Page 300 - Making things move_ DIY mechanisms for inventors, hobbyists, and artists

Chapter 9 Making Things and Getting Things Made 277

FIGURE 9-8 Closed and open sharing models

Digital manifestation / non-physical thing

Code
Sounds

Music (composition)
Recipes
Magic tricks
Art (object + concept)
Perfumes
Films Photos
Can be News Can’t be
protected Fashion protected
Writing Scientific discoveries
Logo design / branding
Games Natural
phenomena
Music (recording)
Hardware
Architecture
Industrial design

Physical thing

Some things can be protected by copyright or patents, and some can’t. Figure 9-8
(inspired by a graphic in a talk by Johanna Blakely at TEDx USC; see www.boingboing
.net/2010/05/26/why-the-absence-of-c.html) provides an overview of the situation.
However, there is a growing open-culture movement of people and organizations
who choose to share their work in less restrictive ways.

If you’ve ever used Mozilla’s Firefox browser, you’re familiar with the product of an
open source software project. For digital files like photographs and online content,
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves
collaboration. Using Creative Commons (CC) licenses on your work (instead of © for
copyright) can allow you to share, remix, and reuse other people’s work legally. If you
try to upload a 3D model to Thingiverse (www.thingiverse.com), you’ll get to a section
where you can choose a CC license for your work to encourage sharing.