“It is their choice, not ours, not YouTubes.”
The above quote is from Cory Doctorow and BoingBoing outraged! which is an article about Cory’s reaction to Viacom demanding all material they own be removed from YouTube. Viacom owns MTV Networks, Comedy Central, BET, VH-1, and many other media properties.
Don Dodge confuses creator and owner. Don’s mistake may seem subtle, but it is an important one to clarify. Most creative work we consume is not owned by the creators. It is owned by companies that produce or manufacture it. Copyright is a system originated and protected by these manufactures. It is a system that I think still has value, but these manufactures are often extremely territorial and predatory.
Still, it is important to respect the owner’s intention, even if we disagree with the system.
And there are a lot of problems with the system. What can be copyrighted? How similar can someone else’s work be? How long is a work owned?
Thankfully the Creative Commons offers us all real alternatives in the existing system. The Creative Common’s Attribution Noncommercial license is a much more sensible way to blank copyright your work, if you are not comfortable with the more liberal Creative Commons licenses.
Updated 2007-02-06: Changed my recommendation from Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike to Attribution Noncommercial license. As they are already licensing your work noncommerically, Share Alike seems like little value.