Why Common Domain is a good idea for poets
The old
problem: You just discovered such a lovely poem on the web and want to share
with your friends on your favorite heathen list, forum, newsgroup or kindred.
Oops, you canīt - youīd violate copyright. Pity.
Or the
other way round: Youīre the proud poet of a swell piece and want to get lots of
people to read it. You can post it on your homepage (provided youīve got one)
and hope someone stumbles on it; or post it to a forumīs poetry corner. But
itīs stuck there - copyright.
Now
imagine being able to let your poem travel freely round the web, from forum to
forum, from list to list - passed on by people who love what youīve written.
AND still keeping your proper copyright notice and credits, without having to
worry about losing your ownership or renown.
Thatīs
what Common Domain is there for.
You keep
your usual copyright and property rights. But you entitle people to pass your
work around without breaking the law - provided they keep to some simple rules,
that are stated in a Common Domain Document License. They have to append this
License to your poem when they pass it on, or provide a link to a page with the
License. Thatīs all.
You can
design your own Document License, or you can use or modify the one created by Dave
Haxton (here) or mine, which is adapted
from his.
Technically,
"Common Domain" is a sub-form of the "Open Content" idea.
Another
form of Open Content is the Public Domain, which you all know. The drawback is
that Public Domain means you drop your copyright completely, and people may e.g.
change the wording and content of the poem.
In short, Common Domain helps:
- your poem to get around
and meet people, and thatīs what you wrote it for, no ?
- to retain your proper
rights and credit for your work
- and to make people happy
because they can share your poem while not having to worry about breaking your
copyright.
So, why not ?
Michaela
Dave Haxtonīs article about Common Domain and Asatru
See this Creative Commons Deed (off-site) to which anyone may link - very convenient !