English subtitles for clip: File:Creative Commons and Commerce.ogv
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1 00:00:00,970 --> 00:00:03,574 How Creative Commons licenses can interact with commerce. 2 00:00:05,317 --> 00:00:11,247 Creative Commons licenses give authors and creators a simple way to mark their creative work with the freedoms they intended to carry. 3 00:00:12,222 --> 00:00:17,269 Many people have asked us how CC licenses might interact with other arrangements the creator might want to make. 4 00:00:17,529 --> 00:00:20,793 For example, a deal with a commercial publisher or a commercial distributor. 5 00:00:21,334 --> 00:00:23,497 Would a CC license conflict with these other deals? 6 00:00:23,777 --> 00:00:24,678 Are they inconsistent? 7 00:00:25,933 --> 00:00:27,055 The short answer is no. 8 00:00:27,676 --> 00:00:32,104 As long as the other deal is not exclusive, a CC license cannot conflict with another agreement. 9 00:00:33,867 --> 00:00:35,450 This short video will explain why. 10 00:00:37,751 --> 00:00:40,352 CC licenses are copyright licenses. 11 00:00:40,372 --> 00:00:44,835 They license to others the right to use in specified ways some piece of copyrighted work. 12 00:00:45,415 --> 00:00:48,096 But to see how they function, let's begin with just a copyright. 13 00:00:48,617 --> 00:00:49,717 What does a copyright mean? 14 00:00:50,137 --> 00:00:50,678 How does it work? 15 00:00:54,748 --> 00:00:57,389 A copyright gives the author a bunch of exclusive rights. 16 00:00:59,358 --> 00:01:05,804 So if you want to copy or distribute a piece of creative work that someone else owns the copyright to, you need permission from the copyright owner. 17 00:01:06,805 --> 00:01:11,290 Likewise, if you want to publicly perform a copyrighted work, you need permission from the copyright owner. 18 00:01:12,654 --> 00:01:18,075 or if you want to display a copyrighted work, or make a derivative work based upon a copyrighted work, 19 00:01:19,122 --> 00:01:25,365 or digitally publicly perform a copyrighted work, like say in a podcast, you need permission from the copyright owner. 20 00:01:26,025 --> 00:01:31,688 All of these rights are reserved to the copyright owner by default, thus the infamous all rights reserved slogan. 21 00:01:33,220 --> 00:01:41,065 Now let's add another icon that strictly speaking is not an exclusive right of copyright, but which will be useful when we compare the default of copyright to a CC license. 22 00:01:41,925 --> 00:01:44,227 This is the right to make commercial use of a copyrighted work. 23 00:01:45,831 --> 00:01:47,392 So, again, here are all the rules. 24 00:01:47,892 --> 00:01:56,038 You can't do any of these things with a copyrighted work, especially for a commercial purpose, without permission from the copyright owner, unless your particular use is deemed to be a fair use. 25 00:01:57,020 --> 00:01:58,883 So picture copyright is a broken record. 26 00:01:59,144 --> 00:02:07,938 Don't do this or this or this or this or this or this unless you get permission first or unless your lawyer can convince a judge your use would be a fair use. 27 00:02:09,195 --> 00:02:13,061 Okay, so now that you have a basic idea about copyright, let's return to the question at hand. 28 00:02:13,702 --> 00:02:15,825 How does a CC license interact with other deals? 29 00:02:16,546 --> 00:02:18,809 Let's ask that question first about copyright itself. 30 00:02:19,490 --> 00:02:21,192 How does copyright interact with other deals? 31 00:02:22,566 --> 00:02:24,868 For example, let's say you made a great new video. 32 00:02:25,489 --> 00:02:27,290 Automatically that video is copyrighted. 33 00:02:27,811 --> 00:02:31,594 That means, automatically, you have all the exclusive rights copyright grants you. 34 00:02:32,195 --> 00:02:35,178 The law has given you these powers simply because you created something new. 35 00:02:37,506 --> 00:02:40,870 Now imagine you enter into a deal with a company, let's call it Vever. 36 00:02:41,150 --> 00:02:49,459 That deal says, basically, if you enter your video into our distribution system, we'll add an advertisement to the end of the video, and we'll give you fifty percent of the resulting ad revenue. 37 00:02:50,241 --> 00:02:52,291 After a while, you start receiving checks from Weber. 38 00:02:52,512 --> 00:02:53,235 You're very happy. 39 00:02:54,758 --> 00:02:56,319 But imagine now a little nag. 40 00:02:56,799 --> 00:02:59,360 Call him the C-Nag, where C stands for copyright. 41 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:03,281 And the C-Nag says, hey, this deal is inconsistent with your copyright. 42 00:03:03,641 --> 00:03:05,542 Copyright says people can't copy your work. 43 00:03:05,602 --> 00:03:07,183 It says people can't distribute your work. 44 00:03:07,763 --> 00:03:10,906 And it says people especially can't do these things for commercial purposes. 45 00:03:11,787 --> 00:03:13,468 And yet that's just what this deal is doing. 