I’m sure I’m not the only one seeing the (unintentional?) irony in distributing exclusively in MP3, a patent-encumbered format which is useless to anyone on a free software system. I see common ground between the free culture and free software movements, and I think it’s a shame to let that go away untapped by only catering to those who have either paid the patent license fee or those running proprietary software (where, ostensibly, the fee is paid for you).

Rob Simmons: If Happy Birthday had been “an integral part of our culture” “for more or less a century”, then that is effectively saying that over a century ago, someone had the guts to write the song (or apply new words to an extant tune) and repeat that song heavily. We can’t believe that there was an acceptable window of time in which one was allowed to make things that can become “an integral part of our culture” and now that window is closed, hence “it’s flat-out silly” to try to do something we can all share and build upon. I don’t think it’s wise to believe that some elements of our culture are somehow beyond change.

The interesting question before us is do we have the guts to take on such a huge challenge and help educate people to better understand why we want a more collaborative culture.

It’s exactly because it’s flat-out-silly that it had a chance to rich a wider audience and the media.

Can you imagine what an outsider of CC could think while reading the gift page ?

– First he learns these copyright problems about the “Happy birthday” song and he will probably think it’s unsane.

– Then he reads the fact provided by CC:
1252 $ for 564 dowloads
For copyright => 564*8.5 cents = 48 $ (only 4 %)
Meaning something like 96 % profit for CC !!!

He will probably be reassured to see that an unbalanced copyright is so profitfull for non rights holders. No reasons here to “spread” or make an article in the media.

– Finnaly I doubt he will download the song and make a donation. It’s not his birthday and nothing can concerne him here.

Unsing subtle communication is great when most people don’t miss it while reading to quickly, I think “simple” is better than “subtle” to reach a wider audience and sometimes why not fly-out-silly (isn’t it what this unbalanced copyright is?)

PS: Here’s an anim a friend sent to me today. It’s flat-out-silly and it’s spreading like mad but it still have a message (also I’m not sure they cleared all the rights …;-) )
storewars

And I think it’s flat-out silly to say “Let’s have a CC contest to rewrite Happy Birthday!!!” The point is that Happy Birthday as we know it is an integral part of our culture, and has been for more or less a century – IMHO we shouldn’t be rewriting all of our culture that isn’t CC licensed. And yet it is not free, and this celebration demonstrates how hard (Lessig had a struggle!) and how time-consuming (two months!) it takes to actually comply with our terrible copyright system in doing something as simple as singing “Happy Birthday” on the internet…

These guys are selling a document “proving” that “Happy Birthday” is in the public domain (somehow :rolls eyes:) and here is an editorial on the various allegations that “Happy Birthday” is in fact P.D. Now, without regard to whether any or all of this is accurate, wouldn’t it be worthwhile to find out? And who is in a better situation to do this type of research and give this issue the type of attention that it deserves than the esteemed professor??

Just a thought.