Giving Creative Works Away (Under License)

First, this isn't about "giving away" in the sense of somebody else owning what you've created. It's about letting them use it without paying for it, but you still "keep" it in the sense of retaining your legal rights to it.

There are actually many reasons why creators might want to release their works under open licenses, and more than one reason may be applicable to any particular work and creator.

Some reasons include:

• A desire to build name recognition, and related goals such as building an audience, developing a larger base of users of a technical product, etc.
• Cross-promotion of a for-profit work; for example, a musician could release one song from a new album under an open license as a way to promote -- at little or no cost -- the rest of the album.
• An altruistic desire to share wealth, help people, promote education, etc.
• An artistic desire to share ideas and creativity.
• A profit motive to reduce the revenue of a competitor by reducing the user base of a similar product which the competitor sells.

This is just a quick list of potential motivations for releasing a creative work under an open license, and there are probably many others.

It's pretty well established that people will perceive that something has more value if it costs more, even when there's really no extra value provided with the higher cost. It's not hard to find stories of products or services that sold better when the price was raised. So, when it comes to something given away for free, people will often assume it has lower quality. Again, it's not always true, but it's easy to assume. So, why look closely at open-licensed, freely-obtainable creative works?

Well, the most obvious reason from the "consumer" perspective is that such creative products don't cost anything to obtain. It's pretty hard to beat the price of zero! There are also other valid reasons, most or all of which apply to a wide range of creative works, including software, music, photos, videos, and more. These reasons include:

• A desire for more variety than can be found with the commercialized versions of such works.
• A distrust regarding the corporate sources of similar, but commercial, works, whether about a specific issue such as system security or personal privacy, or just more generally about large, "face-less" businesses.
• The lack of availability of a commercial alternative -- some "markets" are too small to be served by profit-seeking organizations, but they can still be served by individuals or small groups of enthusiasts.

Again, these are just some common reasons, and there are probably a number of other reasons too.

Open licensing is a complex topic, and some see it as an attack on their values (whether about capitalism, the value of their works, or whatever else). As a result, there are some common "myths and misperceptions" about open licensing.

Some have come about by accident, and some have been put forth intentionally by those who do not want to see any further growth in support for open licensing. Regardless of how they came about, allowing them to stand unchallenged will only prevent you from understanding why you might want to use open licenses. Here are some that should be addressed:

• Myth: If I publish one of my works under an open license, I have to publish all of them that way.
  Truth: This is no more true than commercial publishers needing to price all of their products the same price. If you own the copyright, it is up to you to control how your work is licensed. You can certainly have a mix of open-licensed and "traditional" (commercial) works.
• Myth: There is no way for me to make money if I publish my works under an open license. People who support open licenses just want to steal from artists and other creators; they don't think artists deserve to be compensated for their work.
  Truth: This is also not true, although making money from an open-licensed work may require more creativity. Methods for capitalizing on an open-licensed work can include things like customization, support services, cross-promotion of works that aren't open-licensed, cross-promotion of supplemental products (tangible or otherwise), subscriptions, and more.
• Myth: Open licenses are an attack on copyright laws and treaties.
  Truth: This is not only false, it makes no sense, because open licenses require the force of such laws and treaties to be meaningful. Violation of an open license is just as much of a copyright violation as distributing unauthorized copies of music from a commercial artist.
• Myth: Only low-quality or obscure creative works are published under an open license. The "good stuff" comes from commercial sources, carries a price tag, and is advertised on TV, in newspapers, etc.
  Truth: There are many low-quality and obscure creative works that come from commercial sources and carry price tags. (Look for the discount bins at your local music, software, or video retailer!) There are also high-quality products published under various open licenses. Consider Linux, which has enough of a market share to apparently be of some concern to Microsoft. Or consider OpenOffice.org (a high-quality office productivity suite), Celestia (a fun and educational astronomy program that is a fast hit with children), Firefox (a high-quality Web browser), The GIMP (a powerful and easy to use image/photo editor), or Audacity (a full-featured audio file editor). This is just a small handful to demonstrate that the "good stuff" can be open-licensed. And those were just examples in software, and didn't include the many other types of creative works that can be released under an open license.

Open licensing won't work for everyone, or for every circumstance, or for every creative product. However, there are definitely situations when open licensing provides an innovative solution to a problem, or will otherwise meet your needs or desires, either as a creator or as a consumer. It will be to your benefit to take the time to learn about the various open licenses available.

If you obtain a work that is released under an open license, you should definitely take the time to understand the freedoms given to you, and any responsibilities that come with that freedom, according to the terms of the license.