If you've navigated around this website, you've probably noticed the following on several pages around the site.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

What does this mean?

With the launch of this website, I have decided to release my content under a Creative Commons license.  Unless otherwise specified, my music, photos, sheet music, videos, podcast, writing will be "Some Rights Reserved" instead of "All Rights Reserved."

This logo and accompanying text means that I'm making the content of this page available under a creative commons license.  Essentially I am giving the world "free reign" to do whatever they want to with my copyrighted works, as long as those uses meet the following criteria:

• You can not use my work for ANY commercial purpose, whether or not to expect to make money from it
• You must ALWAYS attribute me (and my website) on the work
• If you make a derivative work (like remixing a song), you must attribute me on the derivative work
• If you make a derivative work, you must make the derivative work available under a creative commons license as well.

Wait.  What?  What can I do with your stuff?

This means that, if you download an mp3 or sheet music, you can copy it and give it to whomever you want.  If you want to remix a song, you can, as long as you attribute me as the author of the original work and make it available under creative commons as well.  You can put the files on Bittorrent, add them to your YouTube video, or sing them in a church choir.

Okay then...What CAN'T I Do?

You can't take credit for my work.  You can't use my music or photos on your website if you or your company use that website to make money.  You can't record any of my song to put on an album that you will ever sell to anyone.  Any commercial use, whether or not it makes money, is strictly prohibited.

What if I want to use something for a commercial purpose?

That's great!  Please use the contact form above to contact me, and we will work out a reasonable licensing agreement.  Please note, there are myriad ways to detect if people are using my copyrighted content without my permissions, and being technologically saavy, I know many of them.  If I find people using my content in ways that do not fit within the creative commons license I've selected, then I will pursue legal action.

Does ______ count as a valid Creative Commons use?

If you are unsure whether or not a usage counts under Creative Commons, please use the contact form above to let me know.

Why Are You Doing This?

I could write a treatise on this question, and some day I may.  But for the time being, suffice it to say that the copyright law in this country (US) is completely and totally broken.  It locks up artistic and creative pursuits in a way that prevents them from being shared and enjoyed.  Photos without a viewer, music without a listener, or words without a reader cease to be art.  Since I no longer require the money generated from my artistic pursuits to pay my bills, I'm far more interested in letting people enjoy the work I do than I am in nickel and diming my fans to death.  Plus, it allows my listeners or viewer to also act as advertisers as they freely spread my work around the internet to friends and family.

That being said, I am not interested in my art being used to make someone else rich unless there's something in it for me...thus the restriction on commercial uses.  If you're going to use my art to make money for yourself, you dang well better save some for me, too.

For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://www.creativecommons.org