4. Except as otherwise provided herein, you hereby grant to us for the Period [two years]: (a) All the rights that you own or acquire publicly to perform, and to license others to perform, […] in any and all places and in any and all media, […] any part or all of the Works [“the Works” being all music composed by you during the two-year “Period,” and prior to the Period except those in which there is an outstanding grant of the right of public performance to a person other than a BMI-affiliated publisher].

I’ve long been a distant admirer of the Creative Commons movement and mashup culture. (I was totally gonna vote for you!) Now that I am preparing to (finally) officially share my own art, I am wondering how to balance my priorities of gaining financial independence and supporting freedom for small broadcasters and culture-jammers.
After reading this, I am hardly more educated about how a new artist ought to effectively utilize Creative Commons in tandem with traditional capitalist mechanisms for “intellectual property.” I will continue to examine the license texts and FAQs on the CC website, along with essays by John Perry Barlow, Eben Moglen, and Mat Callahan.
I’m using this initial period of “social distancing” to kickstart my music career. Having scrawled my intent in this seemingly stable corner of cyberspace, we can look back in another 12 years, and laugh at all some of the madness.
Thank you!
Timothy Obialo
Lead Performer, Andalite Vaudeville
Executive Curator, Kronos Expo 2032