC for music
2004-03-24

SoundShelf.com[1] hosts free music of various genres and makes it all
available under the EFF Open Audio License[2], or a Creative Commons
license. This was taken directly from their FAQ:

    _2. When is free music legal?_

    Free music is legal when the artists want it to be. Until recently
    it was near impossible to know the artist's feelings and
    intentions as all works were automatically copyrighted. Today with
    the emergence of the Creative Commons License and the EFF Open
    Audio License the artist's desired intentions are expressed by the
    license that they choose to publish their works under.

I particulary liked this track No More[3] by Neoismo[4], a group based
out of Italy. It's under an Attribution-ShareAlike license[5] so you
can even remix it!

[1] http://soundshelf.com
[2] http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/eff_oal.html
[3] http://s98062333.onlinehome.us/OpenMusic/Electronica/Nomore.mp3
[4] http://soundshelf.com/artist.htm?artist=Neoismo
[5] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/

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Biomed Central using Creative Commons
2004-03-23

Biomed Central[1], a publishing house offering free access to over 100
journals[2] of peer-reviewed biomedical research, has recently adopted
the Attribution license[3] on all their submissions.

[1] http://www.biomedcentral.com/home/
[2] http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/ourjournals
[3] http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/license

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Science Commons
2004-03-23

As we announced in our short film "Reticulum Rex[1]" and on this blog
in January[2], one of Creative Commons' New Year's Resolutions was to
explore a Science Commons -- a new, parallel branch of our
organization dedicated to investigating how our "some rights reserved"
model can be applied to pressing problems in science and the field of
biomedical research.

Thanks to the hard work of our Board of Directors and many friends of
Creative Commons, that process is now underway.

We are very excited to announce the launch of the Science Commons
exploratory phase, for which we recently secured funding.

The process will build upon Creative Commons' work in the sciences
(e.g., our licensing of Public Library of Science[3] publications).
But, crucially, Science Commons will delve into both legal areas
(patents, data) and subject matter (biomedicine) outside the scope of
our current organization.

We are now seeking a energetic and committed manager[4] to join us
long-term and full-time to drive the Science Commons exploratory
process -- someone expert in these areas and prepared for the
challenge of rearing what may well grow up to be CC's sibling
organization. It's a very exciting development.

[1] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/reticulum_rex/
[2] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3957
[3] http://plos.org
[4] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/opportunities

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Pay to license working with Creative Commons
2004-03-22

One-man band Brad Sucks[1] recently signed with Magnatune[2] and
licensed all his tracks under Creative Commons (and began selling them
on a sliding scale on Magnatune's site[3]).

We were delighted to hear that Brad's song "Making Me Nervous[4]" was
recently licensed for use in radio ads[5] and TV ads[6] that played in
Canada. Thanks in part to Magnatune's tiered licensing system[7],
record-at-home musicians like Brad have found other ways to make a
living from their music by selling commercial licenses. It's a great
example of the common sense approach Magnatune takes to commercial
licensing that also allows for free sharing and listening by fans.
Congrats, Brad and Magnatune!

[1] http://www.bradsucks.net/
[2] http://magnatune.com/artists/brad_sucks
[3] http://magnatune.com/
[4]  
http://magnatune.com/artists/music/Rock/Brad%20Sucks/ 
I%20Dont%20Know%20What%20Im%20Doing/01-Making%20Me%20Nervous- 
Brad%20Sucks.mp3
[5] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000444.php
[6] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000436.php
[7]  
http://magnatune.com/artists/license/? 
artist=Brad+Sucks&album=I+Dont+Know+What+Im+Doing&genre=Rock

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CC Remix Music -- Jammin on the Net, and Holland Hopson
2004-03-22

Last featured on CC Remix Music[1] was Funktifyno[2], a great fusion
jam band based in Oregon. Chris Morris,[3] based in Texas, read our
blog and turned their song Funkberry Jam[4] into Funkberrymo Jam[5] by
adding a keyboard track-- how's that for jamming on the Net?

