Comments on The Creative Commons

The Creative Commons:

The Creative Commons is a place where creative works will be presented to a public audience. At the time of the publication of the work referenced(class reading assignment published 1980s), this presentation of work had a limited audience based on the media and distribution system in use at that time.

Physical works, as an example, painting, and sculpture were shown, as now, in spaces set aside for the their viewing. To reach those individuals that decided what works were to be displayed, involved creating slides and mailing those slides along with appropriate supporting materials. This process was both slow an expensive. The time based works, as an example, films were distributed to theaters for viewing. To create a film involved, as now, creating an idea and a production road map. From there filming using formats from 8 mm to 70 mm  limited; by the unavoidable cost of the media, production facilities, and limited distribution, those able to work in the media. Simply getting creative works to a public was both time consuming and expensive, and the distribution system was archaic and centrally organized.

I will assume that the Creative Commons has been subsumed into the Digital Domain.

What this means is that almost anyone can publish almost anything, and it will have a potential distribution of millions of viewers. Slides, as we are seeing, are literally being thrown away, The perspective that is being put forward is that it is now more important to limit what is in the digital domain than to encourage the entrance of more information into it. With the entrance of Government into this area with the enactment of COPA

HUChild Online Protection Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaU

HIPAA

HUHealth Information Privacy ActU

While HIPAA is not specifically an online limiting act, it works to establish a basis for government intervention.

With the governments national and state enacting laws to make it a crime to post, for example, child pornography, or terrorists related material such as bomb making. The trend is escalating with California and other laws concerning "revenge porn".

HURevenge Porn  U

As an aside I would note that the United States outlawed Alcohol, and that ensued from a campaign in many ways similar to what is being waged against freedom of expression in the digital domain.

What to do, lean back and enjoy the show. The first to go, is Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality

 Next most likely, will be porn as it is a "low hanging fruit". The major copyright holders have, and will continue to, set limits on "fair use". Our government and other governments will, as has already begun, limit that digital domain content that does not agree with their agendas.  

Remember: You do not have a freedom if you choose not to use it.

Dean