The Butt Ugly Weblog

Creative Commons -licensed mobile videos

Digitoday reports (in Finnish) that Elisa [a Finnish operator] has started to distribute Creative Commons -licensed material on a mobile TV channel for test users.

Of course, being CC -licensed, Elisa does not have to pay any license fees to Kopiosto (the Finnish copyright organization) or anyone else, which probably is the real reason behind this move. There is already quite a lot of decent quality CC-material out there that's not getting the publicity it deserves, so this kind of a move is likely to bolster goodwill on Elisa, and more public recognition to Creative Commons.

(Though, my guess is that someone is going to inhale a stack of peas on this one and start screaming that corporations supporting free content means that artists will starve to death [starvation in general is a very big problem in Finland] and demand banning of anything that's freely available, and that corporations should "observe their responsibilities towards Finnish artists" and support them instead of some "crap, second-rate free content just because they're being greedy." The concept of sharing seems to go above some people's heads... There is nothing wrong in sharing your work for free, as much as there is nothing wrong in asking for money from what you do. Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages, and in the end, the customer should be allowed to decide.)

Update: Elisa spokesperson says "users can freely download and share the content without fear." That is also a reason why looking into CC-licensed content is a good idea: if you use only that, you don't need to implement costly and complicated Digital Rights Management solutions which usually kill all usability. You can even play up the fact that "it's okay to share this" to gain extra publicity. Especially for a pilot, it makes little sense to spend all that money.

Update2: Nope says in the comment section: "Just in case somebody was wondering, the project website is at http://www.indica.tv/ where anyone can also submit their own video clips at http://www.indica.tv/cc/." Thanks!