Today we are featuring Holland Hopson's[6] song Cuckoo[7], a peaceful
and melodic flow on the saxophone. Though thorougly beautiful in its
current state, it lends itself to the potential of an added drum beat,
possibly changing the spirit of the song entirely -- care to remix?

[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4058
[2] http://www.funktifyno.com/
[3] http://www.cministries.org/cstudios/cstudios.htm
[4] http://www.funktifyno.com/mp3/Funkberry_Jam.mp3
[5] http://www.cministries.org/cstudios/funktifynomo.htm
[6] http://www.hollandhopson.net
[7] http://www.hollandhopson.net/music/one4one/02_Cuckoo.mp3

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Call and Response
2004-03-22

My most vivid memory from South by Southwest:

Thursday night in Austin, TX, USA, MSN[1] threw a party across the
street from the convention center. It was in a spare warehouse space,
like a rave or fly-by-night underground party, but the fancy lighting,
free drinks, and imported-looking crowd (L.A.) all said Big Bucks. The
women checking the guest list looked as if they might moonlight on The
Price is Right[2]. The event was planned, from what I could gather, as
a buzz-builder for MSN's big move into the iTunes-style content
business[3].

When I came in, the crowd -- around two hundred, I'd guess -- had
gathered around the stage where legendary DJ Grandmaster Flash[4] was
in the middle of a set. Rumor had it that DJ Dangermouse[5] would be
playing, but that a last-minute nastygram from EMI scuppered the plan.
That rumor seemed dubious for a number of reasons -- what's that cause
of action, exactly? And in any event, it was hard to imagine finding
anyone better to preside over the birth of Microsoft's cool than
Grandmaster Flash, by most accounts _the_ pioneer of turntable
performance: the sample, the scratch, the fader-toggle, the break, the
real-time remix. If this event was meant to kick-off Microsoft's entry
into Apple's rip-mix-burn marketing niche, they could not have chosen
an entertainer with better creds to preside over it.

That was clear within just a few seconds of watching Grandmaster
Flash, whom I'd never seen perform live before, stand over the
turntables and mixer. I wish I could have brought with me every single
person I've met who have said they don't believe DJ'ing or sound
manipulation to be an art form in and of itself. This guy could make a
vinyl LP do anything, make any sound, scratch it like a percussion
instrument over a completely different track before putting the needle
back to precisely the place he'd left a split-second before. And this
was all analog: no digital tricks, no ProTools. If you've ever
wondered how a trombonist or the player of a fretless instrument knows
where and when to find a particular note, to pull it out of nowhere
with no orientation, all while maintaining the overall energy of the
tune, you could appreciate what Grandmaster Flash was doing. The crowd
was eating it up. The only thing slightly off about the show was the
DJ's sidekick, who goofily bounced around the stage pantomiming the
lyrics, like a sign-language interpreter for the hip-hop impaired. But
even he was entertaining in his own way.

Then, after a compelling tweak of the bassline in Queen's "Another One
Bites the Dust," Grandmaster Flash cut the music and prepared the
crowd for some call-and-response. It was old-school audience
participation time. He'd play a hook, then cut the music, and the
crowd would shout an answer in time with the song.

The call?

The chorus of "Good Times," a 1979 disco classic whose bassline
Grandmaster's labelmates, the Sugarhill Gang, lifted for their single
"Rapper's Delight" -- probably one of the top few most famous hip-hop
songs ever, and one of the very first.

The response?

_When I do this_, said Grandmaster Flash, playing the vocal "Good
Times," then dropping the volume, _everyone yell "MSN."_

People in the audience looked at each other.

_Got it?_ he said into the microphone, _Good times -- MSN! Good times
-- MSN! Got it? Here we go._

A few people booed. The DJ played a few rounds of the vocal, then cut
the volume.

Grandmaster Flash, and about a dozen audience members, shouted "MSN!"

A few scattered boos followed. Flash tried to rally the crowd. He
played the call again: Good Times . . . Good Times . . . And the music
cut out again -- the audience's turn.

This time they responded. But they didn't say "MSN."

_What did they say?_ I asked the couple in front of me.

_They said, 'Bulls--t,'_ the couple said, laughing. I asked my
friends. They heard the same thing.

