Creative Commons is a Massachusetts-charted charitable (non-profit) organisation which was formed in 2001 and is situated in San Francisco, CA. It is funded by the centre for the public domain. Their aim is to expand the range of creative work available for others to legally create and share. It has released several different ‘creative commons licences’, which all offer differing levels of copyright. This allows creators of software, texts, music to decide just how their end products can be consumed and distributed. The intention of these licences is to avoid problems that can arise from copyright laws and regulations.
Anyone wishing to obtain a Creative Commons licence can do so online through the Creative Commons website. These licences do not cost anything, and work can be licensed almost instantly through the website, where you can choose and apply a creative commons licence to your work. The 3 licences work in different ways, and how the author/creator wants their work to be used and licensed would effect which of the creative commons licences they would apply for. These can be used both online and offline, so should they wish to gain a licence for printed matter, they can do so.
The creative commons licences can be very useful for small bands or musicians because they can effective licence their music to be distributed and consumed for free, while retaining copyright on their works. Other examples could be that authors could allow their books to be downloaded from the internet and used in blogs, websites or quoted in essays, other books or other such media, as long as the author is credited, or they may state that the person wishing to use their work must contact them to obtain their permission first.
I personally think that these licences are a great way for lesser known writers, musicians and other such artists to make their works more widely available, and being able to use the internet to do so makes it much, much easier for them to reach many more people that they could without these new copyright ‘laws’. However, making material more accessible to other members of the public and easier to use could well work against its authors, as people may not abide by the works copyright rules. Creative Commons licences still work in the same way as the copyright rules in places, I just feel that maybe they could be harder to enforce as the material is easier to use and distribute under these licences.
This is a really informative post. Before last week I’m not sure I’d even heard of Creative Commons before, but it seems like a useful organisation. You say there may be some risk of abuse under a Creative Commons licence when users fail to abide by the copyright terms set out in the CC document – and I agree with you, but at least the artists have some legal backing.
The fact that these licences are so easy to obtain is great… It means that artists are more likely to get their work properly covered, sooner.
This is a good description of who they are, but it would have been good to get a sense of the basic premise of what Creative Commons licences achieve.
They provide a middle ground between All Rights Reserved and No Rights Reserved. However, one criticism that has been levelled at CC licensing is that those permissions, once granted, cannot be rescinded. I don’t think that’s actually the case in legal terms, but in terms of practical application and enforcement, that might be a legitimate problem.
In what situations would you see CC licences being useful, and which particular licences would you recommend to a music organisation like the one you’re working towards proposing?
Hey
Just like Adam, I don’t think I had heard of a creative commons licence before last week. This organisation is great ways to have artists have a say in the way their work should be used. They no longer have to stick by the copyright laws that are very strict. I feel that this post was very informative and I understand creative commons much better.
Thank you
Mandy
Very good points a some nice relations to real world exapmles. It would have been nice with some explanation of the different licenses. You could maybe do a small summery of each one.
Otherwise very helpful indeed