Steven Johnson coined the term “mob spots” to describe a group creating political spots using simple desktop tools. Jason Kottke suggests campaigns create spaces filled with seed material specifically so people can voluntarily create material for the campaign. We have dipped our toe into the community creativity pool with our Moving Image Contest and most…

Magnatune is an amazing new record label that is completely rethinking old music industry business models. They offer music from a wide range of genres that you can download, stream, and listen to. And, like computer shareware, you buy stuff you like only after trying it out first. The label splits profits with artists 50-50…

A piece on digital music from the Sunday New York Times mentions Creative Commons and quotes our chairman.

We want you to make a remix of Bm Relocation Program’s song, Superego Exchange to put on the next Creative Commons promotional CD. Send us your remix, and we’ll feature the best entry on the CD. Superego Exchange is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which means you can make derivative works and remixes,…

Salon has two good stories this weekend on mash-ups (also known, across the pond, as “bastard pop”): 1, 2. These older Salon stories on the same subject, from 2002 and 1998, provide a couple of nice reference points. If this is all just a trend, it’s a sure and steady one. Read about Creative Commons’…

iCommons has expanded to Brazil. The Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Law School, in Rio de Janeiro, will lead the effort. FGV and Creative Commons also plan to begin work with the Brazilian Minister of Culture, world-renowned musician Gilberto Gil (!), to use the licenses to expand access to Brazilian culture. Read the first porting (for…

Win a Computer – A DV Cam – An iPod Contest to create a 2-minute presentation will demonstrate “open-source messaging” Palo Alto, USA Creative Commons announced today the launch of the GET CREATIVE! Moving Image Contest. Entrants are invited to create a 2-minute presentation in the animation or moving image format of their choice that…

On Saturday, we posted about the Creative Commons licensing used by Scott Andrew and Shannon Campbell on their collaborative music project. They ended up creating two songs by Sunday morning and released them under a license. Late Sunday night, Scott posted a link to the first derivative work made from it, a re-recording by previously…

A helpful reader spotted this great letter-to-the-editor in the Portland Mercury. It’s from a member of the influential punk & new wave band of the late 70s and early 80s, Gang of Four, but it could’ve been written by us. Copyright is the issue! Our archaic copyright laws allow artists, musicians, and other creators to…

We’ve previously featured Scott Andrew, a musician and blogger, talking about his Creative Commons licensed songs. Last year, he noticed a song by Shannon Campbell that he liked, which he began adding to, rearranging, and remxing. He emailed it to her, she liked it, and he posted it on his site (this was done before…