After a couple more such calls and responses, Grandmaster Flash went
back to the regular show, and right away the crowd threw its hands in
the air and danced again as if none of it had ever happened.

I don't really blame Grandmaster Flash. Or MSN for that matter. It's
all just business.

Whether it's smart business is another story. And whether the stunt's
layer upon layer of irony were intended or accidental is simply a
mystery.

[1] http://msn.com
[2] http://www.clairescollection.com/images/bobnGirls.jpg
[3]  
http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/18/technology/personaltech/ 
microsoft_ipod.reut.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
[4] http://www.grandmasterflash.com/html.html
[5] http://djdangermouse.com/

 -----------------

Music Sharing, SXSW
2004-03-20

From the South by Southwest[1] Music Festival, Creative Commons brings
you the new Music Sharing License[2] and Get Content search engine[3].
This copyright license lets your fans know[4] they can download, copy,
and share your music online, but not sell, remix, or make any other
commercial use out of it. (The license is based on the
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives[5] license but now includes
new music-specific language.[6])

Musicians already distributing their MP3s online should opt for the
Music Sharing License to invite listeners to legally download the
songs they love -- and to get noticed with our new Get Content search
engine, which points people to music free to share.

Internet music lovers should look for the Share Music [7] logo, or the
standard Some Rights Reserved[8] logo to find music they can legally
downloads.

We announced the Music Sharing License at a panel this week entitled
Legal Music Promotion: File-Sharing, Sampling or Both?[9]. We also
previewed Mixter (more details soon), an application that will expose
connections between different remixes of songs. The panelists
described how Creative Commons licenses facilitate music distribution,
discovery, and community on the Internet, in reference to their own
projects. Panelist Sal Randolph from the Net label Opsound[10],
discussed how an open-source philosophy guides Opsound to make sounds
available to be remixed and curated by members of the community.
Matthew King Kaufman of MP34U[11] discussed the enourmous amount of
free music on the Internet, and how groups like his are working to
promote music discovery by curating personal playlists. Jake Shapiro
of Public Radio Exchange[12], discussed how opening up content has
allowed an important peer review process to enhance the value of the
content. Great thanks to Chris Kelty[13], Professor of Anthropology at
Rice University, who facilitated the whole panel. I wanted to throw
out a bunch of questions to the panelists and audience, but
unfortunately there wasn't enough time. Here are just a few:

*Why use the Music Sharing License rather than put your MP3 on the
Internet with no official notice -- why formalize it?

*Are people really afraid of downloading -- even if it's legal -- in
the face of possible lawsuits? Do we really need a license to clarify
this?

*Could a CD that includeds noncommercial remix rights be more valuable
than a CD without these rights? For example, if you sold a Madonna CD
that included the right to make a noncommercial remix, could you
charge more? Would this create more buzz about Madonna? If someone
does end up making a great remix that could be commercialized,
couldn't this be a great new revenue stream for Madonna?

Music authoring software applications are easier to use than ever
before -- will this create demand for more Creative Commons licensed
sounds to play with?

If you consider new sound software, legal tools like Creative Commons,
and open online communities like Opsound, you'll see a whole
infrastrcuture that allows people to create their own sounds and build
off others'. What's the demand for this infrastructure? Do people
really want to create and remix?

Bloggers have proven themselves to be an invaluable source of ideas
and information -- will self-published music authors and remixers be
next? Will consuming music become more interactive -- more like a
video game, where the fan can participate in the process by making
remixes?

[1] http://sxsw.com
[2] http://creativecommons.org/license/music
[3] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/
[4] http://creativecommons.org/learn/licenses/music-comics
[5] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
[6] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed-music
[7] http://creativecommons.org/images/public/music.gif
[8] http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights.gif
[9]  
http://sxsw.com/interactive/panels/index.php?action=detail&con=ia&id=59
[10] http://opsound.org
[11] http://www.mp34u.com
[12] http://www.prx.org
[13] http://http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~anth/kelty.html

 -----------------

MusicBrainz for OS X (finally!)
2004-03-19

MusicBrainz[1], the Creative Commons licensed music metadata database
[2], has long been limited to windows users. OS X users are in luck
though, as iEatBrainz[3] has been released.

