Waiting for Lessig at 11:00

Popped into the iCommons summit in Second Life, waiting for 11:00 SL time when Larry Lessig will be speaking. Here's where I'm at..

Some audio probs right now they are working out.

Cool..things are worked out, watching a short film about the remix culture...

Oh well, looking at a grey screen, having media probs here..



OK, switched computers and I'm able to see, right now Johnathan Zittrain is speaking.





Larry talking about debate with Brett Cottle re copyright. How do people in creative commons movement get respect? We get that respect by demanding it loudly like they (copyright people) do. Who are 'we'...iow creative commons?

CC is a movement of open source for culture. Copyright's power comes from its complexity..it's the command line interface that gets to the core of the machine, great for geeks, not good for most people. For most people, layers are put on top. Think about CC as a gui overlay for the copyright system's power. Another function is as a signal. The people displaying the cc sign send the message that they are part of the sharing economy. Money not part of terms of exchange...instead it's poison. This economy is important provider of value, (wikipedia, flickr). Money is not why people participate.

CC has a role in protecting the sharing economy. CC protects participation in the sharing economy.

"You are helping artists to starve!" as a criticism. Responds that CC can help artists cross over from a sharing economy to a commercial economy when they want to, and when appropriate. New component, beatnick, from creative commons, that allows commercial licensing of creative commons content. Enables bottom-up creativity. You share, and choose when to allow work to be commercially exploited.

We have allowed other side as if this is a debate about piracy. We are fighting for the right to steal, etc...E.g. defense of p2p, as if cc is fighting for the 'right to steal'.

How to respond? This is not a movement about the right to take, it's about the right to create, the right to share in the sense that the artists, creators can be free to choose without the government speaking for them.

General problem, people controlling government is that they only listen to money. (Global warming, healthcare as examples).

CC people need to stand for the movement and make it grow. Standing O.