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9/7/04
Last September, the band BM Relocation Program gave away its song
“Superego” to the world for free. The only catch was that
artists who used “Superego” to make new songs, a process
known as “remixing,” would allow the same free use of their
works. BM Relocation Program’s three-chord ditty of a minute and
20 seconds may spawn countless future songs, but the band will never
receive royalties. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.
The tracks that comprise “Superego” were posted on the
web site of Creative Commons, a nonprofit group that promotes sharing
of creative content, as part of a remixing contest. Five artists tied
for first place. But the contest was less about winning than showing
how the Internet is changing the notion of intellectual property.
Creative Commons has devised a novel approach to copyrighting. Between
reserving all rights to a work and giving it away in the public domain,
an artist may customize a license to permit some use of her creation
yet retain some rights. “Some rights reserved,” is the Creative
Commons motto.
“Superego” has an “attribution-share alike”
license-- one of 11 possible combinations-- meaning that artists who
use the song must credit BM Relocation Program and the new songs derived
from “Superego” must likewise be distributed under the “share
alike” license. Artists can obtain licenses at the Creative Commons
web site in the few minutes it takes to fill out a form.
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