more on Lessig the Grey vs. Creative Commons

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 22:25:58 -0500
From: Dan Hunter <hunterd () wharton upenn edu>
Subject: Lessig the Grey vs. Creative Commons
To: dave () farber net

Dave:

Far be it for me to defend Larry Lessig (not that I don't want to, but he's 
more than capable of defending himself) however Scott Matthews' comments 
about Grey Tuesday/Lessig was annoyingly stupid.  Mr Matthews suggests that 
Larry's view about the appropriate scope of copyrights in sound recordings 
(LL's comments that there should be a right to remix without permission and 
so on) somehow infects the Creative Commons licenses.  Larry's position on 
copyright reform is wholly independent of the work of Creative Commons, 
which provides nothing more than a framework of standard licenses within 
the current copyright system.
Until such time as Congresspersons turn their collective backs on the 
payola of intellectual property special interests and change copyright to 
recognize the public domain, the Creative Commons licenses provide a 
relatively simple licensing regime for those who--unlike Mr Matthews--don't 
believe that every piece of intellectual content needs to be commodified.

Of course it doesn't alter the fact that, by reproducing his email below, I 
have infringed Mr Matthews copyright.  But I'm an IP law professor, so 
unlike most people playing this game I can take care of myself.  But I 
worry when stalking horses for the music business misrepresent both the law 
and the facts.  I'm a generous soul and so I don't believe Mr Matthews to 
be evil.  Just stupid.

best wishes

Dan.

-------
Dan Hunter
Robert F. Irwin IV Term Assistant Professor of Legal Studies
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
662 John M Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
Philadelphia PA 19104
USA


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Matthews <scott () turnstyle com>
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 13:35:56
To:dave () farber net
Subject: Lessig the Grey vs. Creative Commons

Dave, I hope of interest to IP...

Given the recent Grey Tuesday brouhaha that followed the release of DJ
Danger Mouse's Grey Album, it's worth pausing for a moment to take a look at
the Creative Commons:

"We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works
while encouraging certain uses of them -- to declare 'some rights
reserved.'"

Among the rights an artist may choose to reserve when configuring their
Creative Commons license is "No Derivative Works," explained in cartoon
here:

http://creativecommons.org/images/comics/10.gif

Indeed, the Creative Commons' leading example musician is Roger McGuinn who:
"chose the Creative Commons license that maximizes a combination of free
distribution with artistic control and integrity." -- note that Roger
McGuinn chose "No Derivative Works."

However, the Grey Tuesday movement seeks to take that right away. Notably,
Larry Lessig (Creative Commons Chairman of the Board) commented in his blog:

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001754.shtml

"Should the law give DJ Danger Mouse the right to remix without permission?
I think so, though I understand how others find the matter a bit more grey."

"Should the law give DJ Danger Mouse a compulsory right to remix? That is,
the right, conditioned upon his paying a small fee per sale? Again, I think
so, and again, you might find this a bit less grey."


So, what exactly does Creative Commons mean by "some rights reserved" --
would it perhaps be more accurate if they said: "some rights reserved until
we can cook up a new compulsory license to take those rights away"?


Scott Matthews
http://www.turnstyle.com/andromeda



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