Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Creative Commons

Today marks the five-year anniversary of the Creative-Commons License.

However, Creative-Commons is detrimental to photographers!

For an in-depth view, read "Why Photographers Hate Creative-Commons": Black Star

Under this law, any photos that are labeled as such can be used by anyone for any purpose under the "Fair Use" law. It basically gives up the copyright. As a photographer, I am not about to give up the rights to my photos! I spent years doing stock photography, and every photo selected for a magazine or publication was granted one-use right - and I received payment, as well as retained all rights to my photo. So I cannot imagine giving up my rights for any reason whatsoever!

As an author, the changes Congress wants to make to the copyright laws are just as frightening. Someone using our work without our permission has only to claim that they did attempt to locate us - and we are left standing as the guilty party. (What is wrong with this country?)

What's your take on Creative-Commons and the "Fair Use" copyright law?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not fair. No way. I don't understand the reasoning (or lack thereof) behind that kind of legislation.

It also ticks me off the way ebooks are so easily ripped off. There's like no way, as it stands now, to prevent someone from buying one copy and then copying it a zillion times and distributing it to friends without the author getting zip for payment. Sucks.

Nancy J. Parra said...

I don't think the general public truly understand copyright laws...

Perhaps education is the true key.

Anonymous said...

I see this in a lot of young people who've not yet worked professionally: they either don't quite understand the implications of the Creative Commons License or really just don't care. Some are happy with simple attribution (getting credit for their work, but no monetary compensation). I suppose they're welcome to share their work in this way if they want, but I don't like it.

Donna McDine said...

Very frustrating indeed. When a photographer takes photos or a writer puts pen to paper and someone can claim the work later is absolutely absurd.