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What is Creative Commons?
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 FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com
an RSS component for developers. |
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