The Hidden Value of Creative Commons April 16, 2009
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Happy 6th Birthday Creative Commons
On Avvo.com, I recently answered this question on music sampling:
“What are the laws on sampling music for a beat?”
Here is my answer:
“Sampling” music sound recordings is taking a portion of a sound recording and reusing it as a portion of a distinctly altered musical work. Under the copyright law, this reuse and transformation creates what is called a “derivative” work.
In the absence of any other agreement or license, the creator of the original musical sound recording has a copyright in the musical sound recording when it is released commercially. This is regardless of whether the work is registered with the Copyright Office.
It is actionable copyright infringement to incorporate portions of a musical sound recording that has been commercially released into a new work unless (a) the copyright holder grants a license allowing both copying and the creation of derivative works or (b) the owner of the sound recording has made the music available for public use under a gratis Creative Commons license that permits derivative works.
You can search for musical sound recordings that have been made available to the public for beat sampling under a Creative Commons license at creativecommons.org. You must heed the Creative Commons-published guidelines for any particular work. Only works licensed for “remix,” that is, derivative uses, may be used for beat sampling. Some owners also restrict Creative Commons license to non-commercial uses, and/or a reciprocal “share alike” license. Most Creative Commons licenses require attribution, or credit, in lieu of a license fee. Any use that falls outside the Creative Commons guidelines for a particular work would be actionable copyright infringement.
That is the lawyer’s answer. But there is another side to using Creative Commons work that reveals the flip side of my previous post on why attribution matters in copyright law. Attribution is a way of finding and linking to people that you want to work with and who want to work with you. I discovered this for myself about a year ago by putting the photos in my free Flickr account into Creative Commons under a non-commercial, attribution, no derivatives license.
I had surprising and wonderful results. Every so often, I get a little Google news vanity alert about a photo that’s been credited on the Internet. One of my faves is the remix of Lawrence Lessig at the top of this post. It is actually a collage that was created by Andy on the fly for a G33k dinner. More profoundly, it has brought some wonderful people into my life.
Tag up your photos and try it yourself. If they’re on a free hosting service, what do you have to lose?
“Happy 6th Birthday Creative Commons” collage by netZoo/revolute. Shared under Creative Commons license -obviously - via flickr.
5 Little Ways to Be Greener in LA April 15, 2009
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In honor of Earth Day, April 22, 2009, here are five little things I learned at the recent How To Be Green in LA . . . and Beyond!” panel. The panel was co-moderated by my friend Michael Liskin and (literally) touchy-feely “eco-MacGyver” Darren Moore. It was hosted at LA co-working center Blankspaces as part of Jerome’s Blankspaces Meetup Series.
You can view the full recap here. [Disclaimer: The video begins with a team-building exercise of rubbing each other's shoulders. That's the aforementioned touchy-feely.]
The panel had a lot of great knowledge, myth-busting, tips, reminders and encouragement. Here, in no particular order of magnitude, are five little takeaways from the night.
1. Play an outdoor sport.
Mike Hill of the Art of Sports and Apparel suggested doing something fun and active outdoors as a little baby step to build eco-awareness. It is elegant in its obviousness. Be outside. Remind yourself how lucky those of us are who have access to clean air, sunshine and healthy bodies. There is nothing like having to focus your mental energy on doing something physically difficult enough that you have to let go of material and abstract life clutter.
2. Cans are truly recyclable; plastic bottles aren’t.
Siel, aka GreenLAGirl, pointed our that her can of beer is greener than your bottled water. Some plastics claim to be bio-plastic and somewhat degradable. However, the chemical process of creating plastics forms a molecule that can never, ever be undone. There is simply nowhere else for it to go, other than the ocean and the landfill. By contrast, aluminum is a natural metal that can be recycled infinite times.
3. Commercial cosmetics are poison.
Karen Solomon of Opportunity Green admitted, straight up, that she did not fully realize how much lead and other toxins are in most big-time makeup brands until she read “The Ugly Side of Beauty” by Stacy Malkan. This scared me silly. The waste in cosmetics packaging has always been apparent, but I never knew that the contents of makeup were directly harmful to its users. Blithely, I assumed the FDA had our backs. They don’t. I’ll do Malkan’s book for the next Book Club but Karen’s word is good enough for me.
Panelist Tracy Hepler of Your Daily Thread made it feel okay to want eco-approved girly beauty products without killing yourself. I look forward to directing some dollars there.
4. “Reduce” comes first for a reason.
Panelist Natalie Friedberg of All Shades of Green, a local Silverlake store for green products, pointed out this truism by reminding us that it’s “Reduce, reuse, recycle” in that order. Although reusing and recycling are admirable, best practice is just not to accumulate more than you need to begin with. It’s great to be reminded of my own New Year’s resolutions.
