This episode, we do something quite different and check out some of the best the world of Creative Commons music has to offer.  So grab your latest craft project, kick back and enjoy the show.

I decided to let the music speak for itself and leave the ranting to the writing, so what follows is the ideas behind this podcast.  I’m very much interested to hear what others think on these issues.

xox
Rayna

And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

If that doesn’t work you can download the file directly from here.

We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an ad-free world sounds like.

OK here’s the spiel!

The idea behind Creative Commons or as it is otherwise known as ‘copyleft’ was about trying to find a way for creators of content to protect their work that wasn’t as rigid as the copyright system.  The copyright system is very much geared around stopping people from using your ideas.  Yet there were tons of creative people out there who did want people to use their ideas, they just wanted to be able to put some conditions on the use.  CC is based on the understanding that knowledge isn’t created in a vacuum.  As artists, creators, designers, engineers etc, our knowledge is built on and informed by centuries of knowledge.  The CC movement uses the slogan “standing on the shoulders of giants” which acknowledges that all the creativity, intelligence, technology and risk taking that exists in our world wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for sharing and collaboration.

The notion of copyright, or to claim an idea as something which is exclusively owned, is a very modern phenomenon and for many creators is simply incompatible with the idea that creativity is a community based activity.

The copyleft movement arose out of the free software movement as a response to the hyper patenting that was happening by certain sectors of the software industry (yes, looking at you Mr Gates).  A lot of the stuff that was being patented was not being patented by the person who invented the software.  As most of the ideas were generated by communities of engineers and mathematicians.  The patents were often being granted to the person who applied first.

Software is effectively a pile of equations.  Technically, you’re not supposed to be able to patent a mathematical equation (or nature for that matter, but that’s not stopped Monsanto who want to ‘own’ the food we eat).  But somehow certain people were able to convince the American Patent Office that they should grant patents to software.  And as anyone in the Open Source movement will tell you, this is why proprietary software is so expensive and often inferior to the community created software alternatives eg Firefox (pattern here!).

The same problem applies to the music industry.  While people have been making music and sharing that music for millennia, it has only been recently that the concept of ownership has been applied to music.  The justification for this is of course to ensure that musicians can make an income out of their creativity. But we all know this is rarely the case.  Because the musicians themselves rarely own the copyrights over their music.  It is the recording companies, or as is often the case with very popular songs, private individuals.  Music is not seen as a part of our living culture, rather a commodity that can be bought and sold.  This approach to music creation means it’s about ‘investing’ in the music that will create the most profit for the holder of the rights, not creating awesome music.  This is the main reason there is so much crap music on our airways.

With the introduction of the internet and all the wonderful tools modern technology has to offer it is now totally possible for a musician to make, produce and distribute their own music. It’s still hard work and the profits are still hard to come by, but if we as consumers make an effort to be more conscious about how we buy our music, we could make this chart look a lot nicer for musicians.

(via information is beautiful)

And of course this line of thinking brings me to talk about craft.

While I think it is wonderful that there are so many people out there making, buying and selling craft, I don’t think it’s so wonderful that so many people are adding copyright licenses to their work.  Sadly, I think too many people are doing this because it’s what everyone else does, not because they’ve really thought about it.

Copyright as a way of protecting your work is a very rigid system, and doesn’t allow much flexibility for other people to share, and build upon, your ideas.  And arguably copyright is not that useful a tool if someone does rip off your ideas.

The list of examples of big companies ripping off indie designers is probably 10 times longer than both of my arms combined.  And most of those designers would have a copyright on their work.  But did it do any good stopping them being ripped off?  Clearly not.  So why is it useful?  Well, if you do decide to take someone to court over a copyright violation it is of course helpful to have copyright in the first place.  But you also need to have the legal funds and sadly not many of us have massive bank balances.

What has been more effective recently is the use of the internet in the naming and shaming of copyright violations.  Being named and shamed by big name websites can be enough for violators to pull the offending products.  But of course this doesn’t cover lost income.  But certainly if enough of us decide to boycott companies that rip off indie designers, they’ll certainly lose some.