By using a sophisticated set of audio fingerprinting and other
technology, iEatBrainz and MusicBrainz allow you to re-tag all your
MP3s. This is a killer feature for anyone that's ever ripped one of
their CDs with iTunes, but didn't have a network connection at the
time the songs were imported. Try it out, after a few moments
MusicBrainz will likely find a match for all your "Track 01, Track 02,
etc" tracks in iTunes. [via Ben Hammersley[4]]

[1] http://musicbrainz.org/
[2] http://musicbrainz.org/news/licenses.html
[3] http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22813
[4] http://www.benhammersley.com/

 -----------------

Audio Lunchbox
2004-03-19

Although they're not selling any Creative Commons licensed music, it's
worth noting that there's a new player in the downloadable music
arena: Audio Lunchbox[1]. They specialize in small indie rock labels,
selling albums for around ten dollars each in instantly available
downloadable formats. Additionally, the high bitrate MP3 and ogg
vorbis tracks contain no DRM of any kind; just unencumbered music.

[1] http://audiolunchbox.com/

 -----------------

Goopymart!
2004-03-17

This week's featured content is the wonderfully wacky and off-the-wall
stuff at Goopymart[1]. Flash movies and animated comics feature a
variety of animal-like creatures. Yuggy[2] is my favorite and a
longtime popular fixture of the Goopy universe.

[1] http://www.goopymart.com/
[2] http://www.goopymart.com/yuggy/yuggy.html

 -----------------

Community
2004-03-17

As far as I'm concerned, the very best among the many great things
about being part of Creative Commons is getting to meet CC users and
supporters face-to-face. Knowing that one and a half million web pages
(and growing) carry Creative Commons licenses is always an inspiring
thought, but getting together with musicians and writers and activists
and business people who use Creative Commons -- particularly when I've
never met them before -- is the most satisfying thing I can imagine.
At such times, it's as if our basement office in sleepy Palo Alto
suddenly stretched out to hold the whole CC community.

The team had just such an encounter here this week, when we got
together with the EFF[1], EFF Austin, Common Content[3], and Magnatune
[4] to celebrate our common cause at El Sol y La Luna in Austin,
Texas, USA. And we'll get to do it again this Thursday, when Magnatune
and Creative Commons co-host a party during SXSW Music. Thanks to all
of you who came by, to those of you who'll make the next shindig, and
to all of you out there who have turned Creative Commons the idea into
Creative Commons the community.

[1] http://eff.org
[2] http://effaustin.org
[3] http://commoncontent.org
[4] http://magnatune.com

 -----------------

Bricks in the Wall
2004-03-17

Bricks in the Wall

Theater and drama fans are familiar with the Fourth Wall, the
conceptual boundary between performer and audience. It's an artistic
term, but we've now extended the concept in a Creative Commons way. At
the South by Southwest Film Festival[1] this week, I moderated a
panel, "Can Copyright Bring Filmmaker and Audience Together?", that
explored creative ways for filmmakers to (1) maximize distribution
and/or (2) encourage interaction with their works by going Some Rights
Reserved. The premise for the talk was the idea that any worthwhile
discussion of film today has got to address the copyright bricks in
the Wall.

We were lucky to have a fantastic group of panelists. Creative Commons
contest winner Justin Cone[2] described the making of "Building on the
Past[3]" and explained how the process of working with public domain
footage opened his eyes to a new range of aesthetic possibilities.
(Justin, a newcomer to moving images, is now pursuing other film
projects.) David Jacobs[4], chief technologist of youth media
activists MediaRights.org[5], explained the group's decision to
Creative Commons license their Media That Matters Film Festival.
All-around media head Wiley Wiggins[6] put his finger on the single
app that we need to make Commons'd film catch fire: a simple "share"
button and license menu in Quicktime and other film editing tools.
Zack Exley, organizing director of Moveon.org[7], reflected on
Moveon's Bush in 30 Seconds[8] contest and told of his brushes with
copyright trouble in his former life as a political satirist[9].

