Why We Should Use Creative Commons

We chatted with Franco Giandana, an expert in copyrights and intellectual property

You may have come across work protected by copyright and wondered if your work should also be protected. Creative Commons is an initiative whose aim is to make it easier for artists and creators who share work on the Internet to stipulate how their work can be used.

To try and find answers about copyright, user license, and intellectual property, we talked to Franco Giandana, lawyer and member of the Creative Commons Global Network Executive Committee. He told us about the specific licenses that are available to creatives on the platform. Franco also described the vision for the future of this non-profit organization. Get to know him by tuning to his live Domestika Talk, where he was in conversation with Elian Chali, available here.

Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Franco Giandana, I am a lawyer, and I come from Córdoba, Argentina. I moved back to my city a few years ago, after living in various other places, mainly in Europe.

Why did you decide to specialize in intellectual property?

Mainly because I have a great connection toward the arts, especially music: my friendships have all been related to the creative arts. Intellectual property law is where I feel more comfortable operating: I get in touch with very interesting people, and this allows me, in some instances, to have an input on their creative processes, (which makes me feel like an artist too).

On the other hand, we are going through a period of profound transformation that impacts society, productivity, and the economy: intangible goods have become more relevant now. I want to be involved as much as possible in the driving forces of a changing world that, not by choice, we have to experience.

Creative people want to know more about registering their intellectual property. Is it good practice to register everything they produce?

Although authorship of work takes place the moment it is created, registering your work is always good practice. The register works mainly as a declaration of the existence of artistic work. It acknowledges the connection to its creator or the owner of the rights derived from this work.

You will have to draft some basic variables to determine which work to register or not, possibly according to its relevance, commercial value, sentimental value, etc. Also, it is essential to choose which method is best when registering work. Apart from the fact that different countries have different rules, there are new ways to register work, for instance, through specific digital services.

What are some of the benefits of Creative Commons for independent creators?

Creative Commons is an excellent tool to license work, which is not the same as registering work!

Licensing your work using the legal tools of Creative Commons is letting the general public know what permissions and restrictions have been set up by the owner of the copyright of a particular work.

To put it simply: by using Creative Commons, we tell anyone interested in our work what they can and cannot do with it. There are different types of licenses in Creative Commons that cover a spectrum of permissions and restrictions, to help you choose the best option in each case. These licenses include specific essential elements: first of all, to configure the permission to use work commercially, to be able to create derivatives, and how we can share this content.

Creative Commons allows you to share knowledge and culture. Why is it a good option for a young creator to rely on this platform? What would you say to anyone worried about plagiarism?

Creative Commons is an excellent tool that allows an author to make their work known, due to the logic of circulation of information over the Internet. In any way, plagiarism is a threat that can happen whether we use Creative Commons to license the author’s work or not.

All licenses in Creative Commons expressly specify the need to respect the attribution of the author’s work, thus respecting the moral rights of the creators.
As a result, to anyone afraid to use CC’s tools, I would say that in any case, plagiarism will be independent of the license we’ve chosen. CC licenses do not promote or facilitate piracy of work.

The current health emergency is an excellent example of how Creative Commons supports the best interests of the collective, and this is very evident within the scientific world, as researchers are continuously sharing their findings. Can you tell us about a similar example within the arts and culture?

It is essential to understand that copyrights are a legal answer to the need to balance the interest of the authors (so they can live off their work) and the importance of the public in being able to benefit from the same work. By granting monopolies to the holders of the copyrights, we let them exploit work as they please within the legal limits during a set period.

These protected terms seem to be very long at the moment. For a few years, there has been an aspect of flexibility of copyrights and cultural management by many cultural institutions in charge of the custody of the repository of works that are very important for the world. Museums, national archives, libraries, universities, all these institutions are making more and more artworks, research papers, and other texts available.

I believe that the Internet imposes a certain logic in that copyrights must be revised to avoid a complete disconnection to the world we live in, especially with regards to the ‘exceptions.’ I’d invite the readers to resort to the many alternative places full of free or flexible content on sites like Flickr, Wikipedia, digitized museums, free music sites, all just a click away. I think that many readers already know what I am talking about: free culture brings immediate benefits!

Do you think that soon many artists or creatives with a profitable career will also join initiatives such as Creative Commons?

This is one of the myths we deal with regularly at CC. There is no disparity between a successful business model and the use of free artistic work tools. There are multiple examples of how both set-ups work perfectly well simultaneously.

Major bands like Radiohead, prefer free cultural works tools—Creative Commons is not the only one—to promote their music. The same happens within the realm of street art, cinema— there are even festivals dedicated to free artistic work—, and much more. You can make money and support free cultural work! The examples abound. What is missing perhaps is a bit more promotion, support, and bravery.

What other areas of human knowledge do you think could take more advantage of Creative Commons?

Culture, as an essential product of our society, can gain strength entirely from using tools like Creative Commons, and other platforms that promote the same freedoms. We are continually witnessing how culture recycles, renews, and reinvents itself.

We are aware of the influence that one era has on the next one: it has always been this way, and we can assume it will carry on in the same way in the future. I believe that today the challenge is clear: to reduce the gap between what we enjoy on the Internet and all types of content we have access to, including educational (although education is a wider subject matter than school in itself), and those that are still on the margins of these innovations.

We cannot allow for restrictions in the circulation of information—because of copyrights—or of the formats that support it—the Internet in most cases—to become a medium for inequality. It’s time to support domestic agriculture, food sovereignty networks, technology, as well as encourage the creation of tools to let citizens participate and control fields typically reserved for governments. It’s time to change the paradigm, wouldn’t you agree?

Larry Lessig, one of the founders of Creative Commons, claimed that the Internet is a democratic tool. We would like to know more about the current vision of CC with regards to this ideal, and its program for the future.

The Internet will always be potentially a democratic tool, and equally, a tool for control and scrutiny. The extensive analysis of data can be a tool used for progress or submission. All the dualities created by technology cannot result in us abandoning our ultimate goals. The onus is on us, as individuals of hyper-connected, globalized, and geo-localized societies to be careful and protect our fundamental rights.

Privacy must be non-negotiable: it should not be a commodity aimed at driving sales online. Creative Commons supports a more inclusive, robust, and participating vision of the world. Wikimedia is another perfect example of what we try to protect. Who hasn’t appreciated Wikipedia at least once? In the future, we’ll continue to build awareness in this direction. I feel we are at the beginning of a long journey.

You can find out more about the types of licenses here.

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