free culture

4 ways how large raw artwork files are treated in free culture projects to provide the editable source.¹

In the discussion about license compatibility of the creativecommons sharealike license towards the GPL, Anthony asked how the source-requirement is solved for artwork which often has huge raw files. These are the 4 basic ways I described in my answer.

NC covered works trick people into investing in a dead end

Free licensing lowers the barrier of entry to creating cultural works, which unlocks a dynamic where people can realize their ideas much easier - and where culture can actually live, creating memes, adjusting them to new situations and using new approaches with old topics.

But for that to really take off, people have to be able to make a living from their creations - which build on other works.

Yesterday I said to my father

» Why does your whole cooperative have to meet for some minor legalese update which does not have an actual effect? Could you not just put into your statutes, that the elected leaders can take decisions which don’t affect the spirit of the statutes? «

He answered me

» That’s how dictatorships are started.«

With an Ermächtigungsbescheid.

I gulped a few times while I realized how easy it is to fall into the pitfalls of convenience - and lose the project in the process.

New version of this article: draketo.de/politik/generation-of-cultural-freedom.html

I am part of a generation that experienced true cultural freedom—and experienced this freedom being destroyed.

We had access to the largest public library which ever existed and saw it burned down for lust for control.

I saw the Napster burn, I saw Gnutella burn, I saw edonkey burn, I saw Torrentsites burn, I saw one-click-hosters burn and now I see Youtube burn with blocked and deleted videos - even those from the artists themselves.

→ comment to The Four Freedoms of Free Culture on QuestionCopyright.org.

Thank you for spreading the thought of freedom in culture!

I currently don’t use creativecommons licenses on my site, because they have no source protection (you can’t exercise your right of modifying, if the work is hidden inside some non-source container, like autoscrolling flash).

Update: I changed this in 2015 when cc by-sa became one-way compatible with GPLv3. Now I also allow cc by-sa for text.

Instead I use the GPLv3, for my site (draketo.de — licensing) as well as for a free roleplaying book I write (1w6.org — german).

My reason for using free licenses in all my hobby work is simple: When a cultural work becomes part of my life, any restriction on using that work takes away a part of my personal freedom.

That’s why freedom is essential for all cultural works that matter.

Singing the songs of creation to shape a free world.

One day the silver kit asked the grey one:

“Who made the light, which brightens our singing place?”

The grey one looked at it lovingly and asked the kit to sit with him, for she would tell a story from the old days when the tribe was young.

“Once there was a time, when the world was light and happiness. During the day the sun shone on the savannah, and at night the moon cast the grass in a silver sheen.