What are Copycan and Freinutz.de?
Digital content that exists can technically be copied, and in most cases gets copied many times.
Copycan and Freinutz.de acknowledges this situation: Authors receive money for their work without the restrictive methods of the digital content industry.
How does it work?
Step 1: upload content!
The artist uploads his work in digital form (e.g. music files), and a preview of it to copycan.org. He announces the amount of money he would like to have for releasing his work to the commons under a free license like Creative Commons.
Step 2: collect money!
People transfer money to the trusted party’s account with reference to the particular artist.
Step 3: release and distribute!
If the announced amount is reached, the artist gets paid, the content gets released and is from then on freely available. The files can be copied and distributed through filesharing networks.
Culture is flowing freely, artist and consumers are happy.