FREEDOM TO SHARE
ccMixter Answers ASCAP with Collaborative Write-Record- Remix Event

BACKGROUND

ccMixter is a collaborative community that uses Creative Commons licenses. ASCAP is the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers.

This event especially honors the art of writing and composition. ccMixter is a place where writing and composition are uniquely honored through collaboration.

ASCAP recently started a fund-raising campaign for a fight against Creative Commons, EFF and Public Knowledge — claiming Creative Commons licenses undermine copyright, somehow forfeiting artist royalties. We’ve found rather the opposite to be true as ccMixter thrives from the creative freedom and opportunity inherent in sharing our work under Creative Commons licenses.

As artists, we believe WE should have the freedom to choose how we share our work. Creative Commons licenses are an innovative way for us to retain ownership, and yet also give us the freedom to choose how our work is used and reused. We do not sacrifice ownership by sharing our creations under these licenses, nor do we necessarily give up our right to receive royalties (depending on the Creative Commons license under which a work is shared).

We considered drafting an official response from ccMixter. But our creative, collaborative process speaks for itself. Our creative works are more powerful than words. Thus the FREEDOM TO SHARE Remix Event was born!

THE PROJECT

So here’s how it works. FREEDOM TO SHARE has two stages.

Stage One: Write, record and upload a piece that reflects the theme FREEDOM TO SHARE.

Stage Two: Remix someone else’s upload from Stage One. Upload your remix BETWEEN AUG 18 - SEPT 5.

STAGE ONE:

WHEN: Aug 1 through August 14

WHAT: Write and Record a lyric that comments on the themes of this project: artistic freedom, sharing culture, collaboration, the evolution of the music industry, etc.

HOW: Up through August 14, upload a recording of your lyric as an acapella….you can submit a spoken word, a rap, or a melody. (If you’ve never uploaded a poem or a song, this is your opportunity!)


STAGE TWO:

WHEN: UPLOAD BETWEEN AUG 18- SEPT 5.

WHAT: Remix one (or more) of the uploads from Stage One.

HOW: You can start woking with pells from Stage One as soon as they are submitted and upload between Aug 18 - Sept 5. Upload your remix here (or remixes) that include at least one track from Stage One. Your remix should continue to explore the theme of this event — artistic freedom, sharing culture and collaboration. Again, your remix must include at least one track piece from Stage One (please note all samples in your remix must be yours originally or under the appropriate Creative Commons license). You are free to upload more than one remix too.

SHARING THE MESSAGE

Through this project, we at ccMixter will create a musical body of work that demonstrates the power of creative collaboration using Creative Commons licenses. We also hope the FREEDOM TO SHARE Remix Event will sonically illuminate matters requiring more light in this debate.

The music created by the project will become a tool for educating others about the versatility of Creative Commons licenses. We intend to share these remixes via curated playlists, podcasts and compilations in as many venues as we can reach, including other websites that support CC licensed work, such as Jamendo, Soundcloud, FMA, Archive.org, etc.

And in addition, Snowflake will deliver a thumb drive of all FREEDOM TO SHARE uploads to her contact at ASCAP (she’s been a member since 1995), with a personalized letter including Attribution details.

LICENSES

The whole idea is that we as creators want to celebrate our right to choose, so upload your track under the CC license of your choice.

It would be great if some of the tracks would be licensed CC-BY, but, again, this is your choice within the general compatibility guidelines of this project.

LINKS

Here are some relevant links:
— wired.com news story
— ASCAP’s letter
— Creative Commons initial response
— Lawrence Lessig’s challenge (former chair of Creative Commons)
— ASCAP’s Paul Williams declines debate - his statement
— Creative Commons asks us to speak up
— ASCAP homepage & wikipedia entry
— Creative Commons homepage & wikipedia entry
— ccMixter homepage & wikipedia entry

Thank you for demonstrating the power of collaboration made possible with Creative Commons through the Freedom To Share Remix Event!

NOTE: You can find uploads for this project in our playlists:

Pellas
Remixes

Outstanding idea. Do we have to submit in order to remix?

Very good idea! Let’s do it…

I want to participate but i’ll be at burning man. what can I do? I leave civilization on August 27.

I am really excited about this event! As someone who has personally benefitted in countless ways from sharing my work with CC licenses, I believe this event can help focus attention on what can be gained by sharing our work using CC licenses.

Are all uploads going to be tagged with an event specific tag?

Just posted a little melody here.

Hi all - I posted my pella and I noticed that it seems to automatically license my stuff as CC-BY-NC, or whatever the ok to use for any non-commercial use thingy (listen to the precision of the lawyer’s language..geez…) If I want to switch to CC-BY how can I do it?

