common

Anyone who's ever seen any musical score created by me will know my stance on copyright reform. Even if you haven't, a quick glance towards the bottom of the right column of this page should tell you all you need to know: I'm a nearly-rabid supporter of the Creative Commons organization and the cultural Commons movement in general. For those not familiar with the issue, here's a quick overview.

In current copyright law, anyone who creates anything, be it art or essay or code, has two options. Option one is to release it into the public domain, where anyone can do anything with it. In some cases, this works: Small works, those that are not the main output of the creator, may best serve their purpose in this manner in that they can be shared and reused and modified as much as anyone wishes. But, of course, works in the public domain officially belong to no one, meaning that the creator no longer has any say over the future of their work, legally. Someone else could easily appropriate the work and claim it as their own, which is the main reason this really doesn't work for creations of any importance.

Option two is to copyright the work, and believe it or not, this is the default. If you don't specifically release a work into the public domain or attach another form of license, under current copyright law your work will be copyrighted, end of the discussion. If releasing the work into the public domain permits everything, copyrighting it forbids the same: No derivatives may be made, use of the work is strictly limited to what can be passed off as "fair use," distribution is limited to what the creator wishes, etc. The work goes into complete lock down. The kicker, though, is how long it remains locked up: As I understand it, a copyrighted work currently remains that way until a minimum of 75 years after the death of the creator. Yes, you read that right; yes, that's a "minimum," as there are many parties working to extend the limit.

This copyright world is utterly black and white; there are no in-betweens. But today, increasingly many artists are working to create the grey-scale, to build a system that will allow us to share our work without completely relinquishing control. The options for this have been growing steadily for the last ten years or so, but have been mostly out of the public eye, used only by geeks in the know. But recently, a truly main-stream option has emerged: Creative Commons.

The Creative Commons license comes in many different flavors; basically, it has a few different options from which you can pick and choose, combining them to work exactly the way you want. There are four of these so-called "characteristics": Attribution, Share-Alike, No-Derivatives, and Non-Commercial. The Attribution characteristic is considered standard, and no licenses come without it: It requires that anyone who uses the work in any way give clear attribution to the original creator. Share-Alike is perhaps the second most common option, requiring that anything derived from the original work is given a license identical to the first. No-Derivatives is just that: anyone is free to distribute the work in any way they like, but never to modify it in any way. And Non-Commercial requires, of course, that the work only be used for commercial purposes by its original creator.

The most common license, of course, is a simple Attribution-Share-Alike license, usually abbreviated to CC-BY-SA. That's what all content on this website is under, and what every piece of music I ever write has been since I first found out about the Commons.

The Commons is growing in size as we speak. Everything from teaching materials to encylopedias is slowly working its way out of the lock-down of copyright and into the grey-scale world of the cultural Commons. A sizable community of scientists has begun to publish their work under the license, lawyers are starting a CC database called Groklaw, and musicians are creating, sharing, remixing, mashing, selling, and generally enjoying their collective output. Which brings me to my main purpose: CC:365.

That link will lead you to the blog of Grant Robertson, who has recently taken it upon himself to give us a one-man walk through of the musical Commons... For a year. Every day so far in 2006, he's found a new song by a new artist from somewhere in the Commons and left it for us to see; the music is wonderful, varied, and all open to sharing and modification. You might expect that electronica (in all it's myriad forms) would dominate the Commons, but if there's one thing CC:365 has taught me so far it's that everyone wants to share their music, no matter what genre you may be producing. There are thousands of artists around the globe, and only a tiny percentage meet the exact requirements for being adopted by a label; as one of those artists myself, I just want people to listen and enjoy my music. The Commons are a way to make that happen, and CC:365 is giving me a wonderful tour through this rich area.

I'd encourage all of you to start following along as the year progresses, but as we're already almost eighty days in, I figured a quick overview of what I'm enjoying. Therefore, I present to you my current top ten, in no particular order. The links provided with each will go directly to the relevant page at Grant Robertson's blog.

1. Loobke -- Check Mate
Loobke, a Belgian artist, works with an electric guitar and a looper to weave simple, repetitive, intricate backgrounds for her absolutely otherworldly voice.

2. Drop Trio -- Melody
Based out of Houston, Texas, the Drop Trio is a funk-jazz group consisting of a drummer, a bass guitarist, and a (drum-roll, please) Hammond B3 organist. If you've never heard the B3, you need to, now; if you're already familiar with it, this piece will give you more reason to drool over it.

3. Color by Numbers -- Syncopation of Hearts
Beautiful semi-ambient electronica to get lost in. 'nuff said.

4. The Uberkids -- Count to Six
This piece brings a smile to my face; how can you not love the idea of dance techno built upon the sounds of little German kids counting? It's just beautiful!

5. Williamson -- Time You'll Never Get Back
In a similar vein to "Color by Numbers," earlier, here's a beautiful piece of instrumental electronica with a texture intricate enough to loose yourself in. From bongos to synth to guitar to white noise... I can't get enough.

6. Metropolitan -- Delorian
Dark and uncertain, this piece features a vocalist who reminds me of Sarah McLaughlan, but somehow richer. It's captivating, and the minimal background augments her perfectly.

7. Anthony Raijekov -- On the Beach
More organ-based jazz to lighten up your day.

8. Artemis -- Charming Gun
I found this song all of five minutes ago, and love the sound. She uses her voice like Bjork, but sounds so much more down to earth and soothing; the simple electronic background only enhances this sound.

9. Suchita and Tushar Parte -- Swar Prabhat
Classical Hindustani vocals mixed in with an electronica that merges western sounds with Bollywood; it's impossible to describe, just go take a listen.

10. Sleepy Rabbit -- The Tropic of Cancer
A little bit of IDM to lull you to sleep... Best played on a loop.

There you have it; that's the top ten of what I've added to my listening list recently, but I promise, just dig a little and you'll find twice as much, and twice as much again as the year goes on, I'm sure. And remember, all: If you like this stuff, go support the artists and buy their music. Magnatune, the main CC record label, will allow you to buy any of these albums for about $8, with optional extra donations, a full 50% of which goes to the artist. If you enjoy their work, let them know!

-lelandpaul
4.5/8dumul