Creative Commons

“ The story of Creative Commons begins with copyright. You’ll learn a lot more about copyright later in this book, but for now it’s enough to know that copyright is an area of law that regulates the way the products of human creativity are used—products like books, academic research articles, music, and art. Copyright grants a set of exclusive rights to a creator, so that the creator has the ability to prevent others from copying and adapting their work for a limited time. In other words, copyright law strictly regulates who is allowed to copy and share with whom. ”

“ Creative Commons’ founders recognized the mismatch between what technology enables and what copyright restricts, and in response they have provided an alternative approach for creators who want to share their work with others. Today this approach is used by millions of creators around the globe. ”

“ My point here is that Creative Commons licenses or the tools of free and open source software—to which I will turn in a moment—represent something more than merely a second-best solution to a poorly chosen rule. ”

“ From the start, Creative Commons licenses were intended to be used by creators all over the world. The CC founders were initially motivated by a piece of U. S. copyright legislation, but similar copyright laws all over the world restricted how our shared culture and collective knowledge could be used, even while digital technologies and the Internet have opened new ways for people to participate in culture and knowledge production. Since Creative Commons was founded, much has changed in the way people share and how the Internet operates. ”

“ They created a nonprofit organization called Creative Commons and, in 2002, they published the Creative Commons licenses—a set of free, public licenses that would allow creators to keep their copyrights while sharing their works on more flexible terms than the default “all rights reserved” approach. Copyright is automatic, whether you want it or not; the moment an original work is fixed in tangible form, it is protected by copyright. And while some people want to reserve all of the rights to their works, many others want to share their works with the public more freely. ”

“ Creative Commons has developed a Web application that helps people dedicate their creative works to the public domain or retain their copyright while licensing them as free for certain uses, on certain conditions. Unlike the GNU General Public License, [17] Creative Commons licenses are not designed for software but for other kinds of creative works: websites, scholarship, music, film, photography, literature, courseware, etc. The aim is not only to increase the sum of raw source material online, but also to make access to the material cheaper and easier. ”

“ We believe that many people would not choose this ‘copyright by default’ if they had an easy mechanism for turning their work over to the public or exercising some but not all of their legal rights. It is Creative Commons’ goal to help create such a mechanism.
An idea is not diminished when more people use it. Creative Commons aspires to cultivate a commons in which people can feel free to reuse not only ideas, but also words, images, and music without asking permission—because permission has already been granted to everyone (...) ”

“ Before considering which Creative Commons license best meets this requirement, it is worth considering the role of copyright in general. We should ask whether copyright even has a valid function in the context of science and scholarship. Ideas, principles and scientific results aren't protected by the copyright. And reputation is the currency in science, not money. No researcher needs an incentive (such as that provided in copyright law) to do research or to publish his results. Copyright, with its restrictions, simply isn't an appropriate instrument in this sector. ”

“ As the body of work offered through Creative Commons grows, the ideals behind such open licenses will spread and become more commonplace. Through many of the avenues offered to creators by Creative Commons, commercial rights are maintained while other uses remain possible, allowing many people to benefit from the creativity on the global network today. ”

“ Artists looking for inspiration or raw material, and readers looking for a book to peruse are not the only people who can benefit from information found through Creative Commons and the public domain. Many Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) are unable to access potentially useful information due to the strict copyright terms designed and instituted by wealthier, developed nations. ”

“ Creative Commons licenses are standardized tools, but part of the vision is to provide a range of options for creators who are interested in sharing their works with the public rather than reserving all rights under copyright. ”

“ As mentioned earlier, there is a Creative Commons license called the Developing Nations License, which can be implemented by anyone licensing a work. This license allows those in developing countries to use the work for creative, cultural, and developmental purposes, while still retaining full copyright in developed countries.
The distinction made with the Developing Nations License is important, because many creators may feel uncomfortable with the thought of putting their work or ideas entirely into the public domain, especially in regards to the commercially driven developed world. ”

“ I, as a man with an opinion, have constantly taken the view that Creative Commons should be very careful not to open up a space to its left that would be occupied by more extreme or more uncompromising positions. ”

“ Given that the goal was to make more creative and educational works available under common-sense terms, Creative Commons wanted to ensure that its licenses were not used to restrict works or uses of works that the copyright law does not restrict. ”

“ Creative Commons began in response to an outdated global copyright legal system. CC licenses are built on copyright and are designed to give more options to creators who want to share. Over time, the role and value of Creative Commons have expanded. ”

“ The free software and open source software communities have inspired what is sometimes called ‘open content.’ Some copyright holders have made books, music, and other creative works available under licenses that give anyone permission to copy and make other uses of the works without specific permission or a royalty payment. Creative Commons hopes to build on the work of these pioneers by creating a menu of license provisions that people can combine to make their work available for copying and creative reuses (...) ”

“ Not every person who employs a Creative Commons license for their work is doing it solely for economic gain. Andy Raskin maintains that "whatever the reason, every artist who embraces Creative Commons helps to build its brand. It is a classic case of network effects: As more of the licenses appear on the web, the collective value of the Creative Commons body of work increases, which creates greater incentives for other artists to use the licenses" (Raskin, 2004, 15) . ”

