Day 19 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge and the letter S.
Thanks for Sex, Song, Sharing and Sita Sings the Blues
In February 2009 Nina Paley, creator of Sita Sings the Blues, changed the details of her creative commons license and wrote this letter to her audience re:copyright and creative commons. In it she suggests culture could be financed in the same way open source software is funded. She has a powerful, open-hearted faith in her work, and the generosity of its audience:
There is the question of how I’ll get money from all this. My personal experience confirms audiences are generous and want to support artists. Surely there’s a way for this to happen without centrally controlling every transaction. The old business model of coercion and extortion is failing. New models are emerging, and I’m happy to be part of that. But we’re still making this up as we go along. You are free to make money with the free content of Sita Sings the Blues, and you are free to share money with me. People have been making money in Free Software for years; it’s time for Free Culture to follow. I look forward to your innovations.
How about you? Would you donate to a film like “Sita Sings the Blues”? What do you think of Nina’s suggestion that free culture follow free software?
Do you publish your blog under creative commons? If you do, why did you make that choice? or are you a copyright person and why?
Related articles
- Make Art, Not Law (ninapaley.com)
- #013 Sita Sings the Blues w/ Mendi Menefee (steadydietoffilm.typepad.com)
- Overthinking Sita Sings the Blues (transpersonaltheatre.wordpress.com)
- CC Filmmakers and Festivals Change the Rules (creativecommons.org)
- Sita Sings the Blues (gabriellevizel.wordpress.com)
- Blog discoveries #AtoZchallenge (ambrozya.wordpress.com)
Alison Amazed 
Thanks for the link! I like many forms of copyleft. I am honestly unsure if I would donate to the project – I might rather buy one of those sage-with-a-fiddle t-shirts or other related swag from Paley herself.
Not sure I would donate to the film, but I like Nina Paley’s conviction and belief in her work, and more so, belief in her audience appreciating the value of her work.
Yeah, it takes a great deal of faith to put something out there & say “I know this is awesome enough that even if I offer it free, people will support me.” I wish I had that kind of faith in my work and people generally.
Exactly! and that is what impresses me most – that faith.