46 00:03:13,488 --> 00:03:18,232 It's facilitating a massive amount of copying and distribution of your work, all for commercial purposes. 47 00:03:18,653 --> 00:03:19,794 It violates your copyright. 48 00:03:21,232 --> 00:03:23,473 Now obviously the CNAG is just confused. 49 00:03:24,214 --> 00:03:29,857 What copyright law says is this, here are the things you can't do with my copyrighted work unless you have a deal with me. 50 00:03:30,578 --> 00:03:33,080 Copyright law doesn't forbid you from making a deal with someone. 51 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:35,061 In fact, making a deal is the whole point. 52 00:03:36,328 --> 00:03:38,151 With an agreement, anything is possible. 53 00:03:39,654 --> 00:03:47,908 So what your exciting new commercial deal with Weber means is that you're saying to the world through your copyright, don't do any of these things, copy, distribute, et cetera, without my permission. 54 00:03:48,709 --> 00:03:52,333 And you're saying to everyone affiliated with Vever, please copy, distribute, etc. 55 00:03:52,453 --> 00:03:54,675 As long as I get paid according to my deal with Vever. 56 00:03:56,016 --> 00:03:57,918 Okay, so how does Creative Commons change this? 57 00:03:58,339 --> 00:04:02,323 What's different about CC licensed content relative to content that's simply copyrighted? 58 00:04:04,164 --> 00:04:09,252 Well, the simplest way to understand a CC license is to imagine it is creating a different regime of copyright law. 59 00:04:09,953 --> 00:04:14,119 It isn't really, it's simply a license that effectively changes some of the defaults of copyright law. 60 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:19,173 But to make it simple, just imagine that a CC license changes copyright law for your particular work. 61 00:04:21,275 --> 00:04:32,426 So, for example, if this is again the string of icons that represents copyright law, then here's how that string gets modified by one of our six core licenses, our attribution non-commercial no-derivs license. 62 00:04:33,382 --> 00:04:39,165 This CC license gives the world the freedom to do certain things with the creative work without the need to ask the copyright owner first. 63 00:04:39,866 --> 00:04:41,727 A CC license doesn't change fair use. 64 00:04:42,267 --> 00:04:53,310 But in addition to that freedom, this license gives everyone in the world the freedom to copy, distribute, publicly perform, display, and digitally publicly perform the work, as long as these things aren't being done for commercial purposes. 65 00:04:53,911 --> 00:04:58,983 The one obligation the CC license imposes that copyright alone does not is the obligation to give attribution. 66 00:04:59,003 --> 00:05:02,391 If you use a CC licensed work, you must give credit to its author. 67 00:05:03,032 --> 00:05:12,277 So imagine again that you've created this great new video and imagine you've discovered this company, Bever, who has come up with a very cool way for you to earn money by distributing your video in their system. 68 00:05:13,422 --> 00:05:17,747 So you upload your video to VEVER, under the CC attribution non-commercial NodeRivs license. 69 00:05:18,088 --> 00:05:21,832 VEVER places an ad at the end of your video, and when it's played, you get paid. 70 00:05:21,972 --> 00:05:28,200 You then post the video in as many places as you can think of, and soon, millions of people are watching your video, and you're making a bunch of cash. 71 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:31,365 cash, when along comes the CNAG with the very same complaint. 72 00:05:31,926 --> 00:05:40,839 Hey, the CNAG says, wait a minute, this CC license may say it's okay to copy and distribute, et cetera, but it explicitly says you can't do these things for commercial purposes. 73 00:05:41,420 --> 00:05:43,642 The Weber agreement is plainly a commercial agreement. 74 00:05:44,162 --> 00:05:46,664 It pays distributors for the use of your CC license work. 75 00:05:47,225 --> 00:05:49,226 So it obviously conflicts with the CC license. 76 00:05:49,466 --> 00:05:51,548 But again, the CNAG has just missed the point. 77 00:05:51,828 --> 00:05:53,850 The CC license, like copyright law. 78 00:05:54,210 --> 00:05:55,974 sets the defaults for anyone in the world. 79 00:05:56,295 --> 00:06:00,485 It says, unless you have a different agreement with me, these are the things you can and can't do. 80 00:06:01,146 --> 00:06:03,171 And the agreement with Weber is a different agreement. 81 00:06:03,912 --> 00:06:06,555 Nothing in the CC license bans you from making this agreement. 82 00:06:07,015 --> 00:06:09,338 Indeed, the CC license is non-exclusive. 83 00:06:09,658 --> 00:06:14,023 And non-exclusive means you, as the copyright owner, are free to make whatever deals you want with others. 84 00:06:15,441 --> 00:06:19,624 The CC license simply sets the default terms for people with whom you don't have an agreement. 85 00:06:20,525 --> 00:06:28,351 So, say you're surfing the web and you find a cool video with a CC license that says you're free to copy and distribute the video as long as you don't do it for commercial purposes. 