What is Creative Commons?
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Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization
that allows artists, authors, publishers and musicians the
option of creating and defining a flexible copyright for their
creative works. Creative Commons was officially launched in
2001 by a group of intellectual property experts, lawyers
and web publishers. Creative Commons licenses cover art, music,
and writing, but is not designed for software.
A Creative Commons license allows creators to
place conditions on their copyrights. Traditionally, copyrights
restrict the rights of others from modifying or distributing
copywritten works. Creative Commons licenses offer flexibility
by allowing the creator (copyright holder) the ability to
choose what limitations they want in place with respect to
specific copywritten works.
How Creative Commons Works
Creators login to the Creative Commons System and select
what restrictions, attributes or modifications they wish to
assign to their creative works.
The Creative Commons site will then produce
a Creative Commons license for the creative works expressed
in three ways. Creative Commons will provide: a commons deed
clearly stating the licensing rights in plain English, legal
code for the license, and a digital license code. The digital
code can be embedded into websites and search engines. Yahoo
has a new Creative Commons search which identifies works and
recognizes any licensing conditions. Searches can be conducted
for different types of licenses. The Creative Commons site
also provides a website icon that clearly marks the creative
work as Some Rights Reserved or No Rights Reserved.
A variety of license options exist for the copyright
holder. Assigning a Creative Commons license does not mean
that the copyright holder is relinquishing rights to a piece
of art, it merely means some conditions could be placed on
the use of creative works.
Examples of Creative Common License Options
A Creative Commons license enables copyright holders to
grant some of their rights to the public while retaining other
rights.
NonCommercial - A non-commercial
license lets others copy, distribute, perform creative works
and derivative works, but only for noncommercial purposes
(anyone using the creative works cannot profit from it).
ShareAlike - A ShareAlike license
allows others to distribute derivative works under a license
identical to the one held by the original copyright holder.
NoDerivative Works - A NoDerivative
Works clause allows others to copy, distribute, display and
perform the exact copywritten works and no derivative works
can be created.
Attribution - An Attribution license
means creative works can be copied, distributed, displayed,
or performed and derivative works can be created, provided
that appropriate credit to the original copyright holder is
given.
Many artists feel that a Creative Commons license
increases their exposure but still allows them to retain their
rights to the creative works, striking a balance between ownership,
credit and use. Ultimately, a Creative Commons license enables
copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public
while retaining others; with Creative Commons the copyright
holder retains the flexibility to control the rights to their
creative works.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts.
In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company.
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