Steiger in BW on Joi Ito and Creative Commons
BusinessWeek’s Kenji Hall recently sought Reuben’s input on Joi Ito’s still-relatively-new role as head of Creative Commons. Reuben has known Joi personally and professionally for some time, and we’re especially happy to participate in conversations about online IP given the July launch of our IP-protected celebrity virtual goods business, Virtual Greats.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Well, it’s good that Reuben got the exposure here, but…what are you saying, exactly?
Joi Ito recently called himself, while speaking on a video-taped panel, “a venture communist”.
And he’s not kidding. This model is not one that works for most businesses. Creative Commons is
basically a clever shill to get you to give your works away for free, and try to attain Zen-like
detachment about the fact that others may gain commercial benefit.
But…it’s not a way for YOU to make money. Among the elaborate CC licenses, there isn’t one that says
“You can copy this if you pay me on PayPal, click here.” CC *doesn’t* make it easy for artists to use these licenses *to make a buck*. And in that sense, it really is a kind of ruse, trying to ween people away from capitalism to idealistic communist-like Internet utopias where they are berated and hectored and told that they should “get a different business model” and “generate the 8 generatives” by…customizing. Or…selling a t-shirt on top of a music clip. Or something.
Do you have some notion of *giving away* your IP_protected celebrity virtual goods business? Isn’t the idea to sell them? I truly wonder why you are celebrating Joi Ito and CC given that your model appears to be very different.