The Creative Commons Licence The idea of Creative Commons is that artists should be able to easily make their work available for others to rework, remix or interpret as they wish without falling foul of current copyright legislation. Using the licence, which has been drawn up over 15 months by some of the world's finest legal minds and then simplified for ready comprehension, artists can specify whether they want to be credited in remixes, whether such reworking can be used for profit and so on. For example, we are able to use the pictures on this page as it is not for profit. Some artists are embracing this new movement, which is twinned with the changing technology of how we consume artistic work. The Beastie Boys, Chuck D and David Byrne have released material under Creative Commons licences, and the career of novellist Cory Doctorow was launched by releasing his debut novel under the licence. The idea also has been wholeheartedly embraced by the Brazilian government under the guidance of its Culture Minister, Gilberto Gil, himself a musician. In addition, the BBC has announced that it is making its archive of old programmes available for free under a similar licence arrangement. The UK version of these licences is due to be published very soon, but the idea came from the availability of free software on the internet, subsequently being adapted for artistic endeavours. It is ideal for beginning artists who want their work to reach as many people as possible while still making a living. It remains to be seen whether the movement will gain enough grass-roots support for major record labels and similar corporations to take notice. The Creative Commons movement is fiercely opposed to large companies using technologies like Digital Rights Management to manipulate what consumers can do with their purchases. Similarly, however, they do not support piracy or the wholesale theft of working artists' livelihoods. The idea is to make it easier for the artist to specify what they want to be done with their work, without hiring expensive copyright lawyers. Remix Reading The Reading arm of this campaign was launched at 21 South Street by a wealth of local talent including: Desdemona, Yimino, Roland Chadwick, Meme, Rhythm Works, Summerteeth and more. There were also poetry readings, drumming sessions, artists remixing each other's work, an art exhibition and demonstrations of open source software such as Linux and the Firefox web browser. The uniting factor in this event, which was attended by over 200 people, is that all the work is available on a Creative Commons Licence. Remix Reading have a series of events lined up, and a growing archive of freely available work by local artists on the website - www.remixreading.org | 