5. Computers use up the Earth, too.
Andy Sternberg of Live Earth reminded us in social media that even though a paperless office seems preferable to tree-killing, all that power does come from somewhere. There are wind-powered blog hosting sites that operate primarily on wind power, with conventional electricity as a backup. Siel uses one for her site. Also, there’s no shame in going totally unplugged once in a while.
“Reduce, reuse, recyle” photo by Aimee Castanel under Creative Commons License via flickr
Green panelists’ recap from the BLANKSPACES panel: How to be Green in LA April 15, 2009
Posted by lborodkin in : Uncategorized , CommentsGreen panelists’ recap from the BLANKSPACES panel: How to be Green in LA
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“Hope” for the Best: Manny Garcia, Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press February 5, 2009
Posted by lborodkin in : Uncategorized , CommentsUpdate 3/12/09: The Associated Press filed their answer and counterclaims against Shepard Fairey.
You can read the answer and counterclaims here.. It’s a great read. The answer and counterclaims include lots of embedded color pictures (something I’ve never seen in a pleading before).
The AP’s answer and counterclaims emphasize the artistic merit in news photography, the AP’s non-profit status, and the importance of having a financially independent press.
Is it persuasive? You be the judge.
Update 2/9/09: Shepard Fairey has sued the Associated Press in New York for a declaratory judgment that his poster is fair use. No word on whether Manny Garcia will be joined.
Here’s my post on LAist about the Associated Press’s claims that Shepard Fairey infringed its copyright in AP photgrapher Manny Garcia’s 2006 photograph of President Barack Obama. No lawsuit has been filed, but the controversy illustrates the huge divergence in what people believe to be “fair use” under copyright, and what they think it should be. It’s a dynamite case on so many levels, given the timing, the economic climate, the copyright reform movement and the promise of accountability in the new administration.
There’s a terrific collection of links, discussion and summary of copyright standards and precedents courtesy of Carolyn E. Wright, aka PhotoAttorney.
So who’s right? It’s a great case for setting the law straight on the non-economic rights of copyright holders but a lousy case for damages. Fairey openly admits he copied the Garcia photo but it is also widely reported that Fairey hasn’t directly profited economically from the poster. The AP hasn’t tried to enjoin the “Hope” image and it also hasn’t revealed whether the compensation it reportedly seeks is monetary or non-monetary.
I wonder if proponents or strong copyright will figure out that they stand to gain tremendously if the AP takes this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set precedent for the non-economic value of copyright. Shepard Fairy admits he copied the image. When is that ever going to happen again (or with such a high-profile work)? The AP doesn’t need Shepard Fairey’s money. They do, however, need to protect their copyrights. If the AP’s lawyers take the long view, they will restrict their quest for compensation to joint copyright in the image, forcing a ruling on attribution and derivative works only.
At the very least, I “hope” everyone knows who Manny Garcia is by now. His photo really is terrific.
Verena Mei, Eco-friendly Racer January 20, 2009
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Here’s my article on Verena Mei for LAist.
Verena is the first race car driver in the world running on alternative fuel competing head-to-head with gas-powered cars. Verena converted her Formula Drift car to run on clean-burning E85 fuel and won the Redline time attack series.
Next up, I will be interviewing Marc Davis, a developmental driver for Joe Gibbs racing who is part of NASCAR’s diversity program.
3 Pithy Thoughts from 2008 January 5, 2009
Posted by lborodkin in : Uncategorized , CommentsHere are props to the authors of three pithy sound bites that shaped my use of social media in 2008.
1. “Don’t drink the haterade.”
–Gary Vaynerchuk, Keynote at Blog World Expo ‘08.
Gary Vaynerchuk (aka “Gary Vee”) of Wine Library TV gave a captivating and inspiring keynote address at Blog World Expo in Las Vegas in September 2008. If you can find a recording of it, please watch and link to it. Other advice from Gary is that if you’re going to podcast, update every day, or try to do so at least three times a week. That’s what you need to do to keep people’s attention. Another point he made is to give away as much as you can and still make a profit.
What Gary was referring to with the “Haterade” comment is his advice not to waste energy envying, hating, or criticizing those who are successful. Don’t turn away from others with a huge following merely because they are successful. Join them. Try to learn what works for them. Don’t drink the Haterade. Just don’t.
2. The secret to Twitter is who you follow, not who follows you.
–Robert Scoble, from The Secret to Twitter, Scobleizer, March 23, 2008.
(photo of Twitter/No Twitter stickers from SummerMash LA)
This neat little article wraps up what is so cool about Twitter. Follow because you want to hear about things you don’t know. Never mind the numbers.
3. “The Asteroid is coming.”
–Cory Ondrejka, Keynote at Digital Music Forum West.
This little sound bite was taken from Corey Ondrejka’s keynote speech at Digital Media Wire’s Digital Music Forum West last October. This conference was extraordinary in that it actually got leaders from clashing industries — the recording industry and the consumer electronics industry — on stage, face to face, frankly debating their mutually incompatible business models with no punches pulled. (Incidentally, it was the only time I ever heard someone answer the question of where the money from RIAA settlements goes. The answer, according to the panelist from one of the major record labels, is that it is split 50/50 with the artists after costs are taken off the top.)