But back to Creative Commons, if we, as indie designers and makers use Creative Commons licenses we still retain the ability to legally protect our work.  CC licenses are based on copyright, the difference is

“Creative Commons licenses give you the ability to dictate how others may exercise your copyright rights—such as the right of others to copy your work, make derivative works or adaptations of your work, to distribute your work and/or make money from your work. They do not give you the ability to restrict anything that is otherwise permitted by exceptions or limitations to copyright—including, importantly, fair use or fair dealing—nor do they give you the ability to control anything that is not protected by copyright law, such as facts and ideas.” (source)

This means if someone uses some of your work to inspire some of theirs they have to source you as opposed to a copyright license where they’d have to pretend they’d never heard of you.  Which is a bit sad really.  Because wouldn’t you rather hear about the work you’re inspiring? And more importantly, wouldn’t you like your customers to hear about it too?

So, as a cross stitch pattern designer, I put a Creative Commons license on all of my work.  My license says you can’t re-sell my ideas but you can change them so long as you share them with the public under a similar license.  This means you can buy my pattern and share it with your stitching group (something most cross stitch designers HATE).  I also allow people to sell finished pieces that result from the sale of my patterns so long as they’re hand stitched and they acknowledge me as the designer.  If I had a simple copyright on my patterns, people wouldn’t technically be able to do that.

On a philosophical level, CC licenses allow me to proudly put my work into a community based sphere while still enabling myself to earn a (very) small income from my work.  I get the best of both worlds because I can design, make and sell like any other crafter but I also get to develop creative relationships with my customers – whom I can now treat as friends and colleagues.

As you can see CC enables non-heirarchical relationships.  And I reckon that’s what craft is all about, don’t you?

Copyright is something worth paying attention to if you like to stitch and sell things out of books (or write books for that matter).  I’ve seen tons of people that sell stitched pieces from a popular pattern books.  I’m pretty sure in most cases the author doesn’t mind but if one day their publisher decided they did mind (since it’s usually the publisher that holds the copyright), it would be within their legal rights to sue all of those makers for damages.  That would be both sad for the makers and the authors.

The other big issue that copyright and craft raises of course is if we have the right to copyright craft.

Craft is part of our culture.  And the massive body of ideas, skills, designs and techniques that make up what we call ‘craft’ is the product of millennia of practitioners sharing their work.  It is in fact, our cultural commons.  We all own it, so who says some of us have the right do draw a fence around some of it and call it ours and then charge others for the right to use it?

I would argue we most certainy don’t.  But it is happening, and it’s not just techniques, styles and designs that are being copyrighted, patented and trademarked, but even very common terms and sayings within craft practise including this most famous example.

I hope the craft community can have more discussions around these issues so we can educate ourselves about what this all means.  And more importantly, make some decision about how we, as a community, want to treat and protect the knowledge that we, as a community, hold and own.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

More resources:

creativecommons.org
archive.org
freemusicarchive.org
Phlow Magazine
aaahh records
Beep! Beep! Back up the truck

Track listing:

1. Princess Melodiae – Aleksi Virta (…Meets Torsi)
2. The Confrontation – Crookram (Through Windows)
3. Bag of Nothingness – Comfort Fit (Bag of Nothingness)
4. Les Mains Sales – Dustmotes (Beats for the Subverted)
5. Grizzly – The Banjo Consortium (Fall Is For Lovers)
6. Bracken Bed – Malty Media (Nivel Del Mar – Sounds for Soulsurfers)
7. A Heart That Beats No More – Ryan Harvey (Rise Like Lions)
8. Rise Like Lions – Brenna Sahatjian (Rise Like Lions)
9. Pirates – Entertainment For The Braindead (Roadkill)
10. Treehouse Lullaby – The Wind Whistles (Animals Are People Too)
11. Making Your Own Stuff – The Wind Whistles (Animals Are People Too)
12. Resolutions – Entertainment For The Braindead (Hydrophobia)
13. Nightlighter – Big Blood (Big Blood & the Bleeding Hearts)
14. Childhood Friend – Emilie Lund (Emilie Lund EP)
15. That I Love You – Het Gloren (Acrobaat)
16. Barefoot Girl - Twizzle ((Nivel Del Mar – Sounds for Soulsurfers)
17. Satisfied Mind – My Bubba & Mi (How It’s Done In Italy)
18. Through Windows – Crookram (Through Windows)

Enjoy
xox

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

by Sublime Stitching.

Rayna has a great chat with Faythe about the film, making zines, the GFC, and yes, Paris Hilton comes up again!  Check out the Handmade Nation website and blog and Flickr site to see pics of the Aussie tour and of course, the Paris Hilton pics. A MASSIVE big thanks to the awesome people at in.cube8r Gallery in Smith Street for helping to make this interview happen!

