Year in Review: Creative Commons

There have been some noteworthy posts on the Creative Commons Planet this year.

Interviews
The first of these was an interview with Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan from the band Beatnick Turtle, authors of The Indie Band Survival Guide.[1]

They explain how the traditional contours of copyright law impede the dissemination and thus exposure of independent artists. Locking down works with DRM and copyright law is seen as counterintuitive to the goals of up and coming creators.[2] In questioning the basis of the copyright system they argue that the expense involved in bringing actions to prevent infringement as one of the major factors undermining the few benefits that artists might gain from retaining the all rights reserved approach.[3] They explain their choice in using a non commercial license as being based on the notion that passing music between friends is not a lost sale.[4]

They also reflect on the difficulties associated with using Creative Commons licenses particularly awareness regarding the perpetual nature of the licenses, the limitations inherent in local jurisdictions and whether the terms of the licenses will be recognised in the legal system and the difficulties created by royalty collection societies such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and SOCAN who continue to insist on royalty collection thus creating conflict where recordings are licensed but creators are members of these organisations.[5]

They give an insight into how their publication The Indie Band Survival Guide was initially published under a creative commons license but was subsequently published by two major publishers – St.Martin's Press/Macmillan and Random House. Random House are publishing a world wide version of the project called The DIY Music Manual in February 2009.[6] Complementing these books the authors have also commenced a website http://indiebandsurvivalguide.com/ which lists resources and information for independent artists.

Another interesting interview on the Creative Commons Planet in 2008 was with Jesse Von Doom of CASH – Coalition of Artists and Stake Holders.[7] Jesse explained that CASH was a site for independent artist which releases full mix stems for remixing tracks with community added vocals, sheet music, videos, interviews, photos, ebooks and lyric sheets.[8] With over 4.5 million downloads and over 100,000 visitors the site also enables supporters to donate to artists.[9]

Jamendo
In June 2008 it was reported that Jamendo had released its 10,000th CC licensed album.[10]

Case Law
In the United States the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit examined the operation of open licenses in the case of Jacobsen v Katzer and concluded that where the terms of the license are breached copyright infringement may be found.[11] The case concerned the author of some ‘free’ software for the programming of model railroad train systems.[12] A company used this software commercially in breach of the license conditions and were held by the court to have infringed copyright.[13]


[1] Creative Commons, The Indie Band Survival Guide (24 September 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/9448> at 5 October 2008
[2] Creative Commons, The Indie Band Survival Guide (24 September 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/9448> at 5 October 2008
[3] Creative Commons, The Indie Band Survival Guide (24 September 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/9448> at 5 October 2008
[4] Creative Commons, The Indie Band Survival Guide (24 September 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/9448> at 5 October 2008
[5] Creative Commons, The Indie Band Survival Guide (24 September 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/9448> at 5 October 2008
[6] Creative Commons, The Indie Band Survival Guide (24 September 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/9448> at 5 October 2008
[7] Creative Commons, CASH Music (29 July 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8602> at 20 August 2008
[8] Creative Commons, CASH Music (29 July 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8602> at 20 August 2008
[9] Creative Commons, CASH Music (29 July 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8602> at 20 August 2008
[10] Creative Commons, Jamendo Publishes 10,000th CC-licensed album! (20 June 2008) <http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8383> at 27 June 2008
[11] TechDirt, Does Court Ruling Over Artistic License Conflict With Other Copyright Rulings? (14 August 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080813/1655461968.shtml> at 20 August 2008; ZeroPaid, Open Content Community Celebrates Legal Victory (18 August 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9703/Open+Content+Community+Celebrates+Legal+Victory> at 20 August 2008
[12] TechDirt, Does Court Ruling Over Artistic License Conflict With Other Copyright Rulings? (14 August 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080813/1655461968.shtml> at 20 August 2008; ZeroPaid, Open Content Community Celebrates Legal Victory (18 August 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9703/Open+Content+Community+Celebrates+Legal+Victory> at 20 August 2008
[13] TechDirt, Does Court Ruling Over Artistic License Conflict With Other Copyright Rulings? (14 August 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080813/1655461968.shtml> at 20 August 2008; ZeroPaid, Open Content Community Celebrates Legal Victory (18 August 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9703/Open+Content+Community+Celebrates+Legal+Victory> at 20 August 2008