The Creative Commons, widely known for its work to create new gradations between "it's copyrighted and nobody can use it for anything" and "anyone can rip off my work," plans to spin its ccMixter remix site off to a third-party.
"Basically, we started the site as a model for what could be done with
CC licenses," Creative Commons' creative director Eric Steuer told Listening Post. "It's done well and we've had some good success with it, but it's not really the sort of thing that we feel is our core competency, and we're hoping that someone with more expertise than us in running this sort of project will be able to take it to another level."
Would-be buyers need more than just the desire to buy a community of remixers if they want to be considered. The Creative Commons says the buyer will need to stick to the original ccMixter principles laid out when the site was launched in 2004, demonstrate a plan for moving the site forward, make a decent financial offer for the site and demonstrate the capability to develop it further.
"ccMixter will never lose its current commerce-free face," reassures one section of the Request for Proposal (.pdf). "It will always be 'free' in both the costless and free speech sense(s). It will never have ads. It will always be a '.org.' The community that exists there now can continue just as it exists now."
In case you haven't encountered it before, ccMixter contains all sorts of useful stuff that remixers and other creators can use without fear of legal reprisal.
ccMixter has produced remix contests for BBE, Fort Minor, Ghostly International and Wired Magazine.
