All tracks on this site are released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
What does this mean?
The Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license permits you to freely download, modify and share these works with others under the following conditions:
Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Noncommercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
(from: creativecommons.org)
Why should I care?
Intellectual property is a term that refers to films, music, writing, and any other creative works that are not inherently physical. It's common sense that creative works need to be protected from misuse. If you write a song, for example, a car company can't simply use it for their TV commercial without your permission. The same goes for an author stealing your book idea, or a radio station playing your latest song for their own profit. But creative works also need to be free. Creativity looks to the past for inspiration, and builds on previous generations of works that have already been produced by a long line of artists, musicians, writers and so on. This is how our culture has always worked, and is a necessity for a rich, continually evolving creative landscape.
Unfortunately, we live in a world of outdated copyright laws. Instead of protecting artists and encouraging creativity, it stifles and chokes new work through unreasonable restrictions on intellectual property. Major labels and production houses now dominate the music and film industries, and because of their ceaseless desire to maximise profits, and the sheer political power of their lobbyists, intellectual property laws now serve only to enrich this handful of mega-corporations. Groups like the RIAA suing college students for millions of dollars for downloading music in the US, and constantly pushing new draconian methods of limiting customer rights while keeping prices too high are manifestations of this misplaced power.
Creative freedom necessarily implies the freedom to build upon past works, to remix the old and shape it into something new. Only by enabling this freedom can we ensure that our creative landscape keeps thriving, rather than withering into a profit-oriented pop culture persiflage where money, not passion, is the real driving force. (If you still think this isn't a real threat, listen to the most recent batch of "Top 40" bullshit playing on your local radio station.)
This is why you can share, remix and listen to all of these songs as much as you want. Please help spread the word and keep information free!
Fabian Hummel, April 2009