Re: Question re: Lessig and the Creative Commons project

[informania@supanet.com]

What's different, Rick? As I understand it, the Creative Commons
initiative adds to the simple display of works on the Internet a licence
securing certain conditions for the author: generally this is what one
might call "public domain plus".

What is more - although this doesn't seem to get as much airplay as the
public-domain-enhancing side of it - the Creative Commons literature
foresees including licences involving payment - in which case it would be
hard to distinguish it from a kind of collecting society - CC or CCC?

Chris Zielinski
Director, Information Waystations and Staging Posts Network
18 Monks Orchard, Petersfield, Hants GU32 2JD, United Kingdom
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e-mail: informania@supanet.com web site: http://www.iwsp.org

----- Original Message -----

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rick Anderson [mailto:rickand@unr.edu]
> > Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 12:51 AM
> > To: Liblicense-L@Lists. Yale. Edu
> > Subject: Question re: Lessig and the Creative Commons project
> >
> >
> > I have a question for the Collective Wisdom regarding a brief
> > news item I
> > just saw in the LJ Academic News Wire.  Referring to Lawrence Lessig's
> > Creative Commons project, the story said this:
> >
> > "The Creative Commons, formed by a coalition of academics, is
> > currently
> > developing tools to make some or all creators' works available to the
> > public for free. The non-profit organization says it aims to
> > 'lower the
> > legal barriers to creativity' by allowing creators to
> > immediately share
> > aspects of their copyrighted works with the public."
> >
> > I'm sure I'm missing something fundamental here, but it's not
> > clear to me
> > what problem this project is supposed to solve.  We already have an
> > excellent "tool to make... creators' works available to the public for
> > free" -- the Internet.  Assuming that the creator holds the copyright,
> > there are no legal barriers whatsoever between the creator
> > and the public.
> > If I want to write a novel and distribute it freely to the
> > world, I'm at
> > complete liberty to do so (as long as I haven't sold the copyright to
> > someone else).
> >
> > What am I missing or misunderstanding?  Does the Creative
> > Commons have a
> > website somewhere that might offer additional info?