The Road to Sharing is Not Paved With Licenses

I’ll always take “Serendipity for 500”, Alex.

There was a healthy, many pathed Twitter conversation yesterday started with a statement by Robin DeRosa

Thinking of changing my @creativecommons default license from CCBY to CCBYNC. I get that CCBY is the more open technically, but I'm thinking here about my vision for open (in particular as it relates to public higher ed), and I keep coming back to the NC. Discuss?

— Robin DeRosa’s on Mastodon (@actualham) October 18, 2018

I’ve posted more than my share of stuff on creative commons, and seen so many conversations about the virtues of different license. I am a big proponent of the licenses, but I also grow weary about debating one flavor versus another. I don’t criticize the discussions nor choices people make, but the focus on the license irks me.

I was ready to let the thread go by and saw Doug Levin’s

https://twitter.com/douglevin/status/1052923096120872960

Thanks for being a tweet deleter. Not. But I recall he mad a references to CC0 being not useful for more than data. 

And was like, woah- there is a ton of CC0 content out there, not just data. I know of some intimately

To me misunderstandings are that licenses provide binding that terms will be honored. I lean more sharing / least restriction. Ive no desire for $ gain, if someone else can good on 'em. See 60k flickr photos CC0 as wish ppl will do more than license asks https://t.co/3ecGI3I3pa

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) October 18, 2018

It was a good thread, well as much as twitter threads go, they light up briefly and then go quickly flowing past the attention zone.

But.

In the time I jumped out to check email, I get blasted in the face happily with sweet serendipity. This came in via a flickr mail message:

I’m a member of a 4-piece Blues combo from Barbourville, KY called The Blue Crawdads.

You have a photo listed in the public domain at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/15152251297

We have an EP coming out soon named ‘Take You There’, and I’d like to credit you properly, since we intend to use this photo as part of the cover art. In addition to your name, would you want to have a website link or something along those lines?

Also, we’d like to send you a copy by way of thanks once it actually hits. You can check us out at www.bluecrawdads.com.

Now here is the part I love. The photo the Crawdads are interesting is shared under Creative Commons Public (CC0). The way it is explained 99.8% of the time (I made up that number) is, “you can use it for free and you do not even have to provide attribution.”

That’s minimum license compliance.

And of all the things they could pick, it’s one of my “#bellyontheroad” photos where I lay down pn the ground and take a photo, this one back in Strawberry when they had recently paved the main road through town:

2014/365/266 Belly on Newly Paved Fossil Creek Road flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

But what the Crawdads did was contact me and offer to provide attribution, which “technically” they do not have to. Plus they are going to share their music with me!

So right away I replied with a “heck yes” response, then checked out their web site and listened in.

Just in my inbox message from a Kentucky blues band that wants to use my CC0 photo for next release cover art. *They* are asking how I want to be attributed (technically not required) and offered to send me a copy when it's released.

This is how a system of gratitude works.

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) October 18, 2018

If we just focus on licenses and picking through the morsels of what it does and does not do, IMHO we lose sight of the bigger things about sharing our work and acknowledging the work of others as a form of gratitude, not compliance with rules.

And my friend Chris brought up a truth here

https://twitter.com/fncll/status/1052938582824865794

which leads my back to a lesson where I got schooled well

In the past when people asked for permission to use CC licensed photos I tried to educate they did not need permission and my authoritative CC explainer.

One person replied, "I know that. I just thought you'd like to know it was being used."

Zing.

I never explained again.

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) October 18, 2018

Share for gratitude, not for rules and license terms.

This is my third of nine posts for the Ontario Extend 9x9x25 challenge. I did not set out to write it as one, but it fit (plus it’s late in the week!)

Featured Image: My photo that the Blue Crawdads asked how to attribute for their new release–

2014/365/266 Belly on Newly Paved Fossil Creek Road flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

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