Criticism of Creative Commons is about as well received by the CopyLeft as disparagement of Jesus Christ is by a Southern Baptist in the Bible Belt. (That is a region seemingly populated by few members of the Free Culture Movement; I didn't find any FCM missionaries while I visited relatives in East Tennessee last week). John Dvorak in a PC Magazine piece commits blasphemy with "Creative Commons Humbug," which drew the predictable gasps. Dvorak actually goes so far as to suggest that CC appears to be 1) unnecessary, 2) confusing and 3) perhaps harmful to those, like Dvorak, who want less restrictive copyright laws.

I'll leave debate on #3 to others. Is CC unnecessary? Of course it is, because any right given or forfeited through CC can be done without CC. Is it confusing? Well, at the risk of being a clueless dumb troll, I found the licensing process pretty complicated for something that bills itself as easy. At my urging, PFF published a book recently under a CC license, but figuring out exactly how to do that was a bit challenging. Certainly, as Dvorak mentions, it was far more challenging than merely putting a c with a circle around it on the book's first page.

Dvorak opens himself up to criticism with a column that lurches from argument to argument and employs less than constructive rhetoric. That's a shame, because I think he made some valuable points, but those will be lost in the sea of CopyLeft diatribes calling him a mean old luddite.

I have said in the past that I welcome CC as an alternative for artists to manage their rights. That said, for those who view CC as more than that, perhaps it would behoove them to develop slightly thicker skins. Both creators and users of licensed content would be well-served by a CC that was constantly being improved and upgraded -- similar to the arguments made about open source software -- but FCM zealots seem to feel that CC already has achieved an iconic status that puts it beyond criticism.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 2:59 PM | Free Culture Movement

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