“ Together with its world-wide affiliate organizations and partners, it provides standardized and scrutinized license texts, translation into languages and adaptations for various jurisdictions (presently over 50 adaptations are provided) . Creative Commons is never a party in the contract of such a license (other than in connection with materials for which it holds copyright itself) . ”

“ Creative Commons licenses present authors, in effect, with a menu of license criteria, each reflecting a particular policy decision, from which the author is free to pick and choose. The various possible license criteria (and the recognized Creative Commons abbreviations) are:
Attribution (“BY”) : should users be required to give credit to the original author and/or publisher when they copy or reuse the licensed work? Noncommercial (“NC”) : are users free to copy or reuse the licensed work for commercial purposes, or for noncommercial purposes only? ”

“ By attaching a Creative Commons license, you give permission to anyone to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, and make derivative works from your works as long as the conditions in the license are followed. ”

“ Creators have choices, such as placing a work completely in the public domain, retaining no copyright. There is also a Developing Nations Licence, which allows for various uses of a work in developing nations, while preserving the full copyright in the developed world.
Owing to the fact that Creative Commons licences are obtained from the Creative Commons website, the licences are perhaps most easily applied to works presented on the Internet. ”

“ So when we were thinking about how to architect Creative Commons, this was the core problem that we had to struggle with, and our solution was to say: “We should recognize there are basically three different audiences that we’re speaking to.” One audience is the people who are not lawyers, and so that’s why we have the commons deed that tries to express the freedoms associated with the content. ”

“ Solum's argument is utopian, to be sure; it would be a foolish assumption to consider Creative Commons as the end of all overprotective copyright laws or the death of the media corporations' extended hold on cultural information. What the open licensing movement does create, however, is a space in which those interested in free information can congregate, collaborate, and share. Through the combined efforts of concerned citizens the world over, cultural and technical knowledge can be distributed and accessed easily and legally using growing technology as a help rather than a hindrance. ”

“ The popularity of CC licences has grown incrementally since its launch in 2002 and by 2006 it was estimated that 45 million web pages had been licensed with a CC licence (Smith & Casserly, 2006) . Liang (2004, pg. 78) describes the philosophy of Creative Commons as follows:
Inspired by the free software movement, the Creative Commons believes that a large vibrant public domain of information and content is a pre-requisite to sustained creativity, and there is a need to proactively enrich this public domain by creating a positive rights discourse. ”

“ Placing work under a Creative Commons license is an irrevocable act; one cannot rescind the rights one has bestowed on others after the fact. It is important to reiterate, as above, that these licenses do not replace or abolish copyright because, without copyright, an author could not make any claim over the work, including the right to attribution. ”

“ To add a final layer of complexity, different versions of each Creative Commons license exist that are tailored to the particularities of different national legal systems, and where a particular jurisdiction’s version of the license applies, it is common to so note. ”

“ Sharing your content using Creative Commons licenses is generous, but that alone is not enough to make it easy for others to reuse and remix your work. You should spend some time thinking from the perspective of someone who finds your shared content. How easy is it for them to download, reuse, and revise it? Are there legal or technical obstacles that make it difficult for them to do the things the CC license is designed to allow? ”

“ Creative Commons also serves to educate the public about issues of copyright, freedom of speech and expression and the public domain. The CC licences take account of different copyright laws in different countries or jurisdictions and also allow for different language versions. To make the licensing process as simple as possible for users the Creative Commons site makes use of a licence generator that suggests the most appropriate licence based on a user's response to specific questions regarding how their work can be used. ”

“ Today CC licenses are prevalent across the web and are used by creators around the world for every type of content you can imagine. The open movement, which extends beyond just CC licenses, is a global force of people committed to the idea that the world is better when we share and work together. Creative Commons is the nonprofit organization that stewards the CC licenses and helps support the open movement.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU
When you think about Creative Commons, do you think about its licenses? Or about activists seeking copyright reform? ”

“ Creative Commons realizes that no single license is adequate for all purposes and provides a set of licenses to cover a wide range of use cases.
Logo of the CC Zero or CC0 Public Domain Dedication License – “No Rights Reserved” (CC BY, Creative Commons) A special case is the “no rights reserved” or “rights-release” license, CC0 or CCZero. Not all jurisdictions have the concept of a public domain and in some jurisdictions specific rights cannot be released. CC0, as a license, describes a degree of freedom that is as close as possible to the concept of a public domain. ”

“ It will be important to include open licences (such as the Creative Commons framework) when organizing and executing training of staff and course writers on copyright issues and plagiarism. This will serve to deepen knowledge of the options available to manage intellectual property effectively. ”

“ Creative Commons licenses: a series of licenses designed to allow greater reuse of material than is purely allowed under fair dealing/ fair use provisions of copyright law
digital preservation: the practice of ensuring the continued existence and accessibility of digital material. ”

“ Remember, you can always reach out to the creator if you want to request extra permission beyond what the license allows.
Final Remarks
Attribution is arguably the single most important aspect of Creative Commons licensing. Think about why you want credit for your own work, even when it may not be legally required. What value does attribution provide to authors, and to the public who comes across the work online? ”