Off Your Back

IMAGINE THE FOLLOWING FUTURE: The CC logo and barcode let everyone know the shirt
You’re on the subway and spot a shirt you adore. is available to be scanned, copied, and modified.
The owner says you can have it, so you grab the C-shirts were dreamt up by Creative Commons
code. Later, someone comes into your office with a Japan and several websites. Shirts are offered on
messenger bag like the one you’ve wanted. You ask if the C-shirt page ( cshirt.sargasso.jp). Once there,
you can have it. Sure. While on coffee break, you ask you can either order the shirt as-is or make design
the guy in line if you can scan his shoes. You want to changes using Nota. Most people change things
turn them into the shoes your brother wants. like colors, or combine several shirt designs. To
That night, you use the shirt code to access its “improve” a design, a web-based illustration program
web page. You tweak the colors and order one. called Willustrator ( willustrator.org) is available. You
Accessing the bag’s site, you import the bag’s image can also incorporate CC-licensed photos through
and order it with a different strap. You’ll redesign the PhotoZou ( photozou.com, a Flickr-like site).
shoes after you grab codes from several other pairs A new, derivative shirt, called a remix, is printed
and combine their best features. You hate to admit with a new barcode and assigned a web page, ready
it, but you judge the success of your clothing hacks for the next person to come along, snap the code,
by how many people ask to scan your codes. and access the shirt.
Actually, the future has already arrived. And like so So far, C-shirts have caught the attention of
much of the future, it’s hit Japan first. “C-shirts” are techies and college students, but creators hope
a new fashion technology created by Japanese sup- interest will expand. Dominick Chen of CC-Japan
porters of both Creative Commons licensing (which says, “For this project to function inside the mar-
put the “C” in C-shirts) and DIY T-shirt making. ketplace, we need to create incentives and rewards
Creative Commons ( creativecommons.org) is the for participants.” They’re planning on a payment
copyright standard that allows you to assign modi- program so designers and remixers get paid based
fication rights to your intellectual property. So a on the popularity of their designs. “Another [idea]
T-shirt created under CC’s “Some Rights Reserved” is to be able to import C-shirts into Second Life:
mark allows someone to take your design and cre- virtual clothes drop-shipped to your real-world home.”
ate a derivative work, licensed under a CC mark. So it’s not hard to imagine a future where we all

C-shirts include the designer’s artwork, the CC logo, wander around scanning codes from real-world and a barcode called a QR (Quick Response) Code. objects, freely altering and improving as we’re You’ve likely seen 2D barcodes on shipping labels. In inspired. The world is your mashup. × this case, it encodes a web address. Snap a pic of a

C-shirt’s barcode to get the URL for that shirt (by uploading the pic to the C-shirt site, or using your

QR-ready camphone, increasingly available in Japan).

Gareth Branwyn is a regular contributor to MAKE and writes widely about DIY technologies. He also runs the personal tech website Street Tech ( streettech.com).