From WashingtonPoat.com: "When Chuck D and the Fine Arts Militia released their latest single, "No Meaning No," several months ago, they didn’t try to stop people from circulating free copies on the Internet. They encouraged it."
"They posted the entire 3-minute, 12-second song and its various vocal, drum and guitar components online and invited everyone to view, copy, mix, remix, sample, imitate, parody and even criticize it. "
"The result has been the creation of a flood of derivative work ranging from classical twists on the hip-hop piece to video interpretations of the song. The musicians reveled in the instant fan base. They were so pleased that they recently decided to publish their next entire album, due later this spring, the same way, becoming the first major artists to do so."
"No Meaning No" was released under an innovative new licensing scheme called Creative Commons that some say may be better suited to the electronic age than the hands-off mind-set that has made copyright such a bad word among the digerati.""
So far, more than 10 million other creations — ranging from the movie "Outfoxed" and songs by the Beastie Boys to the British Broadcasting Corp.’s news footage and the tech support books published under the O’Reilly label — have been distributed using these licenses…"
Interest in Creative Commons licenses comes as artists, authors and traditional media companies begin to warm to the idea of the Internet as friend instead of foe and race to capitalize on technologies such as file-sharing and digital copying."
"…many of the innovators who touched off the file-sharing revolution are seeking to win corporate support for their work. Shawn Fanning, who as a teen developed Napster, is now working on software that would let copyright holders specify permissions and prices for swapping. Vivendi Universal is a backer."
"Perhaps the most significant cooperative effort, however, is the set of innovative new licensing schemes under which "No Meaning No" was released."
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