Uncopyright: what it is and why I use it

viewpoint

Oct 23

Written By Jane

My blog and all my content are uncopyrighted (since September 2011).

That means I’ve put it all in the public domain and released my copyright on all these works.

There is no need to email me for permission—use my content however you want! Email it, share it, reprint it with or without credit. Change it around until it suits your purpose. It’s OK.

Attribution is appreciated but not required.

I’d prefer people hire me to work with them, but if they want to share my work here with friends, they have every right to do so.

Why I’m releasing copyright.

I’m not a big fan of copyright laws, especially as they’re being applied by corporations, used to crack down on the little guys so they can continue their large profits.

Copyrights are often said to protect the artist, but in most cases, the artist gets very little while the corporations make most of the money. In the 11+ years I’ve done this experiment, releasing copyright has not hurt me, the creator of the content, a single bit.

I think, in most cases, the protectionism that is touted by “anti-piracy” campaigns, lawsuits, and lobbying actually hurts the artist. Limiting distribution to protect profits isn’t a good thing.

The lack of copyright, and blatant copying by other artists and even businesses, never hurt Leonardo da Vinci when it comes to images such as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, or the Vitruvian Man. It’s never hurt Shakespeare. I doubt that it’s ever really hurt any artist (although I might just be ignorant here).

And while I’m certainly not da Vinci or Shakespeare, copyright hasn’t helped me, and uncopyright hasn’t hurt me. If someone feels like sharing my content on their blog, or in any other form for that matter, that’s a good thing for me. If someone wanted to share my blog post with 100 friends, I don’t see how that hurts me. My work is being spread to many more people than I could do myself. That’s something to celebrate, as I see it.

And if someone wants to take my work and improve upon it, as artists have been doing for centuries, I think that’s a wonderful thing. If they can take my favorite posts and make something funny or inspiring or thought-provoking or even sad… I say more power to them. The creative community only benefits from derivations and inspirations.

This isn’t a new concept, of course, and I’m freely ripping ideas off here. Which is kinda the point. In fact, I’ve taken Leo at his word, and have nearly completely duplicated his uncopyright.

Counter arguments.

There are a number of objects that will likely be brought up to this idea, and here are a few of my responses:

1. Google rank will go down. My understanding is that Google penalizes pages that have exact duplicates on other sites when it comes to PageRank. But with the other work I’ve done on SEO for my site, I’m not convinced that someone duplicating my work has affected my ranking.

Unlike Leo’s vision (he doesn’t care a bit about SEO), SEO has become increasingly important to me. This is due to my job as a website designer. It’s my job to ensure that I know how to create the best opportunity for my clients to succeed with their SEO. This said, I keep up with SEO on my site as a learning and growth opportunity. But I haven’t lost one minute of sleep over whether someone duplicating my work has affected my standings with Google.

2. You’ll lose revenues. I don’t sell my content. I sell my design work. Theoretically, they could find paying clients from the content I provide. Thes folk could duplicate the content on my site, but they couldn’t sustain my brand for an indefinite length of time. My brand is me. Just like your brand—your primary selling point for your business—is you. Copying me is not necessarily going to do you any favors.

3. Who knows what people will do with your work? Someone could take my work, turn it into a piece of crap, and put my name on it. They could translate it with all kinds of errors. They could… well, they could do just about anything. But that kind of thinking stems from a mind that wants to control content.

I am of the opinion that you can’t control it, and even if you can, it’s not a good thing. What if someone takes my work and turns it into something brilliant, and becomes the next James Joyce? Or more likely, what if they take the work and extend the concepts and make it even more useful, to even more people? Release control, and see what happens. People are wonderful, creative creatures. Let’s see what they can do.

4. What if someone publishes a book with all your content and makes a million dollars off it? I hope they at least give me credit. And my deepest desire is that they give some of that money to a good cause.

5. But… they’re stealing from you! You can’t steal what is given freely. I call this sharing, not piracy.

Effective as of September, 2011.