Uncopyright

See addendum 9.12.2009

To get right down to it, I completely release everything I write on this site into the public domain (unless otherwise noted). That’s the just of it. Do whatever you want with my essays and articles. Reprint them on your blog, print them out for use in your classroom, sell them in book form, rewrite them, whatever. I would ask that if you do any of this, please at least give me credit and throw a link back to here, but y’know, your call.  If you want to know more details on the why of this, read on.

In 1940 Woody Guthrie wrote his most famous song, “This Land is Your Land”, something of a protest song. Of it he said:

“This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”

And that pretty much sums up my thoughts. I wanted to write the things on here and that’s about all. Profit, that great ghost of capitalism, might be nice, but it’s not the real intention here. I just want to share my thoughts, ideas, and words, and I think that can better be accomplished by making my work free instead of restricting it with a copyright, hoping to one day make money off of it. 

Instead of trying to explain my thoughts better, let me link to the main inspiration for this (tho there were others). Go read what Leo of ZenHabits has to say on the issue. This guy is way more successful that I could ever hope, blogging full time and making a handsome living from it, and he still gives it away. Awesome!

To sum up:

Articles free. Print out and give away. Credit and link here is nice, but not required.

Nothing else to see here, move on.

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(after thought — wow, only 28 years? How things have changed, eh? It’s something like life plus 90 years now, or “forever minus a day” according to the late Sonny Bono)
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Addendum 8.12.2009

Now that I’ve started adding more photos, I need to clarify this. The above still applies fully to anything I write on this page. My writing on here is completely free. My photos, however, are copyrighted. However, I fully believe in free information, and so all photography by me is licensed them under the Creative Commons. What this means is that you are free to download any photos of mine if you want, you can print them off, you can give a copy to your friend. But you cannot alter them, use them to make money (such as publish them in a magazine you sell, sell them, or take credit for them. So if you do republish them, you need to give me credit and throw a link back here or to my flickr account.