DIY licensing is the future?

Cory Doc­torow has a thought-provoking piece out there about intel­lec­tual prop­erty rights and the clusterf*ck that is dig­i­tal licens­ing today.

If you’re run­ning an enlight­ened com­pany, you might have a Cre­ative Com­mons license hang­ing out there for non-commercial, “fan­nish” uses.…

But some­where between Cre­ative Com­mons and full-blown, lawyerly license nego­ti­a­tion is a rich, untapped source of income for cre­ative peo­ple and firms with port­fo­lios of iconic mate­r­ial. To cash in, you just need the courage to let go of a lit­tle control.

The idea, though not a huge depar­ture from Cre­ative Com­mons, relies on a “choose your bat­tles” approach and it makes quite a good deal of sense.  The relin­quish­ing of con­trol might be tough for some, but Cory lays out the frame­work of rights man­age­ment for the rest of us.  And see­ing as how “the rest of us” makes up the stag­ger­ing major­ity of con­tent cre­ators these days, this approach could be a step towards turn­ing “pirates” into partners.

via Inter­net Evo­lu­tion — The Big Report — Dig­i­tal Licens­ing: Do It Your­self.