[A2k] NYT: Rio Creative Commons story

[Manon Ress]

In Digital Age, Advancing a Flexible Copyright System
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/arts/26crea.html?_r=3D1&oref=3Dslogin
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By LARRY ROHTER
Published: June 26, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 25 =97 So closely is copyright associated with the
phrase "all rights reserved" that some people have difficulty
imagining any other system. But an unusual global alliance of
artists, scientists and lawyers, meeting here over the weekend, has
been working in recent years to forge a "creative commons" that
allows artists to decide which rights they want to retain and which
they would rather share.

In its broadest form, the Creative Commons system allows creators and
consumers of culture not only to view or listen to a digital work but
also to copy, remix or sample it, as long as the originator is
properly credited. Pearl Jam, the Beastie Boys, David Byrne, Brian
Eno and the BBC have all advanced the cause in one fashion or
another, as have thousands of lesser-known documentary filmmakers,
photographers, video artists and bloggers.

"We have an explosion of technology inviting people to be creative,
but the way the laws are written, all this activity is presumptively
illegal," said Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor
and one of the originators of the concept. "We want to move away from
a maximalist position to create a future in which creativity can
occur in a protected space without taking away anyone's rights."

The three-day conference here drew the backing of the singer-
songwriter Gilberto Gil, who is also Brazil's culture minister and an
advocate of overhauling the global copyright system. Mr. Gil was a
founder of the Tropicalist movement, which used cut-and-paste, mix-
and-match techniques as early as the 1960's, long before digital
sampling became commonplace.

"Increasingly there is an awareness that intellectual property needs
to be treated differently than it has in the past, that we need new
policies and new business models," Mr. Gil said in an interview. In
the view of third world countries like Brazil, he said, creativity
cannot be fully unleashed unless copyright law takes digital
technology into account and allows for "access and sharing."

Since the introduction of the Creative Commons concept in 2003, some
145 million "creations" have been registered. More than 100 million
of those licenses have been issued in the last six months. Mr. Lessig
said that blogs accounted for the largest number, followed by images
and then music, although the video sector is growing.

Works registered in Creative Commons include Pearl Jam's "Life
Wasted" video, the group's first in eight years. Mr. Eno and Mr.
Byrne's influential 1981 record "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" has
just been reissued with a Creative Commons license that invites
listeners to remix and upload a pair of tracks without fear of being
taken to court for copyright violations.

Last week Microsoft made a plug-in available for Windows Office
software that enables users to tag their own creations, like
PowerPoint presentations and Word documents, with a Creative Commons
license. The first text to be marked in such a way was Mr. Gil's
opening speech to the conference on Friday morning, attended by
representatives of 49 countries.

On Saturday Brazil's government announced that Radiobr=E1s, its
official news agency, would make its archives and all its future
reporting available under a Creative Commons license. The site
housing the collection, which includes 150,000 photographs, was
designed with free open-source software.

Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition,
which helps musicians benefit from new technologies, said the
Creative Commons concept "offers a better parallel market that does
not require them to sign away their rights."

"We all agree the current system doesn't work," she said. "And while
Creative Commons is not perfect, it is a far more transparent system
that broadens the market, gives the artist added control and reduces
legal licensing costs for hip-hop artists, for example."

During the interview Mr. Gil described how he had fought in court for
six years to regain ownership of his work from a handful of
publishing companies. That catalog now consists of more than 400
songs, and he has registered them all with Creative Commons: some
with all rights still reserved and others available for listeners to
copy, interpret and manipulate as they please.

But Mr. Gil noted that, having been deceived or intimidated into
giving up their rights, many other songwriters and performers still
do not control their work. Thousands of musicians find their work in
the hands of record companies and song publishers that want no part
of a system that would weaken their control and in some cases make
them superfluous.

Advocates from countries including France and Australia say that
musical collection societies are also trying to prevent artists from
making their work available under any system other than traditional
copyright. These organizations, which collect performance royalties
on music from radio stations, recording companies and others, have
threatened to fine or sue musicians who license their work through
Creative Commons.

"As we move from an analog to a digital world, we see great
opportunities and threats," Richard Owens, a representative of a
United Nations agency known as the World Intellectual Property
Organization, told participants. For that reason, he said, Creative
Commons "shows great promise."

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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