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- From: "David Hirst" <dhirst AT pavilion.co.uk>
- To: <cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [Cc-uk] Creative Commonists & Microsoft
- Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 22:16:30 -0000
It
looks as if this is a weak spot in his Billship’s thinking. We're
Creative Commonists, Bill
By Katie Dean Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66209,00.html 02:00
AM Jan. 08, 2005 PT When Bill
Gates referred to copyright reformers as modern-day communists in an interview
at the Consumer Electronics Show, it didn't take long for the web community to
respond with a big "nyah-nyah-nyah." Bloggers
and designers were quick to dream up "creative communist" symbols, a
play on one of the best-known groups working The
images were instantly passed around and added to websites, T-shirts and
buttons. The
kerfuffle started when Gates was asked in a News.com interview
if intellectual property laws should be reformed. He replied: "No,
I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in
intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world
today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who
want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software
makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should
exist," he told News.com. The
comments show just how out-of-touch Gates is with a large and growing community
of people who have embraced the ideas of open source and building on one
another's creative works, proponents of copyright reform say. Creative
Commons was formed to provide a more balanced alternative to those who want to
protect their works, but share them under certain conditions. The group devised
a series of flexible copyright licenses available for anyone, for free. When
people snap photos, write music or create animations, for instance, they can
choose a license that permits others to use or sample the content as long as
they credit the author and use the material for noncommercial purposes. Glenn
Otis Brown, executive director of Creative Commons, wondered whom Gates was
referring to when he made the remarks. Certainly not Creative Commons, which is
a "voluntary, market-based approach to copyright," Brown wrote in an
e-mail. "I
get sad when people cheapen words like 'communist' or 'fascist' by throwing
them around recklessly, especially given what those words meant in the
not-so-distant past," Brown wrote. "My father was a CIA Cold Warrior
for 35 years of his life; he wasn't fighting against GPL'd software. Stalinist
purges, the Berlin Wall, tanks in "And
let's not forget just how many creative people's lives were ruined by
irresponsible name-calling not too long ago. Remember the Lawrence
Lessig, Stanford University law professor
and chairman of the board of Creative Commons, mocked Gates' comments at the
organization's second anniversary party Thursday night in Ken
Mickles, owner of Giant Robot
Printing, decided to print T-shirts with the red Creative Commies logo.
After Boing Boing posted the link,
Mickles received about 250 orders in less than a day, he said. The T-shirts
sell for $5 or $6 depending on size. Graphic
designer Ryan Schroeder also arranged to print similar shirts through CafePress.com. "I
can't say I was terribly surprised by (Gates') comments. That's the kind of
thing you would expect," Mickles said. "I don't really take offense
to being called a communist." !-!?!-Hirst Solutions Limited Ecameter Limited ResponsiveLoad Limited Mobile +44 7831 405443 Home/Office +44 1273 570113 Innovation Technology Sustainability |
- [Cc-uk] Creative Commonists & Microsoft, David Hirst, 01/08/2005
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