[kwlug-disc] CC licensed music PROHIBITED at CBC.

[Bob Jonkman]

The Creative Commons "Non-Commercial" license is very poorly defined as 
to what constitutes commercial usage.  I participated in a Creative 
Commons sponsored survey about a year ago; as I recall, people's idea of 
what NC means was all over the place[1].

Obviously, selling the work for profit is prohibited by NC.

But is making the work available free/gratis on a for-profit site 
commercial use?  I make money as SOBAC; does that mean that sobac.com 
can never host an NC licensed file?

Or on a site for a non-profit or charity organization that engages in 
fundraising?  How about appearing on a non-commercial site beside an 
advertisement?  And if I use a commercial free hosting site like 
http://tripod.com/ that's advertising-supported?

Remember the User Group disks, distributing free/libre software but 
charging only for the cost of the media?  Does infringe on NC?

When I release something as NC I intend only that it not be sold 
directly.  I'm perfectly happy if it gets displayed along with ads, or 
on a commercial site.  I'd be especially happy if it gets used by the CBC.

The CBC is most definitely a non-commercial organization, and the 
examples they cite[2] as infringing on NC licenses are those edge cases, 
"streaming with pre-roll ads, or pay for download on iTunes." I doubt 
that most of the creators intended that those uses be restricted.  The 
CBC has chosen to interpret NC in the most restrictive way possible, to 
the detriment of everyone. Then they're lumping that together with all 
the other CC licence variants, and disallowing everything.

There was also talk of the CBC shipping their programs to other stations 
that might put the material to commericial use.  But how is that the 
CBC's problem?  Let those other stations worry about license compliance.

The CBC is already stripping music out of their other podcast offerings, 
like Metro Morning and As It Happens. And Quirks And Quarks has a 
completely different soundtrack in the podcast than it does on-air. 
There's no reason they can't do the same with CC music on Spark.

More pressure needs to be put on CBC management to change this policy. 
It's not just Geist-fear-mongering, this is just the most recent example 
of suppression of free/libre, user-generated content.[3]

--Bob.


[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/17127

[2] 
http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2010/10/spark-122-october-3-6-2010/#comment-26758

[3] 
http://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-g2-has-a-%E2%80%9Chardware-rootkit%E2%80%9D-prevents-modifications-20101006/



On 10-10-12 11:31 AM, Rashkae wrote:
> On 10-10-12 11:02 AM, Darcy Casselman wrote:
>> This whole thing smacks of irrational management panic. Someone up
>> the org chart doesn't understand Creative Commons and freaked out.
>> They probably don't even have a good reason, and their leaving it to
>> their underlings to flail about trying to explain it. Fascinating to
>> see this played out publicly like this.

> They understand creative commons all too well. Some of the licenses used
> don't allow commercial / for-profit use of the music, and would need
> individual licensing from the copyright owners for those 'podcasts' that
> are sold in some on-line retail channels, (like I-tunes). Makes perfect
> sense when you take away the Geist conspiracy theory fear mongering.
> (though in this defense, this was very poorly communicated.)
> Unfortunately, the story took on a life of it's own on the Intertubes
> before a proper explanation was given.
>