Foreword
Three years ago, just after I was hired as CEO of Creative Commons, I met with Cory Doctorow in the hotel bar of Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel. As one of CC’s most well-known proponents—one who has also had a successful career as a writer who shares his work using CC—I told him I thought CC had a role in defining and advancing open business models. He kindly disagreed, and called the pursuit of viable business models through CC “a red herring.” He was, in a way, completely correct—those who make things with Creative Commons have ulterior motives, as Paul Stacey explains in this book: “Regardless of legal status, they all have a social mission. Their primary reason for being is to make the world a better place, not to profit. Money is a means to a social end, not the end itself.” In the case study about Cory Doctorow, Sarah Hinchliff Pearson cites Cory’s words from his book Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free: “Entering the arts because you want to get rich is like buying lottery tickets because you want to get rich. It might work, but it almost certainly won’t. Though, of course, someone always wins the lottery.” Today, copyright is like a lottery ticket—everyone has one, and almost nobody wins. What they don’t tell you is that if you choose to share your work, the returns can be significant and long-lasting. This book is filled with stories of those who take much greater risks than the two dollars we pay for a lottery ticket, and instead reap the rewards that come from pursuing their passions and living their values. So it’s not about the money. Also: it is. Finding the means to continue to create and share often requires some amount of income. Max Temkin of Cards Against Humanity says it best in their case study: “We don’t make jokes and games to make money—we make money so we can make more jokes and games.” Creative Commons’ focus is on building a vibrant, usable commons, powered by collaboration and gratitude. Enabling communities of collaboration is at the heart of our strategy. With that in mind, Creative Commons began this book project. Led by Paul and Sarah, the project set out to define and advance the best open business models. Paul and Sarah were the ideal authors to write Made with Creative Commons. Paul dreams of a future where new models of creativity and innovation overpower the inequality and scarcity that today define the worst parts of capitalism. He is driven by the power of human connections between communities of creators. He takes a longer view than most, and it’s made him a better educator, an insightful researcher, and also a skilled gardener. He has a calm, cool voice that conveys a passion that inspires his colleagues and community. Sarah is the best kind of lawyer—a true advocate who believes in the good of people, and the power of collective acts to change the world. Over the past year I’ve seen Sarah struggle with the heartbreak that comes from investing so much into a political campaign that didn’t end as she’d hoped. Today, she’s more determined than ever to live with her values right out on her sleeve. I can always count on Sarah to push Creative Commons to focus on our impact—to make the main thing the main thing. She’s practical, detail-oriented, and clever. There’s no one on my team that I enjoy debating more. As coauthors, Paul and Sarah complement each other perfectly. They researched, analyzed, argued, and worked as a team, sometimes together and sometimes independently. They dove into the research and writing with passion and curiosity, and a deep respect for what goes into building the commons and sharing with the world. They remained open to new ideas, including the possibility that their initial theories would need refinement or might be completely wrong. That’s courageous, and it has made for a better book that is insightful, honest, and useful. From the beginning, CC wanted to develop this project with the principles and values of open collaboration. The book was funded, developed, researched, and written in the open. It is being shared openly under a CC BY-SA license for anyone to use, remix, or adapt with attribution. It is, in itself, an example of an open business model. For 31 days in August of 2015, Sarah took point to organize and execute a Kickstarter campaign to generate the core funding for the book. The remainder was provided by CC’s generous donors and supporters. In the end, it became one of the most successful book projects on Kickstarter, smashing through two stretch goals and engaging over 1,600 donors—the majority of them new supporters of Creative Commons. Paul and Sarah worked openly throughout the project, publishing the plans, drafts, case studies, and analysis, early and often, and they engaged communities all over the world to help write this book. As their opinions diverged and their interests came into focus, they divided their voices and decided to keep them separate in the final product. Working in this way requires both humility and self-confidence, and without question it has made Made with Creative Commons a better project. Those who work and share in the commons are not typical creators. They are part of something greater than themselves, and what they offer us all is a profound gift. What they receive in return is gratitude and a community. Jonathan Mann, who is profiled in this book, writes a song a day. When I reached out to ask him to write a song for our Kickstarter (and to offer himself up as a Kickstarter benefit), he agreed immediately. Why would he agree to do that? Because the commons has collaboration at its core, and community as a key value, and because the CC licenses have helped so many to share in the ways that they choose with a global audience. Sarah writes, “Endeavors that are Made with Creative Commons thrive when community is built around what they do. This may mean a community collaborating together to create something new, or it may simply be a collection of like-minded people who get to know each other and rally around common interests or beliefs. To a certain extent, simply being Made with Creative Commons automatically brings with it some element of community, by helping connect you to like-minded others who recognize and are drawn to the values symbolized by using CC.” Amanda Palmer, the other musician profiled in the book, would surely add this from her case study: “There is no more satisfying end goal than having someone tell you that what you do is genuinely of value to them.”
This is not a typical business book. For those looking for a recipe or a roadmap, you might be disappointed. But for those looking to pursue a social end, to build something great through collaboration, or to join a powerful and growing global community, they’re sure to be satisfied. Made with Creative Commons offers a world-changing set of clearly articulated values and principles, some essential tools for exploring your own business opportunities, and two dozen doses of pure inspiration. In a 1996 Stanford Law Review article “The Zones of Cyberspace”, CC founder Lawrence Lessig wrote, “Cyberspace is a place. People live there. They experience all the sorts of things that they experience in real space, there. For some, they experience more. They experience this not as isolated individuals, playing some high tech computer game; they experience it in groups, in communities, among strangers, among people they come to know, and sometimes like.” I’m incredibly proud that Creative Commons is able to publish this book for the many communities that we have come to know and like. I’m grateful to Paul and Sarah for their creativity and insights, and to the global communities that have helped us bring it to you. As CC board member Johnathan Nightingale often says, “It’s all made of people.” That’s the true value of things that are Made with Creative Commons.
Ryan Merkley CEO, Creative Commons