To share the film will benefit me as a filmmaker
I’m privileged to have found my dream job. I make documentaries because that’s what I love doing and I think stories, occasionally, can change peoples’ perception of the world. But also to pay rent, travel and afford my great workaholic slacker life. The more people that see my work, the greater the impact of the film. The more people discuss the future of the internets the better for us all. By sharing the film for free I’m also spreading my name, which I believe will help me finance my future films. Furthermore I believe the film will sell better if I make it available on the many platforms people want to consume it on – even if I give it away for free.
You don’t need permission to copy and share my film. But you can’t make money off it
The documentary TPB AFK:The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard is a film about internet culture – and inevitably about sharing information online. The nature of the problem in the documentary is the paradigm shift of the internet, where the possibility to share information is out of sync with the right to share information. By using a Creative Commons license I am making it legal for the audience to copy and share the film.
Creative Commons licenses are created to help people share culture on the internet
Creative Commons does not substitute Copyright, it is based on Copyright. Instead of saying “All Rights Reserved”, it gives creators a tool to say “Some Rights Reserved”. This allows musicians, writers or filmmakers like myself to decide how people may use their work by choosing between a few licenses. I have chosen the license Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs which means that people can copy and distribute the film for non commercial purposes, as long as they attribute it to our production company Nonami and don’t remix it.
When partnering with 6 TV-networks it was important to secure that competing channels weren’t allowed to air the film. The Non-Commercial clause solves that. The clause is problematic however, since it also automatically classifies many small independent blogs that use google adwords as commercial. Therefore I have added a clause that let’s me waive the Non-Commercial term on the condition that such a waiver does not infringe the broadcasters TV-rights.