`I tapped into something that seemed to work for my generation. I love the fact that some of the songs continue to survive, but I think that there’s a window of opportunity for a time when you really, really relate to your generation. And I think a lot of us pass through that as songwriters.’

Paul Williams 2007

What a fantastic idea! IT”S ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN lol

So strange to be away on my own inward journey of unknowns; Returning with this situation at the fore. I find it sickening, really.

GEMA is the German equivalent of ASCAP, most countries have such a self created self imposed unit now i believe.
Whilst in the main they do a reasonable job of policing the antique system of copyright and royalty fees there is a down side.

Only last week a client of mine took a video that contained a track i had written ( and been paid directly for ) to Germany to play on an exhibition stand over two days. On their return to the UK they found a bill from GEMA for around £100 claiming it was for a performance fee of the music i had written. There was no request for composer details of the track. My client sent it all to me thinking they were somehow liable. They were not and i emailed GEMA to that effect.

Now to send a bill like that meant they would have had to have had someone on the ground report they were playing a video with music and got their mailing address. If they had not questioned it with me they would have paid the fee like perhaps many companies already have done and those fees would have had no where and no one to be paid out to.

It’s all quite easy to understand really

All done - ready to upload - roll on 28th

My remix is just over 13MB (about 13.4) will I be able to upload it here for ‘Freedom to Share’, or will it need to be uploaded as an extended mix?
Thanks

I don’t have a mic or lyrics so can I enter with a collage from parts from our acapella database. Making a new text from words from diffrent users?

I’ve been away, and was sick the whole time. Knowing I was coming back to this to work on helped keep my spirits up.

There’s potentially a lot of fun to be had on this topic (and if a picture is worth a thousand words, a song must be worth a million!)

Mr. Williams is himself quite a talented composer. I think he should try remixing some stuff. In fact, I plan to (musically) suggest this to him! ;-)

I’m in for Stage 2 (and if I get high drinking erm, tea… I might just submit something for Stage 1). Just an idea: It would be nice to have the same Secret Mixter sign-up mechanics, i.e. sign-up, email confirmation with detailed instructions and reminder, a list of fellow mixters. But then this is kinda no-frills and it’s good enough.

Can I submit pellas that had already been uploaded to CCmixter previously? Specfically I’m thinking of Language of My Reality and More Than 2 Sides, both of which are relevant to this topic.

Thanks!
Colin

snowflake was kind enough to email me about this event and invite me to submit something. i had just been listening to some unused vocals of mine yesterday that i was thinking about uploading here, so the timing could not be more perfect!

I think my “We Are Connected” vocal line should work well behind pretty much any of the spoken word pieces I’ve heard on the Pellas page. If time permits, I might be able to add a lower harmony to this vocal, as well. If any of you producers are interested in that, contact me and I’ll see what I can do.

A big thank you to whoever put my reading in the featured pella list. I feel quite humbled and honored. And don’t feel the need to reply, this isn’t a grab for more attention, I’ve received more than my fair share already.

So this is awesome, at the time of this writing there are 12 attribution and 12 non-commercial pellas, a 50/50 split.

Really great pellas to thanks to everyone for all the great uploads.

Wow. This really is an incredible idea. I’ve been trying to figure out how to become involved in educating ASCAP. If I can come up with some words by the 14th, I’m in.

So has anyone else done their stage two? I got into it early, and now I feel like a kid who knows his birthday is 364 days away. ;-)

Alrighty! Here’s a little spoken word pella… This is such a great project!

LOL… I posted a rap… must’ve been those EZE and 2-Live Crew influences in my youth.

I’m suprised there isn’t more rap, or more things offensive. You guys are too nice :o)

The quality of what I’ve heard has totally blown my mind. Jacinda’s madrigal… that would be mind blowing just as words, and not as the most amazing choral I’ve heard in just about forever. Where else do you even hear anything like that?

If the remixes are of the artistic caliber as the poems and songs that have been submitted, my iPod’s going to explode!

The window to submit pellas is over — you have created and recorded inspiring works for this project. We bow to you :)

STAGE TWO IS ON!

The remixing stage has begun! It’s our goal that each Freedom to Share pella be included in a Freedom to Share remix.

So, remixers, will you please email admin (please include your ccMixter artist name) and let us know what pellas/stems you’re using in your mix (and multiple remixes are encouraged!)? If you’ve already uploaded your remix this will not be necessary. (Sorry we don’t have a more sophisticated way to do this yet). Upload between Aug 11 - 28.

Thank you in advance for helping us meet this challenge. Together, we’re demonstrating the power of Creative Commons :)

I wish there wasn’t a deadline on this. There are so many great pellas I just don’t know what to do lol

SUBMISSION DATE EXTENDED TO MIDNIGHT (PST) SEPT 5!

