Support Creative Commons
I have written two books using Creative Commons licenses and contributed to two others. I also use a CC license on this blog (see the blogroll and hover over or click on the CC image for details).
I first learned about the group while reading a book by Lawrence Lessig, and was convinced. If information is not free to be disseminated and reused, it cannot be built upon and our research will begin to stagnate.
I like the idea of others being able to use and build upon my work, and I think the copyright system has gotten out of hand. Of course, I like to be paid for my work, but I will risk sacrificing a little money for the sake of information being free (and I don’t actually think I have lost any money anyway, but rather have sold more books with the CC license).
I read on Andy Oram’s blog that Creative Commons needs some help. I did something, and I hope after you see what they are all about, you will find yourself willing and able to help them as well.
“I like the idea of others being able to use and build upon my work, and I think the copyright system has gotten out of hand. Of course, I like to be paid for my work, but I will risk sacrificing a little money for the sake of information being free (and I don’t actually think I have lost any money anyway, but rather have sold more books with the CC license).”
We (as in: nerds) like to think that everything should be “free” or “freely modifiable”. But on the other hand, should “blogs” really be “freely modifiable”? Do you, for an instance, write about politics? May I “modify” your opinions and distribute them as your opinions? Do you write causeries? What if you are, again as an example, a politician or civil servant?
Blogs are not “open source”.
Blogs are most of all small writings based on the personal opinions of the “blogger”. Books may be a different thing, but then these constitute a tiny minority of the usage of the CC licenses.
Furthermore: it is rather ridiculous to state that “research would stagnate” without some new “freedom” question in the late 2000s, given that science has done so well with just books and libraries — the “openness” or “freedom” of science is so obvious foundation of the Western science that it does not need to be tied to some CC-issue.
Opinions?
The issue isn’t solely about building upon, as in remixing, but also about the ability to use information. Giving a CC license to a blog, for example, permits others to quote you, knowing that they may do so without wondering whether their use falls under “fair use” guidelines or whether they will be sued for reposting your ideas.
In my case, I am using a CC-by-nc-sa license, which allows anyone to use the things I write provided that they attribute it to me, don’t sell it or make money off of my posts, and that if they do build upon it, which as you mention isn’t a big issue with blog posts, but could happen, they release what they create with a similar license. I think that’s fair.
I am hearing about Lessig’s book for the first time, so I decided to purchase it, since that’s a way of supporting them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an ebook on amazon.com. On ebooks.com however, they have an ebook but it is in “Microsoft reader” format. A format which I’ve never heard of before, and I probably can’t use, since I don’t have windows.
I wonder why the book isn’t available as a pdf… and I sure hope that the book is under a CC license…
The book is under a CC license and is available as a free download on Lessig’s website from this page: http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/