From the BBC to the Beastie Boys, big names are signing up to give away their copyrights. Tom Chance offers a beginners' guide to Creative Commons

What is, or are, Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation that offers and promotes a set of copyright licences. These are designed to give away creators' rights to their 'intellectual property'. The creators of written or other works (or, increasingly, their employers) automatically hold a copyright on anything they produce. This allows them to stop you doing anything with their work unless they give you special permission. Creative Commons licences allow creators to give permission for a wide range of things, leaving only some restrictions on use instead of the usual 'all rights reserved'.

But why would anyone want to sign away their rights?

If you were a musician, would you care if people shared your music among friends on mix tapes? If you were a poet, would you like to see how others might reinterpret your work, or if a painter how a video mashup artist might make use of your painting? There are many reasons why you might want to allow people to try out things that normal copyright restrictions forbid. People have always just turned a blind eye to this sort of thing, partly because it doesn't harm them and often helps them reach a wider audience.

If it already happens, what's new?

With the advent of the internet and cheap digital technology, lots of people are now creating and sharing online. Whereas previously it was relatively easy to get away with it, now this sort of thing is on the media industry's radar and they're starting to sue over violations, even when there is no money being made from the breach of their copyright. For example, not long ago a bassist in the US put down a bass line onto a White Stripes album. He thought it sounded cool but the record company wasn't amused. As luck would have it he bumped into the White Stripes vocalist and guitarist, Jack White, and got the permission he wanted. But unless you know the addresses and routines of your star sources, you're stuck negotiating with a money-hungry record label or risking an illegal release.

So how does Creative Commons help?

Imagine that the White Stripes released their next album under a Creative Commons licence. The terms of that licence might say 'You're free to remix this album', which would have given our happy-go-lucky bassist the green card without recourse to stalking. If everyone released their work this way then we'd have more creative freedom and less legal uncertainty.

What about fees for the people who create the original material?

The original creators can still make money. Creative Commons offers more than one licence, so that creators can retain whatever rights they require. Each licence combines one or more of the following concepts:

Attribution - a compulsory clause, under which everyone has to credit the original creator.

Non-commercial - you can require that a separate permission must be obtained before somebody uses your work commercially, enabling you to be paid for commercial uses.

No derivatives - if you think remix culture is just about crass 1990s dance tunes then you can forbid it with this clause.

Share alike - also known as the 'spread the love' clause, this allows you to insist that any derived works are released under the same licence, so that you force other creators to keep their work in the commons.

Answer a few quick questions about these on the Creative Commons website and it will spit out the licence you want. You get the full legal code to keep the lawyers happy and a human-readable summary for everyone else.

Where's the catch?

There are several, unfortunately. The first is that the word 'commons' doesn't really apply here, since all licensed works are still owned by the creator and will still have some restrictions applied to them. To muck things up further, the 'share alike' clause can make works incompatible. For example, in order to make a mix of two works, each available under a different licence but both using the share alike clause, you'd have to
violate one of the original licences. Your only (legal) option would be to go back to square one and stalk one of the creators until they gave you special permission.

If you're a professional musician, you also need to bear in mind that none of the collecting societies in the UK, who get you money from radio and TV airtime, will let you use the licences. They insist on controlling all rights, so you'd have to wait until the grassroots campaigning group Free Culture UK persuade one to allow it.

So should I still use them?

Absolutely! They may not be perfect but they're a step in the right direction, and give both creators and their fans the chance to promote creative freedom without giving up control over their work.

Creative Commons: http://www.creativecommons.org
Free Culture UK: http://www.freeculture.org.uk

This article was published in the November issue of Red Pepper.