86 00:06:29,011 --> 00:06:31,093 So you download the video and post it on your blog. 87 00:06:31,533 --> 00:06:32,494 That's totally fine. 88 00:06:32,534 --> 00:06:35,036 It's just the kind of thing the CC license gives you the right to do. 89 00:06:36,577 --> 00:06:40,480 But then imagine that you sign up with Weber to share the CC license videos in their system. 90 00:06:41,741 --> 00:06:42,862 Now you've got even more rights. 91 00:06:43,706 --> 00:06:52,612 because you've entered into an agreement with Vevver and hence indirectly with the various videos copyright owners that says that if you distribute Vevverized videos on your blog, Vevver will pay you. 92 00:06:53,192 --> 00:06:59,599 That's of course a commercial use of the videos, but it's authorized, not by the CC license, but by the agreement with Weber. 93 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:07,627 And again, nothing in the CC license would block you from entering into such an agreement with Weber, at least as long as the agreement with Weber was not exclusive. 94 00:07:09,648 --> 00:07:11,310 Okay, so here's what we've learned so far. 95 00:07:12,551 --> 00:07:17,035 Both a copyright and a CC license set the default terms for a piece of creative work. 96 00:07:17,395 --> 00:07:20,818 These terms govern people who don't have any other agreements with the copyright owner. 97 00:07:22,401 --> 00:07:26,828 and both a copyright and a CC license permit the creator to enter into different deals with people. 98 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:35,008 So a non-commercial license says, anyone in the world can use this for non-commercial purposes without having to come to me for permission. 99 00:07:35,469 --> 00:07:38,773 But if you want to make a commercial use of this, give me a call and we'll make a deal. 100 00:07:40,126 --> 00:07:48,133 And so, if you distribute your video under a non-commercial license, and MTV sees it and loves it, they can call you and say, hey, we want to run your cool video. 101 00:07:48,353 --> 00:07:48,753 How much? 102 00:07:49,634 --> 00:07:55,865 And so, with both ordinary copyright and content license under a CC license, the author is free to enter into other deals. 103 00:07:56,426 --> 00:07:58,309 A deal applies to whoever signs into it. 104 00:07:58,570 --> 00:08:01,735 The CC license and copyright set the defaults for everyone else in the world. 105 00:08:03,484 --> 00:08:14,237 The one important difference, however, between copyright and a CC license is that there is one type of agreement you can enter into with a CC license that you can enter into with ordinary copyright, and that's an exclusive license. 106 00:08:14,818 --> 00:08:19,144 With video governed simply by ordinary copyright, you're free to enter into an exclusive deal. 107 00:08:19,565 --> 00:08:22,048 But with a video governed by a CC license, you're not. 108 00:08:23,533 --> 00:08:26,036 So enter the Hollywood lawyer type puffing his cigar. 109 00:08:26,637 --> 00:08:27,258 Ha, see? 110 00:08:27,298 --> 00:08:29,360 I told you the CC license was bad for you. 111 00:08:29,821 --> 00:08:32,244 You can't have an exclusive deal if you use a CC license. 112 00:08:32,624 --> 00:08:34,427 And in Hollywood, the exclusive is everything. 113 00:08:35,956 --> 00:08:44,002 Well, it used to be everything, but what many, indeed millions of people are beginning to recognize is that the viral spread of creativity depends upon non-exclusivity. 114 00:08:45,063 --> 00:08:48,985 To encourage a wide range of people to spread your work, you have to allow them to spread it. 115 00:08:49,845 --> 00:08:55,948 And so the bet that many people make with the CC license is that the gain you get from freedom far outweighs any cost from non-exclusivity. 116 00:08:56,388 --> 00:09:00,396 especially when any truly commercial use will require the permission of the copyright owner anyway. 117 00:09:02,119 --> 00:09:04,443 But won't people just copy and distribute the video anyway? 118 00:09:05,717 --> 00:09:10,804 This is actually the hardest question for us to answer, because of course, the answer today is largely yes. 119 00:09:11,685 --> 00:09:18,935 But as we've seen as the copyright wars have spread, this activity, technically illegal, simply gives lawyers an easy way to prove to politicians 120 00:09:19,315 --> 00:09:21,317 that the internet is simply a haven for piracy. 121 00:09:22,398 --> 00:09:29,444 We want to show the world that it's not, and one clear and simple way is for more and more content to clearly express the freedom that the creator intended. 122 00:09:31,221 --> 00:09:37,586 Millions of creators are now using CC licenses to express the freedoms that people can enjoy by default with their creativity. 123 00:09:38,227 --> 00:09:44,833 And all those creators remain open to striking different deals with innovative entrepreneurs who have cool new ways to make the internet work for creators.