Don’t give ANYTHING away for free. Do you hear me??

I went to a C4 event last week about the legal issues around collaboration and Intellectual Property.

Nothing particularly earthshattering to report; however I must say I was surprised with what seemed to be a rather negative attitude towards Creative Commons (a new set of alternatives to Copyright, some of which allow others a greater freedom to distribute and re-use content).

Maybe it’s because the debate was dominated by a lawyer, but for me the prevailing question seemed to be "why would anyone want to give their rights away?"

Specifically, a number of people seemed to imply that putting any of your content for free devalues everything you do in the future. Excuse me? What?

As far as I’m concerned it’s going to get harder and harder to sell content direct. In fact it’s going to be hard enough just getting noticed in this world where everyone’s producing. Any promotion is good promotion. Getting your stuff out there is totally vital to building a name. 

Creative commons means that, if I choose, I as a producer have a way of legally allowing others to remix, copy and do whatever they want with my work.  If it’s done properly however, I can request that it’s always be attributed to me.

I think.there’s something really important about this. Going back to my last post - remixing, copying and attributing is vital to social media.  We need to have a way of telling people what they can and can’t do with our stuff. Hopefully most of them will take some notice.

Yes, people can exploit Intellectual Property, but they’re going to do that however you license it .

And as MC Paula LeDeau pointed out: "As a creative person you’re at far greater risk of obscurity.". I couldn’t agree more.