A great collection of resources for the average musician who’s got no idea WTF is going on with their rights and wants to be better informed.

…uhh…in what sense is this true? or rather, no you’re not…

Is it really CC’s responsibility, though, to be a business model? Isn’t it simply the license — simply the tool — and then someone else has to figure out how to make it benefit the artist (whether financially, artistically, or otherwise)? I guess part of the issue is that some of the amped-up propaganda here, not necessarily coming directly form CC but from some of its advocates, suggest a “build it and they will come,” magical benefit, but that seems rarely to be the case with anything.

I suppose the flipside here is that conventional copyright, licensing, and royalties haven’t done a whole lot for monetizing lesser-known indie artists, either. So maybe the bottom line is, the real solution is going to have to come from elsewhere — and then it’s a matter of whether CC assists that or not.

I’d certainly agree, though, that CC hasn’t yet had widespread benefits. That said, we’ll be trying to look at some of the case studies that have worked for people (both with and without CC) to see what might be learned or applied elsewhere.

1. Fair use: While there are a number exceptions to copyright law allowing the fair use of what would otherwise be exclusive rights, there is no concrete answer of what constitutes fair use. Rather, the court has a multi factor balancing test to consider, including whether the work is used for commercial purposes, educational purposes, and news/public matters. For copyright fair use, the court will also look at how much of the work is used. The notion that if you only sample 8secs so it must be fair use is wrong. There is no concrete answer of how much time constitutes fair use. But, if the use is considered “de minimis” then you’re cool. A few seconds might be considered fair use, unless those 2secs are very recognizable, like the theme from Jaws. For trademark fair use, there is descriptive fair use — if using the mark in describing something is the only way to describe it, you’re cool!

2. Public Domain works: When copyrights expire, the works enter the public domain. But, as mentioned above, they can be renewed. So, be careful if using these — don’t automatically assume they’re in the PD if they were released before 1927!

3. Creative Commons: Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE creative commons, but it hasn’t really worked out to make any money for musicians. A few years ago the notion of a musician’s middle class forming via the digital boom was shared by many. I don’t think this has really happened as there aren’t good ways of making money online for an unsigned/indie artist. So CC may have helped share the music and expose the artist, but little money was made, largely because nobody has thought of a good way to collectively monetize the creative commons music content. Magnatune sorta does, but doesn’t take advantage of the power in numbers idea that CC works could benefit from. Sorta like Marlin did for indie labels, CC should do for unsigned artists. BUT, for reference works/resources CC is unbeatable! That’s why I’ve always said CC is good for reference material but not for art.