Suggested Works

From Freedom Buyer

This page can be used to suggest and discuss works to be targeted for liberation. To find out how to liberate a work, please see the How to Liberate a Work page.

Initially, works that are likely to be relatively easy to liberate should be targeted. Then, if the system is successful, more difficult works should be targeted.

Contents 1 Criteria for easy works to liberate 2 List of suggested works 2.1 Text 2.2 Speeches 2.3 Music 2.4 Films 2.5 Software 2.5.1 Games

[edit] Criteria for easy works to liberate

The main factor for whether or not a particular work will be easy to liberate is how much money the copyright holder is making from it at the moment, which is likely to be through sales and licensing for other uses. The next biggest factor is the popularity of the work, as the more popular it is, the more people are likely to want it to be liberated, so the more people are likely to contribute funds to do so. Generally, popular works make less money the older they are.

Works may also be easier to liberate if the copyright is owned by the original artist or author, as they may be more supportive of our goals, and it's likely to be easier to deal with an individual than with a business, especially one which is still very active with newer works. Functional works also may be easier to liberate as they're of use to a larger number of people, and many people believe it's more important for this type of work to be free (as in freedom). However, artistic works often have the advantage of having more dedicated fans, which could be helpful to the campaigns to liberate them. Works which have a large number of different copyright holders, such as collaboratively-written software are also likely to be difficult to liberate, as it involves dealing with more people.

Suggestions for easy types of work to liberate are:

• Popular old computer and video games. Some old console games are being licensed for use with the new generation of consoles, so they might be harder to liberate. However, it's likely that the copyright holders aren't receiving a huge amount for each game, so we might be able to give them a better offer.

• Popular old films. One problem might be that a lot of popular old films which are still copyrighted could still be making a significant amount of money.

• Old musical recordings by well known artists. The main way money is made from these is probably through licensing for films and television.

• Popular old functional software which is popular with enthusiasts. This type of work isn't likely to make any money at all.

• Works useful for the Wikimedia Commons and similar projects. Certain works such as photos of old paintings and objects which are hard to get access to, notation for old compositions and maps are particularly useful.

[edit] List of suggested works

Here are few suggestions to start with.

[edit] Text

• Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). This is a very popular and culturally significant book, therefore it would provide quite a lot of benefit to be liberated. People who are interested in free culture and free software may have particular interest in it, as it's about the impact of the loss of freedom, and some aspects of the totalitarian state in the story are sometimes compared to those of the copyright industry.

• Mao: The Unknown Story (2005). "...an 832-page book written by the husband and wife team, historian Jon Halliday and writer Jung Chang. It was published in 2005 and depicts Mao Zedong, the former paramount leader of China and Chairman of the Communist Party of China, as being responsible for mass murder ... The eleven years of research for the book included interviews with hundreds of people who were close to Mao Zedong at some point in his life and reveal the contents of newly opened archives. ... Various scholars have questioned the authors' use of these sources and the conclusions drawn therefrom, making the book controversial (see sections on Debate and Criticism). At the same time, the book has also drawn praise from other academics and commentators..." What I'd actually like to see liberated in this case are translation rights, specifically for translation into Chinese. Since there is no hope of the book ever being published in the People's Republic of China anyway, Chang and Halliday and their publisher would lose little by announcing that anyone may make a Chinese version. And if they were to announce that, there can be no doubt that many overseas Chinese would leap to the task, and make a collective translation available online, whence it could spread within the PRC fairly quickly (albeit surreptitiously). I've been meaning to write Chang and Halliday to suggest this, but thought I'd mention it here too. Even though it isn't, strictly speaking, an example of FreedomBuying, it's similar in spirit (I guess you could say it's FreedomBuying where the price is either zero or non-monetary).

[edit] Speeches

• I Have a Dream (1963)

[edit] Music

• Happy Birthday to You (1935). This is apparently the most popular English language song in the world, and is so popular that it doesn't seem very appropriate that singing it in public without permission could be illegal. However, there are some doubts over the validity of its copyright registration, which might mean that a lot of people wouldn't think that the copyright holder deserves to be paid to liberate it.

[edit] Films

• Any film which is popular and quite old, but recent enough to be of interest, and isn't based on a book or a play. Around thirty years might be a good age. A good place to look for ideas is the IMDB top rated films of all time.

[edit] Software

• Old proprietary operating systems which are popular with enthusiasts, who might feel nostalgic about them. People who are interested in the history of computers might also like to have access to the source code to see how they work. However, there's no guarantee that the copyright holders still have copies of the source code, which would prevent that particular piece of software from being liberated.

[edit] Games

• Space Invaders (1978)

• Donkey Kong (1981)

• Mario Bros (1983)

• Super Mario Bros (1985)

• Bubble Bobble (1986)

• Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986)

• Commander Keen (1990)

• Legends of Kesmai (1996)

The old computer and video games may be the most promising type of work to start with. One problem for games which have famous characters attached to them (e.g. Mario) is that the copyright holders probably won't agree to liberate them if it means the character has to be liberated as well (this can be discussed on the Legal page).