CC needs support
Posted by Rafa on October 21, 2007
Creative commons (CC) is a corporation that defines different options between copyright and no rights at all in order to distribute content through the network. So, a key aspect in web2.0 since web2.0 is related to share information, included content created by ourselves.
CC now is asking for donations to survive. They already got 140K$ of the targeted 500K$. CC licensing is important, and is more and more used, since it can be an alternative to the tax (royalty) charged by the Spanish government through the so-called SGAE’s canon.
(For non-Spanish people, see example of the SGAE’s canon here).
Web 2.0 Evolution 
Jose Jesus said
Perhaps the academic world (universities and research institutions) should think of contributing some money to CC, don’t you think? In the end, teachers and researchers are to be one of the most important sources of quality information in society… or they should!!! 🙂
iljitsch said
I wrote a book that was published by O’Reilly. If I remember correctly, I had to turn over the copyright to the publisher, but when the book goes out of print, I can get it back. Today, copyright extends well beyond the death of the creator of the work. However, in the United States, the original copyright term was 14 years, with an optional extension for another 14 years.
At some point, Tim O’Reilly decided to embrace the Founer’s Copyright, which is a voluntary limitation to the original 14+14 year copyright term. So I got a letter in the mail asking me to go along with this.
However, I’m not sure if I agree this is the best thing to do. Suppose that for some strange reason, 40 years from now this book is very popular and lots of people want to read it. If paper books are still in use, the book sellers, the distributors and the publishers will be making money by selling the book. So why shouldn’t I make some money as well? After all, I wrote the thing.
On the other hand, it would be a real shame if the book went out of print and it wouldn’t be available anywhere anymore. In that case, I’d prefer to make it available online for free.
What do you guys think?
Rafa said
Jose Jesus,
I agree, and probably governments should contribute as well. This would even be desirable for the Spanish government, in order to compensate the Internet community for the “SGAE canon”.
Iljitsch,
Interesting. I was not aware of the Founer’s copyright. From a user (reader) perspective, I’m OK with that, since all 14-year books (or older) can even be online and fully available. However, I understand your comment as author.