Copyrights can hinder further creation. Creative Commons licenses have more flexibility with use of the work. Here’s why it matters to college students.
At only 13 years old, Brett Maszczak had one “strike” against him.
In 2008, he uploaded a two-minute clip from the MTV reality show Rob & Big with his own commentary at the end. After about a month, the video was taken down for copyright infringement,and a strike was placed against his account, x44jackal44x.
A copyright gives exclusive rights to an intellectual property’s use and distribution, which lasts the life of the author plus 70 years.
“Copyright laws now, they haven’t adjusted with the times of the media revolution,” said Maszczak, now a sophomore studying integrated media.
Due to the strike, he had to wait six months before applying to the YouTube Partner Program that allows users to monetize their channels by placing advertisements on their videos.
The boundaries between intellectual property on the Internet, and who can use it gets messy.
In 2007, Viacom Media Networks, which owns MTV, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube and Google, the video-sharing website’s parent company, for “brazen” copyright infringement by allowing users to upload and view copyrighted material.
Maszczak, whose account now has about 16,600 subscribers, was one of the many users caught in the middle of the case and realized the repercussions of using copyrighted material online. Copyright laws present obstacles to those trying to gain a presence online who can’t utilize other users’ material because it is so restricted, Maszczak said.
“It’s harder for small, independent content creators to really get a start,” he said.
Creative Commons, a non-profit organization, could prevent similar complications because its licenses reserve some but not all rights, as copyrights do.
The number of Creative Commons licenses issued is set to pass one billion in 2015, according to the State of the Commons report from the organization.
HOW TO USE THE COMMONS
Creative Commons offers six types of free licenses that give full credit to the material’s creator and also allow other users to share, adapt, copy and distribute the material.
Hans Meyer, assistant professor of journalism with a focus on online journalism, said he appreciates Creative Commons because its licenses allow content creators to choose how their work is used by others.
Meyer agrees with Lawrence Lessig, a founding board member of Creative Commons, who has stated that copyright essentially protects companies not individuals.
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“(Lessig’s) big thing is don’t take away copyright. That’s silly,” Meyer said. “But make sure it serves the purpose it’s intended to … Copyright, as it exists now, is life plus (70) years. How does that help the author, (70) years after he’s dead? All that does is help Disney.”
For students looking to protect their work, Meyer said they need to first determine what they want to do with the content and what they want others to do with it. He added for creators getting their start, it’s better to allow people to see and share your work.
“(College students are) so afraid of … someone stealing (their work) or not being able to profit from their work,” Meyer said. “Really what we’re seeing, even with big companies, (is) you’re not profiting from your content — you’re profiting from your expertise.”
Karen Riggs, a professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies, said the spirit of Creative Commons matches the spirit of social media: sharing.
But using Creative Commons creates extra steps in the sharing process and Riggs said more people need to know about it and how to use it for it to be effective.
COMMONS IN THE CLASSROOM
Creative Commons can still impact students, even if they’re not interested in developing their own content.
Israel Urieli, an associate professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, created his own online thermodynamics textbook to offset expensive print editions, which were about $180 each. His textbook is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license, which allows it to be shared and adapted for noncommercial purposes only.
Open textbooks have saved students $100 million, according to the State of the Commons.
Urieli even won $1,000 from the state of Ohio for creating the resource.
The textbook is on a website and thus accessible to the world. Urieli frequently updates his text with relevant links and information from students as well as international contributors from countries such as Holland, Iran, New Zealand and Switzerland.
“It’s alive,” he said with a smile.
COPYRIGHT AND COLLABORATION
Maintaining ownership of ideas in artistic fields is a challenge since it is an inherently collaborative field, said Karissa Conrad, an OU alumna and former president of OU’s Society of Photographic Illustrators.
But Creative Commons could be a solution.
“I don’t think there is truly purely original creativity,” Conrad said. “I think you’re inspired by all sorts of things.”
Looking to others for ideas and inspiration is important in photography, Conrad said, but she still wants to be in control of how her work is used.
She tried to assert control through government copyright, which cost up to $55 to upload multiple files. But Conrad now uploads her photos in a lower resolution, which deters people from stealing her photos but reflects poorly on her to potential employers.
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Creative Commons provides freedom for a creative community where artists can use each other for inspiration without losing ownership of their works, Conrad said.
Collaboration is also a large factor in music, said Sam Simpson, OU alumnus and former president and co-founder of OU’s Electronic Music Collective.
The group’s main focus is to provide a learning environment that allows students to have hands-on practice. The group uses Creative Commons every semester when putting work online and creating a sampler CD.
“(Creative Commons) is about realizing that work should be something that people can add onto and turn it into something that is their own,” Simpson said. “It doesn’t have to be just one person. Just like if you have a painting, you can give somebody a copy of your painting and let them do whatever they want — it’s still art.”
By using Creative Commons, Electronic Music Collective allows other artists to remix and transform work they share online, something that’s common among independent artists
and a reflection of the changing nature of the music industry, Simpson said.
Many people share their music for free online on services such as SoundCloud, which has more than 40 million registered users. This system does make it difficult to make money from music, which leads to artists turning to labels for promotion and revenue, Simpson said.
Meyer said the ultimate value in Creative Commons is in allowing others to build on content and in crowdsourcing.
“If we... are willing to open ourselves up to the number of different perspectives that are out there, we can tell infinitely better stories from infinitely more perspectives.”
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