IPA - Alternative Copyright Gains Ground In Europe


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Alternative Copyright Gains Ground In Europe

by Illustrators' Partnership

Lets artists “choose” not to be paid or credited for work.

February 9, 2005

“An alternative copyright that allows authors and artists to give away their
work while retaining some commercial rights is being adapted for use across
Europe and beyond.” This according to Jennifer L. Schenker, writing in the
International Herald Tribune: New Copyright Grants Artists Greater License,
June 14, 2004.

“Lawyers, musicians and filmmakers gathered in Berlin on Friday [June 11,
2004] for the German introduction of the [alternative] licenses, which were
first drafted for use in the United States in 2001 by Creative Commons, a
Silicon Valley nonprofit organization. The German debut followed the
introduction of Creative Commons licenses in Japan in March, in Finland in
May and in Brazil on June 4.

“Some 60 countries are expected to adapt Creative Commons licenses to their
jurisdiction, ‘and Germany is a critical part of that process,’ said
Lawrence Lessig, the Stanford University law professor who is the chairman
and co-founder of Creative Commons.

“Creative Commons licenses will be introduced in the Netherlands next Friday
and in France by the end of the summer, with a goal of creating licenses for
all EU countries by year-end, Lessig said in an interview by phone last
week.”

According to Lessig, these alternative copyrights will give artists greater
“freedom” to give away their work. According to the article, “Artists
choose how they want to share the work, specifying whether they want credit
for reuse, whether they want to be paid for commercial use or whether it is
acceptable to change [the work].”

Since nothing in current copyright law prevents artists from giving up their
copyrights or declining payment and credit for their work, artists may
wonder why they need new laws giving them “greater license” to do so. In
fact, the “alternative” copyright is intended to act as a copyright “virus,”
infecting traditional copyright protections throughout society. This would
give commercial access to protected works by anyone wishing to profit from
their use.

Lawrence Lessig is a driving force behind “The Copy Left,” a loose coalition
of legal scholars and internet providers, whose goal is to rollback or
abolish traditional copyright protections. They blame “the romantic notion
of authorship” for impeding the distribution of culture and inhibiting
creativity in the arts.

“Lessig is the author of “Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and
the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity.” He has argued before
the U.S. Supreme Court against extending the length of time that copyrights
cover original works [Eldred v Ashcroft] and is an advocate of open-source
software, which is distributed freely on the Internet.”

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