There is a new generation of collaborative musicians working outside of established copyright structures. Websites such as Freesound are building communities of musicians for whom profit is not the goal: collaboration and exposure is.
An increasing amount of attention is being paid to the remix culture, enabled by the Internet, that has thrown up notable artists such as DJ Danger Mouse and Girl Talk.
Sites like Freesound and ccMixter share the philosophy of ‘Copyleft’, and promote a more open licensing system in opposition to traditional copyright. Creative Commons licenses have been championed by these communities, using them to legally sanction a number of activities from simply downloading and sharing to complete reworking, though usually preserving the right of the original author to be credited.
Copyleft tends towards the non-commercial sharing and recycling of artistic works, although Nine Inch Nails recently used a Creative Commons license to make available music to remix that they were also selling via retailers like Amazon.
Shan, founder of Looperman, highlighted the difference between the philosophies when commenting:
“Sit in your bedroom, jealously guarding all your creations, and see how far you get. But if you put your work out there, who knows where it will lead…somebody might hear what you’ve done, add some guitar and have a hit in Guatemala. Suddenly, you’re not stuck in your bedroom.”
Read the full article here.
Image courtesy of: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Copyleft.svg
TweetTags: copyleft | copyright | creative commons
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