Commons creative utopia?

It has been a good week for creativity based on open licences and Creative Commons. Firstly, there have been glowing reviews about the amazing creative display that encompasses the first “open” animation, a lovely little film called Elephants Dream (I know, it looks weird without the apostrophe). Then there is the amazing BloodSpell, a machinima animated series. I’ve watched the first episode, and all I can only say is WOW! Well done to the people at Strange Company!

Both works are distributed under Creative Commons licences, which serves to prove that creativity and free culture can co-exist. There are those who assume that the creative process only occurs if there is a promise of a fat cheque as a benefit. This is true of a lot of people, but not all. Some creators will share their work with no regard to profit, at least until the first industry executive makes THAT phone call and then you sell out for a limo and a mob of adoring groupies. But I digress.

More good news for the open movement is that the BBC has released more content online using the Creative Archive licence. I know that many people do not consider the Creative Archive a true open project because it is available only within the UK, but things like the amazing Open Earth Archive can only benefit the commons.