The Letter and Intent of Creative Commons Licensing
I subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog, and I find his opinions very thought-provoking, I might add. I especially like his rants on usability and good versus bad experience design.
This morning, I read a post by him about one of “his” books being sold on Amazon. To explain why the “his” is in quotes, here’s what happened: Seth wrote the book in 2005 and licensed it under a specific Creative Commons (CC) license1. The book was and is still available for free from Seth’s website as an unlocked PDF. A book publisher, who had nothing to do with Seth directly, went ahead and printed the book which is now available for $9.99 at Amazon.com2. Seth is now pissed off at someone doing something like this, and is encouraging the readers of his blog not to buy that book.
I think that the publisher’s action is not only within the letter of the law, but also within the intent of the Creative Commons license Seth used. There are more than one CC licenses, and the specific one that Seth chose allowed free copying of the book, as long as authorship was properly attributed. Although there exists a Creative Commons license that disallows commercial usage, Seth chose not to apply that clause (which, by the way, he now considers was a mistake back in 2005.) This leads me to conclude that the publisher was offered those rights by Seth himself.
I can understand Seth’s getting pissed off because someone else was making money off his effort, but at $9.99, I think it nicely covers printing costs and perhaps makes a little profit for the printer3. If I already had the PDF eBook and still wanted a paper copy, I’d be super-willing to pay $9.99 for simply the printing, binding, cover, etc. I see nothing wrong with the printing of the book.
Although I admire Seth’s decision to license his work under a CC license, I feel he is going against the intent of the license by exhorting his readers not to buy a work that was permitted expressly because of that license. If he really wanted to follow the spirit of the Creative Commons, he should have provided a link to the book on Amazon and encouraged his readers to buy a paper copy in addition to the free eBook they might already have downloaded. His current actions undermine the spirit of openness that the original grant of the license had fostered.
1. I also use a Creative Commons license for this website and for all my non-academic writing.
2. I do not know the publisher and I do not earn any money as commission or from Amazon referrals. Just to make it clear, you know.
3. Maybe more. I don’t know much about the printing industry.
Everyone’s An Expert (Just Not On Copyright Law)…
D’oh! Originally uploaded by Mark McLaughlin. Interesting dust-up brewing this morning. In one corner is Seth Godin. In the other? “BNPublishing.” (Whoever they are.)
Trackback by The Social Customer Manifesto — February 10, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
I am also a big admirer of Seth and his work, but I agree with your post completely. I’m afraid Seth’s just wrong on this one. The publisher is completely within their rights as I understand them under the CC license. I’m no lawyer, but I am pretty sure that Seth’s argument that publishing a book with his name on it somehow violates trademark is wrong too. Properly attributing the work to him is a requirement of the CC license.
I also publish a substantial amount of my work under Creative Commons Licenses and any work I don’t want other people to commercially exploit gets put under a non-commercial CC license.
The real lesson I suppose here is that when publishing under CC make sure to understand and carefully choose the license that you publish under.
Comment by Andrew — February 10, 2007 @ 4:29 pm
Is Amazon Selling Pirated Books?…
Whenever I see a title “Please Don’t Buy This …” I pretty much expect just the opposite: the author would use the tricky title to promote his product. Not Seth Godin. When he says Please don’t buy this book, he really means …
Trackback by Zoli's Blog — February 10, 2007 @ 9:15 pm
Regarding footnote three, there should be a serious profit margin on a successful book with absolutely no editorial costs. Printing is cheap–writing (and the various forms of editing) is the main cost of book publishing. The editorial and marketing (another serious consideration) are pre-paid on this one. I’d bet not more than dollar or two to print, especially something this short. Probably even less. BN is probably selling it to Amazon at 60% of list price (9.99).
Even knowing that, I have to agree with you. Wonder if “BN” will keep printing and selling it. They have every right to, if your note that he’s released it without an NC restriction is correct. No do-overs for that sort of thing. Also, the book appears to be printed by an on-demand printer Lightning Source. An interesting “dilemma”–will be interesting to see if CC/Lessig Intellectual Complex weighs in.
Comment by marginally inside the book business — February 11, 2007 @ 5:40 am
Just read the free “book”…which rapidly devolves into a grotesque sales pitch for Godin’s service Squidoo. Primary documents first….
Comment by marginally inside the book business — February 11, 2007 @ 6:03 am
Capitalizing on Creative Commons – relaying a warning from Seth Godin…
I mailed Seth Godin today, on prompt from Amazon on his new book Everyone is an Expert, that in fact launched as an ebook under Creative Commons licensing: I was wondering what was new about it. It was not new….
Trackback by 43 Tools - the Personal Experience — February 11, 2007 @ 11:47 am
[...] available, go ahead and use it.” This is a difficult concept for many people to grasp especially when they see it in action. But such use can increase the pace of [...]
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