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Hi John,
As you know, we’re celebrating our 20th Anniversary.
We are excited to share that you have raised over $4,500 in contributions since the launch of our Better Sharing campaign in June. We continue to be humbled by your generous support as we get closer to our Better Sharing fundraiser on July 19th ([link removed]) .
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The last two weeks, we’ve explored ways opening up knowledge can help us solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges from the Climate Crisis to “fake news” and financial challenges facing journalists around the world. Today, we look at the complicated landscape of social media and the possibilities and limitations of CC licenses in promoting “remix culture” on popular platforms like Tiktok.
Last year, TikTok ended Google’s 15 year reign as the world’s most used web domain with over one billion active users to date. Its popularity is due to a variety of factors but what really sets it apart from other digital platforms is its promotion of remix culture.
Like CC, remixing is at TikTok’s core. TikTok provides a platform for self-expression with tools that allow users to create and remix images, audio, and video content.
Remixing and mashups are nothing new, but their popularity amongst younger audiences on TikTok have spurred a major resurgence.
However, TikTok users confront age-old copyright constraints that limit their ability to sample sound recordings and reuse video clips.
In 2020, music industry experts reported that around 50% of the music on the app was unlicensed, leading TikTok to sign an agreement with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) to offer users select copyrighted audio from a pre-approved list within TikTok’s audio library, most of which includes music from signed, mainstream artists.
While this was a win for big music labels, it left behind small, independent artists and creators by excluding them from royalties and leaving them vulnerable to unattributed remixing of their content by TikTok users with larger followings. This has been a central focus of Black creators who went on strike last year to protest a lack of credit for their work across the platform ([link removed]) . On top of this, most users lack the copyright basics to know when, why, and how to credit an original artist. This has left many pioneers of remix and mashup culture at greater risk of both unintentionally committing and falling victim to copyright infringement.
There are many issues and questions here outside of CC’s scope. What we can say is CC licenses were designed to enable the kind of creative remixing seen on TikTok. Currently, CC licenses aren't compatible with TikTok's terms of use. We wonder what possibilities might open up for artists, musicians, and creators if they were. What do you think?
Join us next week where we’ll take a look at our longer-standing Open Education program, highlighting how we’ve used CC licenses to broaden access to Open Educational Resources across community colleges in the United States.
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In the meantime, here are some ways you can support our Better Sharing campaign ([link removed]) :
🙏 Donate
* Make a donation ([link removed]) (consider becoming a monthly donor!)
* Fundraise for us by starting a Facebook fundraising page ([link removed])
* Would you prefer to send a check? See our Donor FAQ ([link removed]) for other ways to make a donation.
📹 Share
* Share why you support the open movement or how CC has impacted your work on social media, with the hashtags #CCTurns20 and/or #BetterSharing and tagging @creativecommons ([link removed])
* Share our Creative Commons’ Open Minds ([link removed]) podcast
Thank You!
The CC Team love_cc
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