Upload your FREEDOM TO SHARE remix between Aug 18 and Sept 5!

Our community has just demonstrated the power of free speech and artistic freedom. Thank you.

I have a huge favor to ask of ya’ll — could please kindly record yourself saying the words ‘Dear Mr Williams’ for a little remix experiment i’m working on? i’d be truly grateful. ideally i’d have about 40 different voices saying the words ‘Dear Mr Williams’ - let me know if you can help me out!

i’ll need them in the next day or so if possible (sorry for the rush!) :)

thank you!

Spending some time this morning catching up with the remixes. Flooded with gratitude and appreciate for our amazing, creative, generous and talented community! And thinking we definitely have to have a dance party to celebrate our Freedom to Share!

Is is possible to mark, highlight or list the Freedom to Share pellas that haven’t been remixed yet?
Thanks, debbizo

Am I the only one who could use some extra time to finish mixing?

I am very happy to see the deadline has been extended! Thank you!

I’m really happy too! I wasnt happy with my Project yet, Im glad I can perfect it :D

Thanks for extra time.

note to self : check the website before staying up until 2:41am trying to finish a mix! :)

too funny…I’m doing a mix of OhComeTheeDown which I really need to keep working on as it’s currently about 2 minutes long!

I’d resigned myself to the fact that someone might have a very short attention span and like it :D

So now I even have time to wake up in the morning, hate what I’ve done and start over, lol :)

Sigh…..

Thanks for the extension though, seriously :D

Well seeing as I have absolutely nothing I am very happy to get the extra time——thanks much.

Despite all the fun we’re having (and I certainly am ), there are reminders every day of why we have to fight back at organizations like ASCAP. If you want to see what I’m guessing they probably have in their roadmap, check this out:

http://www.zeropaid.com/new...

That’s what the Czech Republic is doing. In order to license a work under CC, licensors will be forced to seek the approval of a collection society.

That’s pretty damn scary. Appoint the fox to watch the Hen House, and Creative Commons would be dead.

The irony of this approach is that, if you assert a Creative Commons license under the proposed law without jumping through these hoops, you may not have the rights to restrict the license (i.e. CC-A-NC.) This goes to show once again that CC licenses are as much to protect artists as to enable listeners and sharers.

Oh great so I can still join the party?

If you can’t tell… I’m having a blast with this Remix event. ;)

Thank you Mixters - your creations and voices are like a beacon of light in darkness!

You guys rock.

Hey everyone,

I’m working on grouping all of the remixes and pellas into tracks of about 10-14 each (by genre or style or theme), will then download and tag them all, then load onto thumbdrive into ‘playlists’ in these groupings to send to Mr. Williams at ASCAP. Am also drafting my cover lever to Mr Williams - not really saying much, as I think the music speaks for itself.

If anyone has any suggestions on songs to group together, that would be great! I’ve been listening to all the remixes and am so inspired by the creativity of everyone who participated.

Keep rocking :)

For what it’s worth, ASCAP announced a new US Legislative bill written by 7 US Senators to protect creators, but it appears their goal of outlawing/charging creative commons works is not in the bill.

http://www.ascap.com/playba...

The bill

http://www.govtrack.us/cong...

The danger is and what is odd is that there are already laws that cover this, (but it is election year for some senators so its free advertisement); because what happens sometimes is ASCAP may pay someone to amend the bill to change “without permission from copyright owners” to “without permission from copyright owners or copyrighted works for no consideration, (free)” at some point in the future.

This would be a classic legislative “pork play” where a bill is introduced for all the right reasons, but then special interests pay policy writers their own verbage to benefit them.

The result is anyone who would then challenge the bill, even with amened changes outlawing creative commons, would be associated with pirating and as a result, the special interest gets their advantage written into the bill and will always be on the political high ground.

“How a bill becomes a porkchop”

I guess it’s time to pull the Freedom to Share banner, so here are the links to the playlists for future reference.

Remixes
Pellas

I’m contemplating some ideas for an album or two from this project in addition to the cover letter I’m working on to send Mr. Williams. One is a broadway musical based on the songs and story. It could take me a while (never done anything like that before) and welcome input. I think exploration of the idea alone will be a journey, regardless of the outcome.

As far as Mr. Williams, after everyone’s input, I plan to send an email with a URL to the playlists, but would love to send him future curations too. There is so much great music here and I’ve found songs have different flavors based on groupings, order, etc. Thoughts?

Thanks again to everyone for creating music to support creative commons licensing, and thus ccMixter itself.

Could someone explain me what this all means, for all musicians & for those outside the US. I have tried to read and understand the bill but my english isn’t good enough to understand it. I’m capable to participate in the daily talk but this specific “law-language” is a bit to much for me.

Tnx