Media Links: Are We All Creative Commons Produsers?

Find the Rabble.ca version,, CommonGround version, VUE Weekly version, TheTyee version.


When I began writing and distributing this column, I wanted to find a way to both make it free and easy for bloggers, small non-commercial publications and individuals to share it, whilst also giving syndicating publications something they can stake a claim in.

Luckily I was aware of a new copyright licensing system called Creative Commons that enables such a hybrid model of media production. Not only is it a useful tool for media producers, it's also an important part of the larger trend that is blurring the lines between producers and consumers of media.

Established in 2002, the Creative Commons (CC) license system allows artists, both professional and amateur, to copyright their work with as many restrictions as they choose -- including the ability to un-copyright works completely. According to their website, "Creative Commons provides free tools that lets authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry."

Creative Commons allows cultural producers to easily add an individually defined copyright badge to their work (usually a small graphic). These badges provide a clear indication of the specific copyright restrictions (or lack thereof) for other cultural producers and users.

Big corporate media organizations use synergies and joint ventures to bring in larger audiences. Independent and online media need to create their own synergies by building and sharing audiences using their own unique strengths. So I figured what better chance to experiment than with a column focusing on the intersection between media, culture and technology.

The Creative Commons license I use asks each organization that publishes the Media Links column to post a statement at the end of each article acknowledging and linking to all the other syndicating publications. Creative Commons and the open Internet enable this, and other new forms of collaboration and synergy.

Read the rest at:
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2009/07/06/Produser/

Steve Anderson is the national coordinator for the Campaign for Democratic Media. He is a contributing author of Censored 2008 and Battleground: The Media and has written for The Tyee, Toronto Star, Epoch Times, Common Ground, Rabble.ca and Adbusters.

Reach me at:
steve@democraticmedia.ca
http://www.facebooksteve.com/
http://www.steveontwitter.com/
http://medialinkscolumn.com

Media Links is a syndicated column supported by CommonGround, TheTyee, Rabble.ca, VUE Weekly

Media Links by Steve Anderson, CommonGround, TheTyee, Rabble.ca, , VUE Weekly is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License. You must attribute this work to Steve Anderson, CommonGround, TheTyee, Rabble.ca, VUE Weekly