The track off the podcast is Craft Talk by Leslie Hall.  It’s Craft-tastic! Check the video:

Next up we bring back the zine review section and review:

The Thrity Crafter from Apartment Cat
Sharp and Pointy – a craft zine by mir UPDATE – you can buy it here!
Outdoor Knit: the graffiti knit kit from Outdoor Knit

And a bit of an update on the Craft Cartel. Check out the Fashion Jam pics here, read about Trash Bag Rehab here, and the Melbourne Social Forum here, and the City Press workshop here!

Phew!

And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

If that doesn’t work  you can download the file directly from here.

We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an add-free world sounds like.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Betsy has a great big long chat with Rayna about her new book, consciousness in the craft world and Paris Hilton.  Yip, Paris Hilton.  You have to listen to hear what that’s about. The three links as discussed in the interview are: d.d.i.y. don’t do it yourself by Lisa Anne Auerbach from the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. The Story of Stuff The Gas Station Project by Jennifer Marsh And you can win a copy of the book!  Just send the answer to the question in the podcast by March 31 to go in the draw to get your own copy of this gorgeous book. And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here. The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

If that doesn’t work (and it might not, we’re still having issues with the plugin that runs these things…) you can download the file directly from here.

We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an add-free world sounds like.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The first half of the ‘cast is a talk by Rayna and it’s titled ‘The Fabric of Resistance’. This podcast is kinda like Radio With Pictures ’cause you can follow along with the talk with the slideshow below

The musical interlude is a track called ‘Memories’ by Shorti RV (whom I can’t find anything about online, I’m guessing she’s Sydney-based, if anyone knows anything about her can you leave a comment? xox)

The second part of the show is the talk by Dr Joyce Stalker from the University of Waikato, Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. Dr Stalker talks about fabric crafts and political change. Don’t have the slideshow online sorry, but hopefully will in the future so we’ll update this when happens.

And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an add-free world sounds like.

p.s. we’re having some serious issues with the plugin that manages our podcast so if you have any problems downloading this please let me know.

Ace.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We got some ace music from Boil Up and the super awesome and currently touring North America, Blue King Brown!

Our zine review this week is Havoc from the Huon Valley Environment Centre (download and donate!!!!) and the Weld Echo zine from the Black Sassy Arts Collective.

The websites to check out are:

• Crafting A Green World
• Heavy Petal
• Fabric of Resistance wiki

We also talked about a couple of events. First was ‘the revolution will be handmade: political fabric crafts and the struggle for social justice’ a public meeting that we’re organising on the 4th of September. It’s at 6.30 pm level 1, 27 Hardware Lane, Melbourne.

And we’re organising a crafty bike competition in collaboration with the Melbourne Bicycle Film Festival. If you’re keen to get involved get in touch. And we’ll be running a market during the Festival so start making your bicycle themed crafts all you makers out there!

And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

Putting this podcast together is a labour of love but it does take a bit of time and effort, so if you like what you hear, feel free to chuck some dosh in our virtual busking hat. We’ll love you for it!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Only time for one track this episode and it’s ‘Rebel Girl’ by Bikini Kill.

This episodes zine review is actually a magazine review of World Sweet World.

Events coming up:

Craftea Chats brought to you by Polka Dot Rabbit.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

Putting this podcast together does take a bit of time and effort (especially this episode!) so if you like what you hear, feel free to chuck some dosh in our virtual busking hat. We’ll love you for it! (and it might help Casey get home…)

And as always we love to hear from YOU! So drop us a comment or email and don’t forget to check out the archive.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This week on the Craft Cartel podcast we go on a crafty travelling adventure to Uluru and check out some of the amazing Indigenous Craft collectives:

Maruku Arts

Kaltjiti Arts

To understand more about the NT Intervention and how to support the resistance to the invasion, please visit the National Aboriginal Alliance and ANTaR.

First track is ‘Steven Wallace, Waiata Tangi’ by Anatonio Te Maiotia from the album Tu Kotahi: Freedom Fighting Anthems supporting those affection by the October 15th Raids.

We interview Sharna Nolan from the seriously awesome Skateistan project which is working to teach kids in Kabul how to skateboard. If you like the sounds of this project please make a donation to the project, and tell your friends!!

Second track is ‘There is a War going on for your Mind’ by Flobots

We also delve into the issues surrounding female body representation in the craft world and the current trend of vacant googly eyed big headed freaks. We’d love to hear what you think!

