Fred makes a good point. Another issue is that nonprofits, especially in the social services, are often being told by their funders to "do more with less" and to "create earned income streams". Both of these exhortations tend to reinforce a scarcity mentality that feeds a "We must hold on to our rights at all costs!" line of thinking. The idea of "giving something away" via CC feels like giving up revenue, even if the organization is selling very few copies under traditional copyright, or (more likely) hasn't even gotten organized enough to sell its photos/videos at all.
Actually, that can be even worse -- the imaginary revenue of "If we could just sell some of our ___" makes it psychologically hard for the organization to embrace a free culture philosophy, even when the organization's mission has nothing to do with selling anything and it's wildly unlikely that they're going to start, say, a big T-shirt business. I work for a nonprofit organization and just recently used two CC-licensed photos I found on Flickr in our e-mail newsletter. I view this as a very mild kind of evangelism, because I had the opportunity to share a little bit about CC with my colleagues (who are unfamiliar with it) and because having a photo credit in our newsletter that explicitly references CC is a little bit of consciousness-raising for the folks alert enough to read it. -Amanda On Wednesday, November 14, 2007, at 07:53PM, "Fred Beneson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I think WITNESS is a good example of this... Their default license is >BY-NC. > >I work with a lot of non-profits who like the idea of CC but honestly >don't have the time or resources to convert their content to it. Isn't >it easy to cc license work, isn't that the point?, you may ask. > >Good question, but most nonprofits don't have in house lawyers and the >ones they work with are on borrowed/probono time and its too precious >to determine whether they have the proper rights to release their old >content under cc (think copyright fraud). The trick I've found is to >offer your time (see my work with rhizome.org this summer) to help >them do it right rather than demand for them to do it for you. > >But on the other hand, it may just require a generational shift in the >management of these nonprofits. A lot of them are run by dedicated >lifers who are not as comfortable with the Internet as we might be. > >Just remember, volunteering for a cash and time strapped non profit >can go a long way in convincing them of the benefits of free culture. > >F > >On Nov 14, 2007, at 7:31 PM, "William Norton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >wrote: > >> That's a really good point. It makes a lot of sense to advocate CC >> in the non-profit arena. It's just so much of a shift for >> commercial organizations to understand how to use CC compared to >> ARR. I imagine CC would be much more successful if it could gain a >> large foothold with non-profits such that proprietary groups can see >> the kind of audiences that can be explored by loosening their >> control. This would also give CC more of an opportunity to >> experiment with new flavors to work more effectively for the >> commercial sector. >> >> ---- >> Wm >> >> >> On Nov 14, 2007 5:49 PM, Brian Rowe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> There are a lot of public interest organizations that are using All >> Rights Reserved when they really want their message to get out to as >> many people as possible. I think that engaging non-profits and >> educating them about the advantages of using CC would be a good idea >> for SFFC. >> >> I am running a panel on nonprofit copyright in New Orleans this >> coming March for NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference. I may be >> looking for additional speakers. >> >> Brian Rowe >> 2L Seattle University >> >> >> On Nov 14, 2007 1:27 PM, Elizabeth Stark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> "(c) ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 1000" >> >> First, we need to get the ACLU to start using CC licenses. Second, we >> need to get documentarians and public TV to use them as well, so that >> more people can have access to the work they create and broadcast. >> >> Then this might be actually be related to FC. ;) >> >> On 11/14/07, William Norton < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > Under this sort of reasoning almost any educational or First >> Amendment issue >> > could be grouped under the Free Culture category. I can't imagine >> it would >> > be useful to have such a broad mission for this organization. The >> NOVA >> > special was very interesting, though. >> > >> > >> > On Nov 12, 2007 7:25 PM, Peter Olson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > >> > > >> > > At 7:48 PM -0500 11/12/07, Fred Benenson wrote: >> > > >Hi, I know this seems like something most people on this list >> might >> > > >be interested in, but it's really not on topic with respect to >> Free >> > > >Culture, so it's really not appropriate for this list. >> > > > >> > > >Hope you understand & Thanks! >> > > > >> > > >Fred >> > > >> > > I understand that it's borderline, and has an argument against >> it that it >> > > could start an argument about the merits of ID, which definitely >> would be >> > > off-topic. >> > > >> > > But consider the situation in which you live in a theocracy where >> > religious >> > > tenets are deployed routinely to interfere with science. Such >> theocracies >> > > exist, but the United States is not one of them. Nevertheless, >> for >> > someone >> > > in that situation interference with science in this fashion is >> as much a >> > free >> > > culture issue as open access to knowledge. >> > > >> > > (I will now step off my soapbox :-) >> > > >> > > peter >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > _______________________________________________ >> > > Discuss mailing list >> > > [email protected] >> > > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> > > >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Discuss mailing list >> > [email protected] >> > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> >> >> >> -- >> Brian Rowe >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> (206) 335-8577 (Cell) >> >> Access To Justice Technology Principles >> www.ATJWeb.org >> >> Freedom for IP >> www.FreedomforIP.org >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
