Development of Creative Commons licenses

[DOKool AT aol.com]

Greetings, all.

I'm part of the AMV (Anime Music Video) community.  The basic idea is like 
any other fanvid - purchase existing source (both footage and music), and 
re-edit the anime to create... well, just about anything, as more and more 
AMVs are starting to rely on editor-created elements, from original effects 
to original 2 and 3-d animation.

There's currently a debate among the scene regarding video theft - basically, 
new editors taking clips and sequences from other people's AMVs and using 
them to create their own.  The debate basically falls along several lines... 
"I worked hard to make that sequence and some brat just takes it?" "You don't 
own the rights to the footage in the first place, why does it matter?" "OMG 
DBZ R0XXORS!" etc.

While browsing a recent thread on the issue I thought about Creative Commons, 
which I don't profess to know too much about, but I've seen enough CC icons 
in various places to remember the gist of it.

The problem is that AMVs, and derivative fan-works in general, fall under 
many questions of ownership.  Of course, the American licensor owns the 
distribution rights to the anime in the US, and the Japanese production 
company owns the rights to the show itself.  Furthermore, you have an 
artist/band who owns the music we use.

So, I suppose the big question is, can our vids be protected in any way under 
Creative Commons?  It's a tricky ethical issue to navigate, but I'd like to 
know what the general feeling is on the issue.

I'd also like to extend the debate to anime fansubs, but for now I'll end my 
post and see what people think about fanvids, and perhaps even fanart and fic 
in general.


-Dan