Demand Letters On Parade, Part III

Declan McCullagh's Politech advises of an apparent exchange between The Warm Company, through counsel, and a London creative technology firm of the same name. Please, in my next life, I'm coming back as a Brit. From my provincial perspective Messrs. Raettig and Michael (on their own behalf) have raised dispute-oriented prose to an art form - can't you just hear Colin Firth delivering these lines? - but I have the feeling this may be business discourse as usual in their country. Nor should you miss their site's thoughtful weblog.

Creative Commons, In Use

For those interested in how the new Creative Commons will work once everything is in place, and what it can do for you, there is useful information on the site:

How Will Creative Commons Help You?: real-world examples about how people working on a project will be able to use Creative Comments to locate works to enhance the project free from copyright infringement worries.

Technology: Creative Commons will utilize a Contributor Application and a Search Application. The Contributor Application will "help people create what we call a Commons Deed -- a document that uses plain English and intuitive icons to summarize the terms under which a contributor has offered her work." Once a work has been so dedicated, the Search Application will help others locate the works and put them to use.

Machine Readable Licensing: The license terms generated by Creative Commons technology "will be 'machine-readable.' That is, computer applications like search engines will be able to determine how Jill's photos are licensed. So Jack will be able to search for photos of the Empire State Building that are available under a Creative Commons license that permits copying and posting on the Web. He will find Jill's photos, and know that he has Jill's permission to use them in his movie."

In other words, the system appears designed to maintain the comfort level of all concerned. Contributors can state the degree of attribution and control they expect to maintain, if any. End-users can rest easy about incorporating the work of others if they comply. The more I look at this, the more I like it, and see where it helps eliminate uncertainties and risks inherent in the current system, and, as Creative Commons puts it, "complement[s], rather than compete[s] with, [the GPL] and other efforts to ease the sharing of creative works."

Questions. However, I also can think of a few concerns I hope the good professors and their colleagues will address. One is fraud - there should be a way of verifying that a person using the Contributor Application is the original author, and of notifying end-users if some issue about this arises down the road. Another is the cross-jurisdictional effectiveness of the Commons Deed - those using works licensed with the help of Creative Commons will want assurance they are authorized to do so regardless of where they or the author may reside. Finally, I wonder what role Creative Commons will play, if any, in disputes among contributors and end-users about the scope or propriety of a use. I don't see a discussion on the site about this, so I assume a contributor who feels the terms of the Commons Deed have been exceeded will have to look to a court to determine the scope of the license under basic contract principles. Perhaps agreement to an alternative dispute resolution process could be built into the system, to provide even greater confidence that those using Creative Commons will reduce the risk of costly litigation down the road. (I see the site has a feedback address for questions like this, so off these will go. If you think of others (1) let me know, I'm interested, and (2) send them here.)

Rufus Wainwright

"Lush, stylistic, just slightly extravagant piano-driven pop tunes that are destined to have their way with you," says search result two on Google for Rufus Wainwright, pointing to this site (where I don't actually see the right-on quote). The artist's own site is here. Ben Folds meets, shoot, I dunno, Billy Joel on psychedelics? His music did have its way with me. Once again, I must register pleasant surprise that Carson Daly brought him to my attention, and just garden variety surprise that last night's other Last Call guest, Mark Cuban, does not appear to have a blog (he'd have to cut down on the caffeine first, perhaps).

Beware The Pods - er, Blods

They live among the rest of humanity, side by side, indistinguishable. In all manner of societal bastians: business, academia, the courts, the clergy. Around the world. Careful, that's one right there! Jeneane exposed one in her midst just yesterday, an Anthurian, no less. Look for the tell-tale signs: unchecked growth of facial hair, questionable fashion choices and a viscous chartreuse fluid that passes for blood. Greenpeace had better act quickly if any of the non-bloggers are to be spared...

Help Is Here

Thanks, Ev! The new Blogger help pages (built with software from Public Mind) are wonderful. Let's all say it: "aaahhh."