If you are wondering why the Creative Commons 3.0 license is gaining in popularity, it's because of things like this: the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) collects royalties for an estimated 350,000 artists for public performance of their songs. Concerts, DJ gigs, etc.
Now, they are suing AT&T, claiming that the ringtones their customers use qualifies as a public performance and they want cash for it. Yes, even if it is a ringtone made from a song you legally purchased and are using privately. Because someone else may hear it when it rings, the logic goes, it is a public performance, so cough up. The EFF, which has to be wondering what the world is coming to, has already filed a defensive brief to protect AT&T from the Content Mafia's latest strong arm tactic.
I would love to be on an endless gravy train like that. I'm just an indie game producer and comic guy, who specifically points out in his copyright notices that Fair Use is allowed and that, when you buy one of my games, you can put it on as many computers as you own. Maybe that's why it took me fifteen years to become a comic writer and am still languishing in obscurity of game designers -- I'm not greedy enough.
