Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Paul Keller <pk AT kl.nl>]

On Aug 27, 2007, at 1:27 PM, Jamison Young wrote:

> Hi CC mailing list,
>
> Last week I got an email that talks about a new type of CC license
> that is able to be used in conjunction with collection societies in
> the Netherlands for a trail period. This CC license that is to be
> potentially adopted by the collection society shall allow the
> licensor to choose the way that a commercial use shall be defined (if
> i read the press release the right way). The choice takes place
> within the Burma/Stemra system. So I'm thinking that Burma/Stremra
> are going to decide what a commercial use is.

Dear Jamison,
you definitely do not read the press release the right way. first of  
all there are no new CC licenses. The whole point of the pilot is to  
let members of Buma/Stemra use the existing CC licenses (in this case  
limited to the three NC licenses). Also the choice does not take  
within the buma stemra system. However in order to use the CC  
licenses B/S members need to get the requited rights retransferred  
from Buma/Stemra. This is done via a set of special conditions that  
are added to their membership agreements. These special conditions  
also contain a clarification of what the author will consider to be  
commercial uses of his or her works. This clarification was NOT  
decided upon by Buma/Stemra, but is the result of long negotiations  
between us (Creative Commons Netherlands) and Buma/Stemra. This  
clarification is a compromise and should be seen as such.


> "In order to make this possible Buma/Stemra will - upon request -
> retransfer the rights needed for using a non-commercial CC licenses
> to their members. This happens online (on their website) and is
> stored in their internal processing and administration systems. the
> whole process takes about 30 seconds per song." extract from press
> release CC Netherlands.
>
> If the collection societies are able to create a CC license with a
> definition of what a commercial use is, what is the effect of this ?

No collection society can create a CC licenses. This is not what is  
happening here and it is not our intention. What is happening here  
that Buma/Stemra and CC-Nl have looked to provide a clarification  
that makes the distinction between commercial and non-commercial use  
workable within the systems used by Collecting Societies.

> I reckon that creating a CC license that can adapt to anything is a
> good idea. Yet this is something new to the way I see CC and is this
> not a new form of licensing all together ?
>
> Also:
> I'm still relatively new to CC licensing, so maybe I have
> misinterpreted the situation. My view at the moment is that very few
> music artists (outside the US) have heard about CC, to create
> something without a reasonable demand is not easy, yet I agree its
> maybe possible.
>
> thought:
>  From talkin with artists in Australia through http://www.myspace.com/
> optoutofAPRA it seems that the only income that very much more than
> most "Self Published" artists are able to get is through "Live
> Performance". also,  some artists have said that they are upset that
> non-profit clubs/venues/spaces end up having to pay for the use of
> content. So question is.
> If an artist performs works in a non-profit space, does that non-
> profit venue still have to pay the collection societies for use of
> that artists works ? that is if the artist has licenses that/those
> works with a CC license.

this very much depends on the circumstances. in most cases these  
places will have to pay if CC licensed repertoire of Buma/Stemra  
members is performed. This depends on a number of factors especially  
if a cover sis charged for the event, if there are other revenue  
generating activities in connection with the gig and if the concert  
does only consist of CC licensed material.

I do not think that this issue will be easyly resolved by any  
arrangement between CS and CC. In this situation it might make more  
sense to simply not become a CS member in the first place (but then i  
do not really know enough about the concrete situation in Australia)

best,
paul (cc-netherlands)
--
paul keller | kennisland
t +31205756720 | e: pk AT kl.nl | www.kennisland.nl