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[Jonathan Mitchell <website3 AT jonathanmitchell.info>]

The first question raised is ³do creative licences have a commercial
element? We would argue they act as a promotional tool and don't necessarily
harm sales, but there is little evidence we can find either way² .

Surely the answer is that it depends on the facts of the particular case,
and these will vary not only from case to case but between different areas
of economic activity. A person who is commercially active in a particular
field and distributes work under any CC license is engaging in a form of
advertising; but what they are advertising is not necessarily the same. The
original email seems to assume that CC is a tool for the performing arts; if
so, this is a false assumption. Consider first these sets of examples:
1. I distribute a film trailer which is 10% of the length of the film. This
is a promotional tool; unless it is awful it will not harm sales.
2. I distribute a film trailer which is 90% of the length of the film. This
will be likely to harm sales unless the 10% withheld is crucial.
3. Now apply this to CD tracks: In example 1, the effect is likely to be
that the buyer will see the CD as offering 10% less for the same price; the
question is whether that price rise is offset by the advertising effect.
4. In example 2, the CD offers 90% less for the same price, so it is
probable that sales will be destroyed.

It is these examples which the writer, I think, had in mind.

5. But now apply this to academic or professional writing. If I write a
legal text , my direct return on the sales of the book will be practically
zero; my return is in a potential increase in fee-paying instructions from
people who see me as having expertise. So the previous examples have no real
relevance; the expenditure of effort on writing the book could never be
economically justified by sales anyway, but only by the putting of my work
into the eye of potential buyers of my services. So my interest is served by
as wide a distribution as possible and that is likely to be best achieved by
making the book free as an electronic download. The only potential loss is
if the book answers very precisely a particular question I would otherwise
have been asked to answer for a fee; in that case, I am better not writing
in the first place. Here is a specific example: several years ago I wrote a
short legal textbook which sold its print run of 600 (a typical print run
for a specialised Scottish legal textbook) at £20; I waived royalties, but
they would have been minimal. It is now freely downloadable under a CC
license; over 200 people download per month; ultimately I am paid more (at
least I suspect so- the effect is of course utterly intangible).

It does seem to me that academic and professional writing is an area in
which the use of CC licensing should be greatly expanded.

While writing the above I read Stuart Yeates example of Red Hat; that seems
analogous with 5 in the gains from from certification, consulting, etc.

Jonathan

--
Jonathan Mitchell QC

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From: "Damian Tambini" <damian.tambini AT socio-legal-studies.oxford.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 11:40:24 -0000
To: <cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Cc-uk] FW: creative commons licences

Firstly, do creative licences have a commercial element? We would argue they
act as a promotional tool and don't necessarily harm sales, but there is
little evidence we can find either way.