Finally, in a headlong dive through the Fourth Wall,
actor-writer-director David Ball announced the release of his
full-length feature _Honey_ -- plus all its component parts, from
script[10] to soundtrack -- under Creative Commons licenses. Ball is
opening up the free copying and trading (for noncommercial use) of the
final film, but also encouraging film schools and aspiring editors and
directors to re-interpret selected scenes[11] by digging into the raw
footage and re-cutting it to their tastes. On the new Fourth Wall
Films website and blog[12] (which I highly recommend you check out and
participate in, esp. if you do film), Ball explains his decision[13]
and calls for others to do the same:

    I want to seed a movement, one where filmmakers and the filmgoing
    community are more directly linked, where people can make up their
    own minds, and where a diversity of voices can be heard-not just
    the voices a few hundred decision makers decide are "marketable."
    So many times I heard from people that my movie was good, but not
    marketable. When I heard that, I realized something was wrong with
    the market. Here's to making our own market. I hope Honey is a
    start.

[1] http://sxsw.com
[2] http://justincone.com
[3] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/movingimagecontest
[4] http://hello.typepad.com/
[5] http://mediarights.org
[6] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/wiggins
[7] http://moveon.org
[8] http://www.bushin30seconds.org/
[9]  
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2000-03-03/ 
screens_feature9.html
[10] http://fourthwall.creativecommons.org/honey/script
[11] http://fourthwall.creativecommons.org/honey/whyremix
[12] http://fourthwall.creativecommons.org/
[13] http://fourthwall.creativecommons.org/honey/whycc

 -----------------

CC Remix Music
2004-03-17

Check out some tunes from Funktifyno[1]. I really like the live
recording of That One[2] -- a great jazz jam. Funktifyno is based out
of Portland, Oregon. Go remix!

[1] http://www.funktifyno.com/
[2] http://www.funktifyno.com/mp3/That_One.mp3

 -----------------

Machinista Festival
2004-03-17

Machinista[1], an arts festival focusing on machine-related art, will
use Creative Commons licenses for the DVD containing the winning
entries. The winners will be chosen out of the 280 submissions, which
are themed as "the world as seen by the machines." Since the content
will be CC-licensed, we're also hoping to have it hosted at the
Internet Archive[2] so the world can download it for free -- by using
your own machine, of course.

[1] http://machinista.org
[2] http://archive.org

 -----------------

Local Heroes
2004-03-14

If you're at South by Southwest in Austin, come by our panels at 10am
(music and copyright) and 11:30am (film and copyright) Monday morning.
Special guests include two Austinites: tech-media renaissance man
Wiley Wiggins[1] and GET CREATIVE! contest[2] winner Justin Cone,
whose 2-minute short "Building on the Past[3]" perfectly exemplifies
the CC mission. (How many films do you know of that involved zero in
royalty costs?)

[1] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/wiggins
[2] http://creativecommons.org/contest/
[3] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/movingimagecontest

 -----------------

CC Hits SXSW
2004-03-13

A large part of the Creative Commons team is excited to be in Austin
at South By Southwest[1]. On Monday, we'll be speaking on panels
discussing Creative Commons for music[2] and film[3]. We'll also be
announcing a few related project at the conference. See you there!

[1] http://www.sxsw.com
[2]  
http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/panels/index.php? 
action=detail&con=ia&id=59
[3]  
http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/panels/index.php? 
action=detail&con=ia&id=75

 -----------------

CC Remix Music
2004-03-12

I found PIA's Symbols[1] through the Creative Commons search engine[2]
-- a great album of electronic music. You can find lots of musicthrough  
the search engine, which has currently indexed only 50,000
URLs out of the 1,400,000 URLs we know to contain CC licensed content
(there are another 400,000 URLs in the queue).

Symbols is under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike[3] license,
so if you use Apple's Garageband[4], or Adobe's Audition[5], among
other music authoring applications, you can remix it. Imagine how
great it would be if there was a "get content" button within these
applications, that would find thousands of hours of CC licensed music
that you could re-use, or remix. It's only a matter of time.

