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| Chilling Effects Clearinghouse > Weather Reports > How A | 
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|  How AErica Brand, Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, UC--Berkeley School of Law (Boalt H, November 30, 2005 Abstract: How the use of Creative Commons licenses helped three dudes get hired by Saturday Night Live. It’s a goldilocks story…except instead of three bears, well…there are three dudes. In their quest for satire superstardom, three L.A. comics found a copyright scheme that “fits just right.” Somewhere along the copyright spectrum of full copyright protection (where all rights are reserved) and the public domain (where no rights are reserved) sits Creative Commons. Built within current copyright law, Creative Commons helped Saturday Night Live newcomers Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer (a.k.a “the dudes”) reach late night recognition. Samberg, who this season joined the SNL performing cast, and Taccone and Schaffer, who both joined the show as writers, formed the comedy collective The Lonely Island in 2001. The childhood friends from Berkeley released their music and video shorts on their website under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerical Share Alike license. Modeled on open-source software licenses, this license grants anyone the right to copy, remix or tweak the trio’s work, as long as they credit them, don’t try to profit from it, and license any new creation under the same terms. Samberg did not appreciate the power of the internet until “the dudes” put music and short films on their website with a Creative Commons license. “Because we were not creating anything for profit, but only for the fun of it, the license really freed us up to make a product that was arguably superior to other stuff out there. We could use music and other materials, like film, that we wouldn’t have been able to use if we were going to sell it.” Since the gist of the Creative Commons license allowed the trio to put their work on the web and encouraged others to copy and transform it, as long as they were not making money off of it, The Lonely Island name began to spread. In a recent interview with Creative Commons, the Lonely Island dudes explained the benefit of the Creative Commons deed being upfront on their website was that people could see that they did not need permission to copy and remix their work. The license “covers probably 99.99% of our audience’s needs.” The trio recognized early on that the Internet amplified the popularity of their work as fans began downloading and remixing their music and sending it back to them. Samberg said “Once you get rid of the money element, you realize how people actually respond to your work. The Internet makes for an artistic exchange with people that you’ll never meet in a million years.” The Lonely Island even sent some artists their acapella vocal tracks to play with. They eventually posted the remixed versions to their site, such as Dutch DJ Baby Grandpa’s remix of their song “Ka-Blamo!” After shooting a pilot for FOX called Awesometown (which FOX later passed on), “the dudes” posted both the cut and uncut video to their website. With a hilarious introduction by Jack Black, online distribution of the short skyrocketed. Touting the viral nature of the Internet, Samberg acknowledged that “the website [thelonelyisland.com] started our careers. Our website has been a crazy tool for the entertainment industry and we have used it as a launching pad. It allowed people in the industry to see what we were doing without us having to be forceful. It is a small commitment to log on to the website and watch the shorts, as opposed to watching someone’s demo tape.” Samberg appreciates the more organic process of becoming known through emailed files or links, and commented that “it even allows people to feel as if they discovered you.” While they were writing for the MTV Movie Awards (for their second year in a row), this year’s host Jimmy Fallon, a SNL alum, introduced “the dudes” to two SNL writers/producers. The trio acknowledged that the ability to share their work through their website helped to get SNL’s attention. Samberg is thrilled that since “the dudes” SNL debut, the website (featuring popular shorts such as “The ’Bu” a parody of The O.C., and Samberg’s stand-up shtick from Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend”) is getting more hits than ever.
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