A hidden penalty in there somewhere  

suttonhoo is here expressing reservations about Creative Commons. In particular, she's concerned that as an amateur she's taking food off the plate of a pro photographer somewhere.

I'm of two minds about this issue, as I hinted in a comment to this post. I appreciate good photography, I appreciate the fine arts in general, I appreciate professional opinions (synthetic journalism?), I appreciate (!) popular music. To the extent that free content reduces the supply of the best of these things by making them harder to sustain as vocations, I am sorry. I'm probably too much of an aesthetic snob to abandon the idea that there is great work out there, and that it takes real time and talent to produce.

But I also see a tremendous value in having the vast majority of that professional world go away. It's not inconceivable now to think about everyone in the entire world having the opportunity to photograph, write, create music, and publish all of it. Surely this possibility for unlimited human expression is more important than the interests of a few professionals whose services aren't valuable enough to really differentiate them in the first place. There will still be professionals; their numbers will just be limited to what the market can support (and yes, there will still be a market) or how much a government is willing to subsidize.

I also find it interesting that there are different cultural responses to different modes of expression on this point; I mentioned pop music before because I seriously doubt that suttonhoo would be conflicted if she were a singer releasing pop songs on her blog for free. What if I posted a novel in this space tomorrow? Nobody would worry about the harm it might inflict on Jonathan Safron Foer's next offering. Maybe the difference is that novels and pop songs are in and of themselves expression, while stock photography is more of a trade, one that often supports other more explicitly creative work. I guess my point is that other trades can support that kind of creativity, as they do for me and apparently for suttonhoo. To be sure, this is an economic point; but I also see it as empowering the vast majority of us, who have historically resided outside that creative elite.