[1] http://pia.com.chez.tiscali.fr/Pages/Symbolsuk.html
[2] http://search.creativecommons.org
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/
[4] http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
[5] http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/main.html

 -----------------

Something's gotta be done about the Beatles
2004-03-11

Music journalist Devon Powers has a great piece on copyright terms,
sampling, and the Beatles[1] at PopMatters. In it, she looks at the
Grey Album and comes to the conclusion that overly long copyright
terms harm our culture by limiting the use of music as social force.
Akin to "Free the Mouse" she arrives at the conclusion "Something's
gotta be done about the Beatles."

    And for all of us who hold music dear, we owe it to ourselves to
    not only let our musical past footnote our musical present, but
    also allow that past to live and breathe, change and reform,
    disappear and reappear in unexpected ways.

[via The Importance of...[2]]

[1] http://popmatters.com/music/columns/powers/040310.shtml
[2] http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/002364.html

  -----------------

Building the perfect hit song
2004-03-10

This is interesting news for musicians -- you know how some songs are
really catchy and you wonder if the hooks could be engineered to make
people like the song? A company called Polyphonic HMI has created
software they call "Hit Song Science[1]" which is supposed to contain
algorithms that determine if a song is likely to be a hit. The company
is touting their first attempt at using HSS in the marketplace as a
success[2]. [via furdlog[3]]

[1] http://www.hitsongscience.com/
[2] http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=63782
[3] http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/


 -----------------

Magnatune gets to blogging
2004-03-10

John Buckman, creator and head of the non-evil, Creative Commons
friendly music label Magnatune[1] has started his own blog[2]. A
recent gem is the exchange his wife had with a music executive[3] at
an industry conference. Great stuff.

[1] http://www.magnatune.com/
[2] http://blogs.magnatune.com/
[3] http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2004/03/major_label_exe.html


 -----------------

Mainstreaming of mash-ups
2004-03-10

At the tail end of last night's broadcast of ABC's World News Tonight
with Peter Jennings, they did a short piece on music mash-ups[1]
(video only available to ABCnews premium subscribers).

There's an interview with Mitch Butler[2] and he does a live mash-up
demo of Eminem's Without Me laid over Scott Joplin's ragtime piano
classics. ABCnews also covers the DJ Dangermouse's Grey Album
controversy. Unfortunately, the piece characterizes all mash-ups as
completely illegal and alludes to people using PCs and audio software
as potentially doing great harm to the music industry.

[1]  
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/videofiles/Video/ 
040309mash_video_context.html
[2] http://www.mitchbutler.com/

 -----------------

Creative Commons at DSpace
2004-03-10

Ben Adida[1], one of our technical advisors, will be talking about
Creative Commons at the DSpace User Meeting[2] on Thursday morning at
MIT. He will demonstrate the integration of the CC license selection
process[3] into the DSpace application. Thanks to the CC License
Engine[4], this development work can be done in a few hours, providing
any web-based application with the full, always-up-to-date, selection
of Creative Commons Licenses.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#13
[2] http://www.dspace.org/conference/conference.html
[3] http://creativecommons.org/license/
[4] http://creativecommons.org/technology/developerdocs

 -----------------

Buzznet  adds licenses
2004-03-09

Buzznet[1] is a photoblog community offering free hosting space for
your digital photos and mobile phone shots. They offer image uploads
via your web browser and cameraphones using email, making it easy to
setup your own gallery of photos. Recently we noticed they became the
first photoblogging service to offer the ability to license your
gallery under a Creative Commons license.

If you've got a cameraphone or bunch of digital photos you'd like to
share, sign up for a new account then simply select a license in the
preferences to apply it to all your photos.

[1] http://www.buzznet.com/

 -----------------

Recycling Perfected -- but Formalized?
2004-03-07

Questions of the day: Hip-hop artists and DJs have long made a
practice of inviting remixes by releasing acapella or instrumental
tracks. What stops them from formalizing that invitation with, say, a
CC license? Is it that the music-biz lawyers want to reserve the right
to hold remixers hostage, in the event they start to become too
successful, or stray too far aesthetically? If that's not the
explanation, what is? There's something about the practice that's
reminiscent of the Speakeasy or back-room gambling joint: when a
vibrant sampling underground is uncovered, copyright holders are
shocked, _shocked_ to learn the law has been broken.

