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About Creative Commons
Posted on August 24th, 2009 at 11:08am
I'm pleased if not a bit humbled by all the attention my interview with Creative Commons' Eric Steuer has received this past week. (If you haven't already read or heard it, click here.) I'm pleased because it's bringing attention to an organization whose work I champion. Creative Commons just makes sense.
I chose to release Halfway, pleased under a CC license for a number of reasons. One of those is because it truly recognizes the way people consume music. If I had released the album under an "All Rights Reserved" copyright, and you decided to do a remix of a song for fun, or lent the CD to your friend to make a copy, or performed a song at your school concert, you might well be in violation of the copyright.
That's just silly. As I said in the interview, we as artists want to share our music. We want it to be heard, by as many people as possible.
Second, an "all rights reserved" copyright just doesn't take into account the way people behave - we all "share" music with our friends, or play it at school events - and is therefore impossible to enforce.
Third, I'm thrilled if people like my music enough to share it with their friends or perform it for others. Do I want to suppress that by making you ask me for permission every time? No, I don't. Do I want to deal with a multitude of requests such as "is it okay if I use your song as the backing track for my school video project?" No, I don't. It's fine. Do it.
Creative Commons makes it very easy to release my work under a "Some Rights Reserved" Creative Commons license. The one I chose (and there are several) says: do with my music what you will, as long as you give me credit, as long as whatever you do is released under the same terms, and as long as you're not receiving income for it. It's all in very plain English, no lawyers involved.
The rights that I've reserved, then, largely have to do with commercial exploitation: Television or film soundtracks; paid performances; commercials; sampling; etc. Basically, you don't have the right use my music in a way that generates revenue for you without my permission and without my participating in that revenue.
One misconception I should like to clear up about Creative Commons is that all music released under a CC license is free. Some is, to be sure, but not all. Some artists choose to release their music for free and concentrate on other revenue streams (such as live performances) for their income, others (like myself) do not. I invested a great deal in the recording and release of Halfway pleased, and charging for it is a way for me to recoup those expenses and to have the funds to invest in making more music.
That being said, I think I've been as democratic as possible in the way I charge for it. You can buy a track at a time from digital services like iTunes, AmazonMP3 or thesixtyone. You can buy the entire album digitally, or on CD. And you don't even have to buy it to listen to it, since it streams for free on my website. If you're a registered member of my site, you can download a track for free. That's all pretty fair, don't you think?
Last, Creative Commons isn't just for music. It's for video, for text (all Wikipedia entries are now CC licensed), for photos (CC is an option on Flickr, for example). It's not just for the English language; licenses are available in a number of languages and for a number of countries.
Some of you have asked how you can help spread the word about Creative Commons. I myself found out about it through a colleague, so the best way to spread the word is... to spread the word. If you have friends who make art, make sure they know about it. The website is www.creativecommons.org, and you can follow them on Twitter @creativecommons.
That's it for now. I'm enjoying the last week of summer with the girls before they head back to school next week. Hoping to do some more solo shows in and around Los Angeles in the next few months, and of course I'll let you know as soon as those dates are confirmed.
Papa S.
EZEZEZ
Comments
Posted by webwezal on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - 13:28.
Thank You... Thank You!! I will def look into the writers license more and share that info with my friends. This has been good stuff here!!
Live, Love & Smile,
Traci
All for freedom and for pleasure, nothing ever last forever...
webwezal13@yahoo.com
Posted by jazzerholic on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - 10:47.
Tons of Mahalos for all the info, Curt and Arlene!!! Loads of valuable information, artist alike can utilize about CC all in here and these web links!!
Now spread the word people! Go!! Now!! Hurry!! LOL Hehehehe...
Enjoy the last week of your summer with your Family Curt!!! :D We'll see you in your gigs in the FALL!!! :D
Posted by Arlene on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - 09:05.
Creative Commons can be used by writers. For online writing, you simply select and apply the CC license you wish to use. For example, on the CC site itself, it says (at the bottom of each page): "Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License."
With respect to offline work, this is from the CC FAQ:
"For offline works, you should identify which Creative Commons license you wish to apply to your work and then mark your work either: (a) with a statement such as “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of this license, visit [insert url]; or, (b) send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 2nd Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.” or insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.
The only difference between applying a Creative Commons license to an offline work and applying it to an online work is that offline works will not include the metadata and, consequently, will not be identified via Creative Commons-customized search engines."
However, this month "Google launched a program to enable rightsholders to make their Creative Commons-licensed books available for the public to download, use, remix, and share via Google Books." The full story is here: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/16823.
Posted by webwezal on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - 00:31.
Thanks Arlene!!! Wanted to give you a SHOUT out girl for what you do and for posting our pictures. On THE61 right now... jammin' to the tunes of Temple Scene - they are a solid group, singer has fab vocals. I have found many other artist as well that I enjoy. Tipped Papa and bought a song two days ago. I will contiue to tip and get songs later, it's my way of doing something nice for someone. I randomly do acts of kindness. I have not done an act lately so Curt gets my support right now... and I get to continue to enjoy his gifts in music and life... COOL!!!
I perfer to buy my CDs and alike. Currently, we use Rhapsodyfor music we can't find or to load up our players. TFF and Curt are on there! Thanks for the continued education & information Papa!!!! You are a man of wisdom and have a pure heart in how you share your music exp with us. I've looked though the CC site and maybe I missed it. Is CC also for writers? I'll double check the site again.
