Hilary Rosen Loves Creative Commons

13.7Billion Years writes "Former RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen has written a piece in Wired extolling the virtues of Lawrence Lessig's Creative Commons licensing, providing such juicy tidbits as 'I'm still cynical about its origins, but I've come to love Creative Commons,' and 'the industry ought to embrace Creative Commons as an agile partner providing tools for new ways to do business.' She's not quite ready to pooh-pooh the current all-or-nothing licensing regime just yet but this sounds like good progress."

Comments

Rosen's view of copyright..

[doormat]

"Farmers can leave their property to their children; why shouldn't songwriters be able to leave their songs to their children?"

Uh, perhaps because thats not what the original intent of copyright. Copyright is supposed to be for a limited time, and then to enter the public domain. Property is forever (well, 'til the world ends).

Re:Rosen's view of copyright..

[Anonymous Coward]

artists have to do the same things the rest of us do: work for a living.

and if they are successful, they can do the same thing the rest of us can do: leave a big inheritance.

Farmer: has a farm.. gets to leave it to the kids

Artist: has musical instruments.. gets to leave them to their kids

Farmer: makes a crop: can't leave it to the kids, it'll spoil or it got sold already

Artist: makes music: can't leave it to the kids, because they already have it! it's just information!

So, if the kids want to get rich from the farm, WORK THE LAND!

And if you want to get rich from music, WORK THOSE INSTRUMENTS!

as an ex-musician myself, I understand. making CDs (or tapes in my case, it was a while ago). it's a tough business. But you're not entitled to a damn thing, and neither is the plumber, or a doctor.. or anybody else.

Re:Rosen's view of copyright..

[BillyBlaze]

A farm is capital - a tangible thing you can use to make money, a means of production. You can't farm without a farm. When a farmer dies, he passes his farm, his tractor, etc. to his children, and they use it to make money. If he had money, he passes it to his children also. The creative equivalent of a farm is pens, paper, instruments, recording hardware, and creativity - all of which a musician can pass down to his children. And he can still pass down his money, and he even gets to pass down his name. But a farmer's child isn't guaranteed income unless he farms the farm, thus becoming a productive member of society, so why should an author/musician's child expect to get income unless he writes/sings/etc?

Re:Rosen's view of copyright..

[tdvaughan]

Surely the point is that every artist, writer and otherwise creative person is only able to be creative in that way because they're able to build on the past creativity of others. This is the deal: when you benefit from previous generations' work, fine. Just don't block the next generation from benefitting from your work in the same way. And if what you've made is popular enough then you'll have earnt enough from it to leave your children enough of a legacy for anyone.

Re:Rosen's view of copyright..

[WarmBoota]

So write your goddamn song, sell it as a jingle to Pepsi and buy a goddamn farm. Music and literature are derivitave works that owe their existence to the work of earlier artists.

Take a look at Disney. Instead of contributing back to the Public Domain from which they've built their empire, they hoard their characters (which belong to the common lexicon) and swallow real creative places like Pixar.

Physical property, unlike creative works is limited. That's why we afford it special protection (and why governments choose to levy taxes on certain forms of it). Ideas and creative works are different, not just in their lack of physicality, but in the fact that our use of those ideas is colored by our perceptions and by our life experience. I might see or hear something different in your work and want to emphasize that myself (think decent cover versions of songs).

I really think that artists need to be compensated for their contribution to society, but I don't think that copyright protection should extend past 15-20 years. I am extremely opposed to their children inheriting the rights to their works. Give them the house and the car, but make them get a job for chrissakes!

Finally DRM technologies should be eliminated for the benefit of future generations. What good is copyright expiration if you can't get access to something because the key is lost

Sole Stated Purpose of Copyright

[Roger_Wilco]

It has nothing to do with protecting anybody, but only encouraging progress. See Article I, section 8, clause 8 of the US constitution:

Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Last pagraph response

[Famatra]

"Slashdot crowd who think that society would be better off if artists and writers knew their place -- give away your stuff for free"

It isn't about their place in society. I would mostly be content with these writiers and artists not turning so called 'society' into a police state so they could squeeze that extra last dollar out of someone who likely was not going to, or able to afford, that song / book etc.

"If somebody violates your copyright, don't fight back too hard"

Copyright is artifical, you do know this? People speak as if it comes from on high, but it is a law and one that can be changed or even repealed.

"If you have the same aspirations of being a millionaire..." ...then I suggest you choose another profession other than author since the current state of technology, that allows unlimited copying, means the current structure of making gobs of money off keeping the masses ignorant and information deprived are over.

"A farmer gets to leave a legacy for his children. You don't."

I thought children were peoples' legacy ;), anyhow I see no reason why these content makers dont have a legacy. Leaving the world one's ideas that are shared and distributed freely is more of a legacy than having your life's work being sealed away by your children, dispensed out on *their* whim for *their* profit.

Re:Hilary Rosen

[chrisd]

So since she wasn't murdering people and instead concentrated on suing 12 year old s and reducing our freedoms, she deserves a cookie or something?

Chris DiBona