Why should educators care about the Creative Commons label?
Creative Commons licenses legalize the sharing of content—something we do on the Internet every day whether we’re aware of it or not. Instead of reserving all rights to one’s work, which is the default in copyright law, Creative Commons licensing makes it easy for an owner to reserve some rights while making the work available for others to use and enhance. The creativecommons.org Web site offers free, easily understandable, machine-readable licenses. By putting a CC license on your work, you are allowing people to share it easily with others and, at the same time, outlining the ways in which you want to be given credit. You are saying, “I would like acknowledgment but I am offering this to the world to help others. If you find a way to make it better, feel free to do so.” It’s a very different take on copyright, and makes so much more sense today. Q: What is ccLearn? A: ccLearn is a division of Creative Commons focused on minimizing the legal, technical, and social barriers to sharing
