Anatoly Volynets

“ Free sharing of ideas plus honest attribution boosts businesses, competition and thus benefits everybody!
Gamma: Yes, and why would we look for anything else?
Beta: Well, Alpha can argue that profits are the reward for a businessman’s efforts and benefit the public in the end, but how then is creativity rewarded?
Gamma: By attribution, how else? You created it. People, who use it, honestly say so. Everybody knows you and your role in the invention and recognizes your impact. ”

“ Beta: So? Publishers know. The very moment a work leaves the house, it becomes available for everybody.
Alpha: Yes, and you don’t understand, Beta. That’s the catch—the artist loses it right away!
What Does an Artist Get? Delta: Careful there! To become famous for your work does not mean to lose it! It is the best thing that can happen to an artist!
Alpha: I love it! Everybody gets money, and the artist gets famous and hungry! ”

“ We believe that many people would not choose this ‘copyright by default’ if they had an easy mechanism for turning their work over to the public or exercising some but not all of their legal rights. It is Creative Commons’ goal to help create such a mechanism.
An idea is not diminished when more people use it. Creative Commons aspires to cultivate a commons in which people can feel free to reuse not only ideas, but also words, images, and music without asking permission—because permission has already been granted to everyone (...) ”

“ Beta: So, creativity is all the same wherever we come across it—in arts, technology, investigation, pure human communication . . . everywhere! The only things which change are the subject and the role of the outcome.
Teacher: So is creativity always the arrangement of known things in a new form?
Kappa: I also cannot believe how clear it is now!
Alpha: OK, you guys have come to the conclusion that copying is even more creative than producing the original work. ”

“ Within copyright, however, exposure of a work depends on only one publisher. Hence, the author is naturally forced to look for a big publisher, which means that copyright also enforces regular monopolies. This trend once again back-fires on the author, forcing him to bow down to the tastes of a big publisher in order to be published, promoted, and paid. Thus, the author’s dilemma in the copyright-driven environment is in fact: “more money means less creativity.” ”

“ That is, an essential aspect of human life is the struggle against adaptation, and we can blame culture for this detrimental feature. A real work of art, that very cell from which the ever-growing organism of culture is built, always takes us from our world (to which we have adapted) to a new one (where we have to adapt from scratch) . This requires us to be free and courageous to explore, to stand up and go, and reach new horizons. This is why all kinds of tyrants and tyrannies cannot come to terms with culture; they hate and fight it. ”

“ It becomes more powerful and valuable if it is heard. When you share an idea with someone or let someone copy your work, by the very nature of it you are not losing it but developing the idea or making the work known, and thus, you are becoming richer.
Moreover, an author, even in his inner dialog, while creating, is as much a receiver as he is a contributor. Author and humankind are always on par, and no one owes anything to the other.
That is why an author does not lose his work when it gets distributed, and the work does not lose value. ”

“ Discrepancies between Two Worlds
In our previous conversation we tried to clarify where the place for culture beyond arts is. We have found it everywhere. As soon as creativity and dialog take place, this place becomes one of culture. But what remains? Where does human life beyond culture belong, that is, beyond creativity and dialog? I believe that is civilization. Obviously, culture and civilization play different roles in our lives. ”

“ Thinking about the subject, I once surprised myself when I found that creativity may emerge even in the least creative case, such as production of some simple, well-known goods. When you produce something, you use materials, spend time, and implement ideas. Even in a case where you produce, or participate in the production of, an article created by others, your own ideas are still utilized. Why? Because creativity is a necessary element of any human activity unless this activity is totally automated. Even in less creative processes, you can and normally do use your own ideas. ”

“ First, if no rights are relinquished, all the restrictions in the use of a work shrink the market for it, put its author in a totally dependent position, limit the work’s spread, and twist its normal function in culture and society. Furthermore, a work which is restricted from use by other authors is actually excluded from normal cultural development until the restriction is lifted. Although we discuss copyright here, in reality, it does not matter what kind of restrictions are applied to a creative work: censorship or publishing monopoly or patent or other exclusive rights. ”

“ Culture and Humanity We concluded in the very beginning that every work of real art actually creates a new layer of humanity. Let us list a few points which have been developed thus far and some of the obvious offshoots thereof:
If a work of art represents a new world and this new world speaks to us, then it invokes new feelings, new language to express ourselves, new views on our relations with one another, etc. Thus, artwork creates new layers of the human way of life or, in other words, new insights on humanity itself. ”

“ It’s all different! In a movie, you see what you see. In a book, you can’t see it but have to imagine all of the heroes, and landscape, and action. Everyone imagines it in their own way! It’s like everyone is reading a different book although we are all reading the same Adventures of Tom Sawyer. And when you listen to music, you don’t even know whether you think of it the same way the composer does. How can you say it is all the same?
Teacher: If I ask now, why do we read books, watch movies, listen to music, will your answers be different? ”

“ On the contrary, under copyright the author is pushed to follow best-selling examples, that is to say, to plagiarize. Under Authoright, as under Self-tuning, an author is not limited in learning from others. On the contrary, under copyright, an author cannot freely learn and build upon the works of others. He is pushed to artistic naivety. Under both copyright and Authoright, an author can legally protect his name. ”

“ Beta: It is simple. If they both do the same work in terms of art— namely, engage their readers in the events they portray—then the public gets involved in the same manner. The public fools itself about the real value of a fictitious story and the real value of a newspaper story. Kappa: They all are fools, ha ha ha. But listen, Beta, you contradict yourself. You said a few minutes ago that the two stories have different relations to reality, didn’t you?
Alpha: The fiction writer can write about his dreams, what the world could be like. The journalist writes about reality. ”

“ General Idea The world of culture differs from the physical one. It functions under different laws, depends on different circumstances and driving forces, and develops different powers. Ancient Romans said Natura parendo vincitur, which literally means “Nature obeying one wins.” In other words, we get the best fruit from nature if we act in accordance with its laws. Likewise, we can get the best fruit from culture if we act in accordance with its laws and do not project upon it laws that govern civilization. The quintessential natural law of culture is Ultimate Freedom. ”

“ We identify with the heroes; we love and hate; we get scared, triumphant, sad, happy, impatient, avenged, etc. It is as if we are living and acting there—we take whatever happens there close to our hearts. Again, their world becomes, in a sense, ours. Second, it is a different and strange world. That is why it is interesting to us.
And so, here we can sum up the first definition of a work of art: it is the paradox of a new, strange world accepted as our own—an alter ego of our world. ”

“ Every author has the eternal and inalienable right of attribution. An author may sell his works, but not his “rights.” A publisher or any other entity may pay an author for the right to be named his sponsor. No company, organization, or group entity of any kind or nature other than the actual author of a creative work may be considered the author. The source of a work must be attributed in every public use of the work. Any sponsor of an author, a single work or a single publication deserves attribution. ”