Live, Love & Smile,
Traci
All for freedom and for pleasure, nothing ever last forever...
webwezal13@yahoo.com
Posted by Arlene on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - 23:18.
In addition to what's been said already, there are many online ways to "try before you buy" with music. For example. thesixtyone.com streams music (including Curt's), with many tracks available for download/sale right from the site if you like them. They even have a mechanism for you to leave "tips" for artists whose work you enjoy.
Another option is the Free Music Archive, located at http://freemusicarchive.org. All the music on the site is - you guessed it - free. There are many ways to explore the site, including songs recommended by guest "curators," one of which is Creative Commons (their page is at http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/Creative_Commons). You can download a track by Curt on the CC page, although many of you probably already have it... :)
Posted by Celeste on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - 21:02.
I think that people who steal music are just as bad as people who steal cars or someone's wallet. It's nice of you to explain how your particular license works Curt. I love your music and T4F's music and I would never intentionally step on your toes and prevent you from providing for your family.
I don't use sites like You Tube to steal music. I use You Tube because I love the artists that are on there and I want to show support for the artists who create the music that I love.
I only use P4P sites like Puretracks.com to legally down load songs and if I like the artists then I'll buy the CD. That's how I found out about ELAHE. I legally downloaded a few of the songs from Puretracks and I liked it and I sent my mother to find the CD.
Although so far I've had no such luck finding any tracks from HWP on Puretracks; I'm sure it will end up on there eventually since it's a legal download site. ;) I'm guessing that the company would have to get your permission before they load anything from HWP on to Puretracks.
Anyways Curt I wish you all the best with HWP.
EZEZEZ
Celeste
Tears For Fears Fan
www.blogyourjourney.com
My fan website
Tears For Fears Fan on the Ning Social Network
Posted by Alley394 on Monday, August 24, 2009 - 20:37.
"In the case of using or remixing Curt's music, his CC license carries three stipulations: 1) that he be credited, 2) that the resulting work be issued under the same kind of CC license as Curt's original work, and 3) that no money changes hands (i.e. no commercial use)."
That makes sense =)
Posted by SuzanneOlden on Monday, August 24, 2009 - 18:04.
Wow! That's so easy a paralegal could understand it! ;) (For those unaware, that was a jab at myself since I'm a paralegal!) Seriously, though, that makes perfect sense. As I've said before I work for a company that has a large body of copyrighted and trademarked material - intellectual property (which in Curt's case the intellectual property is his music). I could spend all day trolling the internet looking for those who are using our material or marks in violation of our "all rights reserved". As it is, we for the most part do some searching and let others help bring the worst offenders to our attention. But it is a large pain in the a**! This is the perfect compromise. In my work world the worst offenders we find usually are stealing revenue from us, but the "small fry" who is just passing along a tip, etc. isn't (even though we make everyone remove the material). So this would translate, since most of us want to help pass along the great music! Those who are the worst offenders, I'm sure and Curt or Arlene can correct me if I'm wrong, are those stealing the revenue and making money off of his music - and they would regardless of the level of rights reserved. This just keeps the rest of us from becoming "thieves"!
Kudos to Creative Commons and its creator - genius!!!
Hope for the hopeless, faith without anger. We can change the world...
Suzanne Olden
Posted by jazzerholic on Monday, August 24, 2009 - 16:45.
Thanks Curt for the detailed explanation of your CC license! I look forward to utilizing this great tool in distributing our products as artist. You can count on it that spreading the word wouldn't be a problem at all! Your efforts in spreading and sharing the arts is highly appreciated!! :D
Posted by Arlene on Monday, August 24, 2009 - 15:32.
In the case of using or remixing Curt's music, his CC license carries three stipulations: 1) that he be credited, 2) that the resulting work be issued under the same kind of CC license as Curt's original work, and 3) that no money changes hands (i.e. no commercial use).
Anyone wanting to exploit Curt's music commercially needs to work out a license with Curt for that usage.
Posted by Catching The Waves on Monday, August 24, 2009 - 13:03.
You have chosen ...wisely. :)
Thank you for helping to publicise Creative Commons licences and explaining why they can be beneficial to musicians and music fans. Anyone can take part in the CC community and everyone can have fun with the CC concept. It's good to know that the internet isn't all porn, spam and illegally downloaded music. Though, now I think about it, there must be some CC porn somewhere. The CC licence would make interesting reading...
Thanks again, and good luck with "Halfway, pleased".
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Watching a story about Ellen DeGeneres and how she is getting sued for using some of the music on her show. Some record labels are citing copyright infringement. This is a clear reason why it's good that Curt has been supporting a company like CC. If Ellen really did something wrong then, I hope things work out for all involved. I do unerstand the reasoning to protect the artists work.
However I like many songs Ellen has played on her show. I get a kick out of how badly she dances and doesn't care. That's just so choice!! Some of my friends and I search for the groups and music if we like if enough. She clearly is a fan of many music groups, gives them credit and shares why she like them. I hope CC continues to grow and more companies like them form. This will allow artists and alike more choices. Just sayin'. Link is to a small Rolling Stone piece - http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/09/11/ellen-degener...
Live, Love & Smile,
Traci
All for freedom and for pleasure, nothing ever last forever...
webwezal13@yahoo.com