This episodes links to check out are:

The Groundswell Collective
Make Art Like You Care
Anti Advertising Agency
ArtThreat
Rebel Art
Just Seeds

Notices

Free Tibet XStitch Comp
Pop Goes The Needle
Hoopla #2 (coming VERY soon!)

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

Putting this podcast together does take a bit of time and effort (especially this episode!) so if you like what you hear, feel free to chuck some dosh in our virtual busking hat. We’ll love you for it! (and it might help Casey get home…)

And as always we love to hear from YOU! So drop us a comment or email and don’t forget to check out the archive.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

So it’s an extra special blood, sweat and tears episode!

This week we have a big chat about craftivism, with a focus on the different ways of defining craftivism. We’re really interested to hear what you think about this topic, so drop us an email, comment below, or write about it on your own site. We also put a call out for a special super hero name, you better listen to find out what that’s about!

We have a nice long chat to the lovely Ms Cate at Polka Dot Rabbit about the Buy Nothing Craft Month.

Plus we bring you another zine review of the Fight Boredom zine by Hello Amber.

This weeks links to check out are:

Revolutionary Knitting Circle
Little Red Blog of Revolutionary Knitting
Cross Yr Stitches
Torrance Knits
You Are Beautiful
Finally, we talk about the Free Tibet Xstitch comp that you can all get involved in.

Hopefully it’s all come together properly but if you hear any missing bits or anything else out of kilter, please let us know.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

Putting this podcast together does take a bit of time and effort (especially this episode!) so if you like what you hear, feel free to chuck some dosh in our virtual busking hat. We’ll love you for it!

And as always we love to hear from YOU! So drop us a comment or email and don’t forget to check out the archive.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This episode we talk the politics of buying handmade stuff.

We also talk to some of our cartel members about the items they put together for our St Patricks Day anti-colonial market.

We interview Kirsteene from Scrumptious Productions

The first of our series of craft zine reviews looks at Guerilla Craftfare

This weeks websites and events to check out are

buyhandmade.org
bigboxreuse.com
sewgreen.blogspot.com
melbournesocialforum.org
ACDJ Localisation Forum

Subscribe and download today!

Now we’re both getting perilously close to needing real jobs so if you love the cast please throw some coins in our virtual hat.

We LOVED hearing from you all last episode. If you have any comments, suggestions, complaints, craft zine or website recommendations. Or if you make subversive stuff and you want to join the Craft Cartel, drop us a line. Or please comment below.

The podcast archive and market info page is constantly being updated, so don’t forget to check it out.

xox

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This episode we talk about the Cartel and where it all began. We talk to Melanie from Satchel. And share some fun and subversive crafty projects for you to get involved in. Plus a bit of music and a lot of laughs. Download and subscribe now!

We’re having a special launch party tonight at the market so come along and check out some cool crafty goodness. See the market blurb below…

Like what you hear? We’re planning a show every fortnight or month depending on how busy we are. Mortgages don’t pay themselves you know. Help us not have to work for the man and flick us some coin to help with the costs of producing the ‘cast. Think of it as online busking!

Craft Cartel Night Market – IRA Solidarity
‘Cause drinking beer and wearing green is so passe

This week is a VERY SPECIAL night for the craft cartel. We promised global domination and tonight we deliver, with the launch of our very own PODCAST! Come along to score your limited edition 1st episode on CD and find out how to subscribe and get every single episode delivered straight to your little mp3 player. Public Transport will never be boring again for our lucky listeners!

And sadly this will be our last market at Section 8, yip we’re on the move. So stay tuned for further details. And come along tonight to say a big cheers to Section 8 for being lovely to us for all these wonderful nights of subversion.

It is also St Patricks Day so we’re having a special little celebration for all things anti-colonial. The challenge is on for our stall holders to have at least one item designed to bring down an empire.

PLUS we have the wonderfully awesome Rapskallion back to tantalise our ear buds. Did you hear them a couple of markets ago? They were fantastic!

And of course the bbq will be cranking with our spunky chef spreading the love. The words getting around about the tucker so you better to be there early. Which of course gives you more time to peruse the market and share your hard-earned pennies with our amazing local crafters (who really love your support).

Did you know that buying local handmade goods will save the planet from imminent destruction?

See you there
xox

P.S. If you want to wear green and drink beer, we won’t object, in fact, you’ll be joining us!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.