LESSIG Blog, v2

I was incredibly happy to read that Creative Commons and the Authors Alliance have released a tool (cool URL: rightsback.org) to enable authors to recover the rights they had transferred to someone else. This was a project started a decade ago. It was hard then. I am very proud they have delivered it now. 

Copyright is an incredibly interesting law of property, chock through with weird exceptions and protections. One of those protections is that a creator can get a second chance with his or her copyright. If you created something, and then transferred your copyright to someone else, even though the transfer might say “this is forever …” you have the right to get it back. 

But (surprise! surprise!) it turns out it is INCREDIBLY difficult to exercise that right properly. And many creators find it just way too difficult (read: expensive) to exercise the right. 

The tool that CC/AA have created tries to make it as simple as possible. The tool walks you through the steps necessary to determine whether you have a right, and when you need to file. The tool doesn’t do the transfer, but it does help you see whether you are entitled, and if you are, it simplifies the process of making that happen. 

The purpose of copyright law is to help creators. You wouldn’t know that by looking at the way the law actually works. But where the law clearly benefits creators, we should do whatever we can to support it. 

Wonderful work by two great organizations. If it were my job to do so, I’d suggest you help support them either here (CC) or here (AA). But as I am just a fond supporter myself, I’ll leave that up to you.