[Upd-discuss] We're Creative Commonists, Bill

[Anivar Aravind]

We're Creative Commonists, Bill 
By Katie Dean
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66209,00.html

When Bill Gates referred to copyright reformers as modern-day
communists in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show, it didn't
take long for the web community to respond with a big
"nyah-nyah-nyah."

Bloggers and designers were quick to dream up "creative communist"
symbols, a play on one of the best-known groups working for copyright
reform, Creative Commons.
The images were instantly passed around and added to websites,
T-shirts and buttons.

The kerfuffle started when Gates was asked in a News.com interview if
intellectual property laws should be reformed. He replied:

"No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe
in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists
in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort
of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and
moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think
that those incentives should exist," he told News.com.

The comments show just how out-of-touch Gates is with a large and
growing community of people who have embraced the ideas of open source
and building on one another's creative works, proponents of copyright
reform say.

Creative Commons was formed to provide a more balanced alternative to
those who want to protect their works, but share them under certain
conditions. The group devised a series of flexible copyright licenses
available for anyone, for free.

When people snap photos, write music or create animations, for
instance, they can choose a license that permits others to use or
sample the content as long as they credit the author and use the
material for noncommercial purposes.

Glenn Otis Brown, executive director of Creative Commons, wondered
whom Gates was referring to when he made the remarks. Certainly not
Creative Commons, which is a "voluntary, market-based approach to
copyright," Brown wrote in an e-mail.

"I get sad when people cheapen words like 'communist' or 'fascist' by
throwing them around recklessly, especially given what those words
meant in the not-so-distant past," Brown wrote. "My father was a CIA
Cold Warrior for 35 years of his life; he wasn't fighting against
GPL'd software. Stalinist purges, the Berlin Wall, tanks in Budapest
-- that's communism.

"And let's not forget just how many creative people's lives were
ruined by irresponsible name-calling not too long ago. Remember the
Hollywood blacklists?" he wrote.

Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University law professor and chairman of the
board of Creative Commons, mocked Gates' comments at the
organization's second anniversary party Thursday night in San
Francisco. He said Gates was mistaken: Copyright reform advocates are
"commonists," not "communists."

Ken Mickles, owner of Giant Robot Printing, decided to print T-shirts
with the red Creative Commies logo. After Boing Boing posted the link,
Mickles received about 250 orders in less than a day, he said. The
T-shirts sell for $5 or $6 depending on size.

Graphic designer Ryan Schroeder also arranged to print similar shirts
through CafePress.com.

"I can't say I was terribly surprised by (Gates') comments. That's the
kind of thing you would expect," Mickles said. "I don't really take
offense to being called a communist."

End of story