Related news: _The New York Times_ today inventoried[1] the growing
catalog of Jay-Z mash-ups, from the oh-so-scandalous[2] _Grey Album_
*(Jay-Z + Beatles) to _Double Black Album[3]_ (Jay-Z + Metallica),
plus about ten more. I'm glad the whole controversy has everyone
talking about copyright and art, but it's a shame that the _Grey Album
_ has gotten all the attention. Some of these other mashes are
better-executed as records, in my view, if less grand in high concept.
I think Illmind's _Black and Tan Album[4]_ works pretty well, for
example, even though its samples are less familiar than the _Grey
Album's_.

All this makes it more striking to hear people say that remixing is
not music, that the manipulation of sound recordings is less worthy an
art form than the manipulation of abstract notes and rhythms. Of
course rock-and-roll once faced the same criticism -- it wasn't _real_
music. And then came the Beatles, who by no means invented rock but
certainly perfected it, so that even the old foagies fogies eventually
came to take its merit for granted. Will it require a masterpiece of
mash for remix culture finally to win legitimacy? Who will be the
Beatles of bricolage?_

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/07/arts/music/07PLAY.html
[2] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4008
[3] http://www.broke-ass.com/
[4] http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/illmindmusic.htm

 -----------------

CC Stories
2004-03-06

_

Just a quick note to say I just downloaded your MP3 from the
harvard.edu site. It's good to know that my music was good enough to
be included in your report. I enjoy fact that other people can
appreciate it and use it freely in their own work.

Regards,

Laurie Laptop

_

My friend Benjamen Walker received this email the other day.

(Ben is the guy behind the award-winning[1] and cult-fave Boston radio
show Your Radio Nighlight[2] and our own cartoons[3]' sound design.)

Ben recently produced a short piece[4] for Harvard's Berkman Center[5]
's great AudioBerkman project[6] called "The Gadget Factor[7]." The
segment takes "a closer look a cool new class of high-tech toys -- the
portable MP3 player -- to find out what effect these devices are
having on the world of online music."

The piece features interviews with media analysts and lawyers --
including both EFF's Fred Von Lohmann[8] and the RIAA's Cary Sherman
[9]. And like all Ben Walker radio pieces of late, it is built around
loops of Creative Commons-licensed music.

For "Gadget," Ben used CC'd tunes by Wayne Marshall[10], Norel Pref
[11]. and Laurie Laptop[12] -- who authored of the email above.

Another satisfying CC story.

Do you have a good one? Send it to us[13] with "CC Story" in the
subject box and we'll let everyone know.

[1]  
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/supplements/the%5Fbest/00/text/ 
ae%5Faural.html
[2] http://yourlight.org/
[3] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/
[4] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/audio/gadget
[5] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/
[6] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/audio/
[7] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/audio/gadget
[8] http://www.eff.org/homes/fred_von_lohmann.php
[9] http://www.riaa.com/about/leadership/default.asp
[10] http://www.wayneandwax.com/
[11] http://www.opsound.org/opsound/pool/norelpref.html
[12] http://www.opsound.org/opsound/pool/laurielaptop.html
[13] mailto:info AT creativecommons.org

 -----------------

Press Hits, March 3 - April 13 2004


New York Times
2004-04-08

"Lottery Numbers and Books With a Voice[1]" by Pamela LiCalzi
O'Connell

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/technology/circuits/08diar.html




 -----------------

Times (UK)
2004-04-06

"Copyright for Every Occasion[1]" by Richard Susskind

[1] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-1061467,00.html




 -----------------

BBC News
2004-03-29

"I share, you rip off, they pirate[1]" by Bill Thompson

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3578851.stm




 -----------------

Chicago Tribune
2004-03-28

"Copyfight[1]" interview by Chicago Tribune

[1]  
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi 
-0403280175mar28,1,4626459.story?coll=chi-leisurearts-hed




 -----------------

Digital Media Europe
2004-03-22

"New 'some-rights-reserved' music licence from Creative Commons[1]" by
Leigh Phillips

[1] http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=1279





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