First of all, this thread aims to increase people's awareness of alternatives - not to argue that these are (by default) the ethical, most desirable, or even better option. Secondly, I want to highlight the difference between music which is available for free listening, and music which is available for free redistribution and usage. Music of the former type is widely-encountered on the internet - on sites such as soundclick.com, artistserver.com and other sites. In certain respects, these sites are a positive development in my view, but they are still affected by fetters which prevent the full potential of the information age from being realised. So it is the licenses associated with the latter type - music which can be redistributed freely and played anywhere - that I want to draw people's attention to. I'll give four examples (..this list was compiled in haste - feel free to correct any errors): Creative Commons Sharing License - the most restrictive; allows redistribution and public performance (e.g. webcast), but no commercial use, or derivative works Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License - somewhat less restrictive; you are allowed to make derivative works, and commercial use of the work, as long as you give the original author credit (=> 'Attribution'); derivative works must be distributed under an identical license (=>'ShareAlike') Creative Commons Attribution License - same as the above from what I gather, except without the 'ShareAlike' stipulation Free Art License - allows one to copy, distribute, interpret and modify a piece of work. Perhaps I should apologize, as I haven't read this license fully - but I think you get the picture. I think that most of the above license can probably be used for graphic art, and other works, as well as music. Sites where you can find music released under these licenses include AGNULA Libre Music and musicians.opensrc.org (..I'll add more if I find any). Please consider spreading awareness of these changes in the world of music! In particular, it would be beneficial if you could politely suggest these license to any musicians you know - they're the ones with the ability to enrich the repository.
