What is Creative Commons?
Structurally, Creative Commons is a Massachusetts, US, US charitable corporation . Also working to promote the idea of Creative Commons are volunteer project leads in each of the jurisdictions to which Creative Commons licenses have been ported. Creative Commons International and the volunteer project leads are independent and separate entities although both work in collaboration to promote the adoption of Creative Commons licenses and tools. The idea underlying Creative Commons is that some people may not want to exercise all of the intellectual property rights the law affords them. We believe there is an unmet demand for an easy yet reliable way to tell the world “Some rights reserved” or even “No rights reserved.” Many people have long since concluded that all-out copyright doesn’t help them gain the exposure and widespread distribution they want. Many entrepreneurs and artists have come to prefer relying on innovative business models rather than full-fledged copyright to secure a r
Creative Commons is a set of licences. It’s a way for you to protect your work, while leaving room to choose certain other ways it can be used. You retain some base rights, while encouraging sharing, exposure and distribution. We think it’s a simple, legal way to share your work, and in turn lets you build upon existing creativity and innovation. Tell me more. To learn more about CC you can visit their website at http://creativecommons.org/ Here’s a video where CC founding member Lawrence Lessig explains what it’s about, and another demonstrating how it works You can listen to a panel debate about creative commons broadcast on Radio National’s Law Report here Then there’s this piece where the Pool team interviews Elliott Bledsoe from Creative Commons Australia. While the licence selection is out-of-date (we now offer more licences) Elliott’s explanation of CCC is still useful. Also read what the Australian Copyright Council has to say here.
Creative Commons is a licensing system that allows a creator to choose specifically what the creator wants to be done with his or her work. It is a legally enforcable system that is avaliable in many countries. One of the common misconceptions is that Creative Commons means that the artists are just giving away content for free and not making any money as a result. There are cases where that is such the case, but one can make money through Creative Commons and Creative Commons is flexible enough to allow creators to simply release samples of content. In fact, there are even cases where the creator is giving away the content for free and making money. If you are a creator of content (be it music, fiction, software, etc.) and you reside in Canada, you can get a license or find out more information here. If you live in the US, I can point you to the US version. Anywhere else, you might want to check out this webpage to find your jurasdiction.
