Comments Elsewhere

Kurtiss,

As far as the phrase “Free Culture” goes, while it’s true that Lawrence Lessig in particular is not identical with Creative Commons as an organization, I think it’s still the case that, given his extremely influential role with CC, the rhetoric he likes to employ in speech, writing, and titles — for example, “Free Culture” — can be fairly associated with the general temper of Creative Commons’ rhetoric and self-descriptions.

In any case, I don’t think you’ve answered my point. Giving your project a name such as “Creative Commons” conveys a particular impression of what your project is about. To wit, building a creative commons. To have a creative commons you actually need to make works available freely for common use (i.e. not limited to the proprietary control of the creator or copyright-holder). Many Creative Commons licenses — and NC licenses in particular — do not do that. Replying that CC actually aims at giving creators more precise control over the permission profiles on their works, rather than on making works freely available, does not answer the objection. If CC wants to focus on helping creators express precisely what sorts of general permissions they want to grant, and what sorts of control they want to exercise, then they can go right ahead and do that. But they ought to pick a less misleading name. Perhaps “Creative Control” or “The Content License Repository” or somesuch would do. “Creative Commons” does not, because it dilutes the idea of a commons and conflates it with restrictionist licenses (such as NC, or Founder’s Copyright), which do not actually put works in the commons. (They only “enclose” a smaller “plot,” or enclose it for a shorter time, than conventional copyright arrangements do.)

I just think the best way to get there is by opening up choice and creating an efficient market, not promoting a single ideal. Why? Because I very well could be wrong. Only the market can tell.

Just to be clear, I don’t think that any form of unilateral copyright restrictions (as a form of State-enforced monopoly) are compatible with free markets, efficient markets, or market choice. (Cf. [1] and [2] for the whys and hows). But the point of my remarks does not actually depend on that claim. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not I think that *-NC licenses (for example) are a good idea, or legitimate from the standpoint of individual rights. The point is, rather, that it’s misleading to pass yourself off as advocates for a Creative Commons if you’re also promoting licenses that restrict Freedom 0. If that’s part of what they want to promote, fine, but it’s not a commons, and they ought to reconsider how they’re trying to brand themselves.