New Music Group Claims Cultural Revolution Through Copyright Reform

SEATTLE, Washington—A new musical group, Tryad, today announced that its four members formed a virtual band across the ocean through the copyright reform organization Creative Commons.

The four members—vavrek and arna in Seattle, John Holowach in Ohio, and rjmarshall in Japan—say that they combined musical talents through the open copyright licensing options at Creative Commons.

"rj had posted a song on his website, and I just knew that I had to rework it into something different," said Holowach. "When he heard it, he was very impressed by the work I had done on it, and was eager to spread the piece around. Shortly after that, Andrew added vocals, and the rest is history."

Creative Commons, a non-profit organization, allows owners of intellectual property to license, for free, their work so that others may build upon it. Tryad says they plan on continuing the generosity they have built themselves upon by licensing their content in the same fashion, hoping to be the first successful musical group to do so.

"I think we can make [the group] work without needing stringent copyright protection," said rjmarshall. "I mean, why wouldn't we want others to have the same benefits we did?"

They also hope that, through the freedom offered by the license, they will be the first in a new age of artistic creativity.

"What we have here is the dawning of a modern day renaissance," said vavrek. "Much like how the advent of the printing press brought about drastic scientific and social revolutions, we are experiencing a creative explosion brought about using internet technologies and open licensing. This cultural revolution is happening on a global scale."

The group, which had its origins through the open source music site Opsound.org, says they plan on offering all their music under a license that allows alterations to be made to the music, even for commercial purposes, as long as other artists will use the same license on the new works.

"Starting a revolution isn't easy," commented Holowach. "However, I do hope that we will be the first step in a long line of more allowances for shared creativity and cultural openness."

More information about the group, as well as downloads of songs they have released, are available on http://tryad.org