Corey Ondrejka asked people in the audience to raise their hands if they know anyone who has an assistant printing out their emails, i.e., the dinosaurs. He was making a point about business models. “The asteroid is coming.”
Who shifted your paradigms in 2008?
StrikeTV October 30, 2008
Posted by lborodkin in : Uncategorized , CommentsHere’s my LAist post on StrikeTV, the internet television network conceived a year ago during the writers’ strike and launched during Digital Hollywood this week.
Fair Use, Music and Political Campaigns October 16, 2008
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Photo by s fitzstephens under Creative Commons license.
I just read the letter from Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart to the McCain campaign objecting to their use of “Barracuda” as entrance music for Sarah Palin. A similar issue came up today with Bon Jovi and last week with The Foo Fighters’ “Hero”.
Illegal uses or not, the reactions of the artists show the significance of the non-economic rights granted by copyright. These include the right to approve derivative works. In August, Jackson Brown sued the McCain campaign for using “Running on Empty” in a campaign commercial without permission.
Attribution matters.
How much? Traditionally, recording artists retain the right to approve licenses of their music for political advertisements. It’s a custom that the music business has respected, even cultivated, in the grand American tradition of protest music. Free speech includes the freedom not to be associated with a cause one disagrees with.
Many non-commercial Youtube videos incorporating TV clips or music are defended as fair use. McCain invoked fair use when Youtube took down a campaign video that used unauthorized CBS clips. Youtube declined, suggesting that the McCain campaign send a counter-notification under the DMCA.
Here’s some thoughtful debate from Lessig Blog on the tradeoffs between allowing borrowed clips and music under the fair use doctrine versus requiring permission from copyright holders.
It’s not exactly censorship. If you use someone else’s material, the owner can ask to have it removed. It’s an assumed risk nowadays. Isn’t it desirable anyway to avoid the PR problem of band after band declaring how much they dislike your candidacy?
BigBrainBoy Mobile Media Summit at The Hollywood Hill September 16, 2008
Posted by lborodkin in : Uncategorized , CommentsLast Friday and Saturday, The Hollywood Hill held the BigBrainBoy Mobile Media Summit featuring panelists on the latest mobile technologies for social good. Here’s a sample:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
1. Nathan Eagle discussed txteagle. The project is searching for applications for the large, underutilized potential workforce in Africa who are equipped with mobile devices. They have a staggering amount of available labor and text messaging capability. Many of them are educated. There are also greatly underutilized infrastructures in these regions open to creative proposals to use surplus airtime for commerce. The txteagle project seeks ideas for matching the workforce with tasks than can be better done by humans with texting capability.
2. Igor Jablowski discussed Yap. Yap is a voice recognition application designed specifically for mobile devices. Two examples of the potential of a voice alternative to tactile messaging are safer driving and expanding mobile interfaces for the blind.
3. Phil Libin is the CEO of Evernote. Evernote is an application designed to remember and collect information based on human memory making processes. The powerful program combines tagging and optical character recognition to approximate non-linear ways people actually recall memories. I’ve been testing Evernote in beta.
4. Raja Sengupta (above) presented on Berkeley University’s Connected Traveler project. Sengupta’s work uses smartphone chips for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and cars. Such devices are useful for certain functions like mail shuttles, improving pedestrian-car safety, and gps mapping.
These new projects suggest better paradigms for engaging with the world, using mobile technology. Even a single tool like text messaging can redistribute labor around the globe. A shift from keyboard to voice commands can improve safety and enlarge the world for blind people. An intentionally redundant image storage mechanism makes information easier to recall in a more intuitive way.
These concepts open a discussion of tough ethical issues as well. How portable are the skills developed through text-based labor? Is it the way to financial sustainability or greater dependence on the First World? Is accountability lost when we divorce tasks from local community? What variables are introduced with audio-controlled communications? Will the capacity for outsourcing memory become a substitute — or an aid — to memory?
I tend to have an optimistic take on these issues. The pressure of the market ensures that the technology will be developed. It’s a question of how creative we get with its applications. I’d like to think that something as simple as a smartphone chip likely could ensure that nothing like the Chatsworth Train wreck ever happens again.
Lawyer2Lawyer September 6, 2008
Posted by lborodkin in : Uncategorized , CommentsTitle: Federal Copyright Law & Guns n’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy
Last week, the FBI arrested blogger, Kevin Cogill of Culver City, California, on suspicion of violating a federal copyright law for posting nine tracks from the unreleased and much anticipated Guns n’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” on his blog.
I was asked by Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi, to discuss this hot legal topic on their radio show, “Lawyer2 Lawyer” on the Legal Talk Network, along with Philip Daniels of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
To listen to our law-talking about the legal issues in this case, the new federal copyright law and what the future looks like for Cogill, click on the link below:
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