Creative Commons gives people options to their copyrights. Whenever someone creates a new work their creation is automatically copyrighted under “all rights reserved.” Creative Commons allows people to share their work with others (if they want) under different conditions. So I can allow my work to be shared, tweaked, and/or remixed by anyone or maybe only commercially and/or non-commercially. It is not an alternative to copyright, but rather works with copyright and allows for easy flexibility of the copyright laws that are automatically provided to everyone. It is FREE!!!!
From now on I plan on licensing my work under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA). I chose this setting because I am fine with people wanting to use and expand off my ideas, as long as I am recognized for my work. I also do not like the idea of someone making a profit off my ideas, I mean I am being nice and sharing aren’t I? So I guess you could call me selfish in that aspect which is why I only want my work to be shared Non-commercially.
Helpful sites with explanations of what exactly creative commons is and the different types of CC licenses:
I was annoyed when this one, cables, was used Is this theft?, not because I wanted money, but I just like the idea of sharing. That one broke the Noncommercial bit. I never did hear from them.
On the other hand, someone mailed me through flickr mail and asked if they could use this photo in a book, I was delighted. I got a book, but no cash crossed my hands.
As a primary teacher I always found it hard to teach attribution to young (say 10 year olds). Sometimes I though they had got it, but then thy would attribute photos that wee not marked as reusable. I recall one pupil, very pleased with a blog post who attributed: I got this picture from google.
At that point I decided there should be a wee kids license, this would allow youngster to attribute all the various license, CC, GLP etc as used under the wee kids, I don’t fully understand copyright but I am trying license.
Once I though I had the perfect chance to explain. I found that several My Space (remember that) sites were hot linking blog headers my pupils had made as backgrounds. I hoped to engender some indignation. On showing the class the response I got was COOL!
The other thing I did to try and help young pupils attribute was to make a variation of the flickr search sites. A flickr CC search toy. This you search for CC flickr photos, it gives you the embed code with attribution (unlike Flickr’s own, which just links. It also will produce a photo with the attribution stamped onto it. Hopefully making it much easier for primary pupils to find images and use them while helping attribute.
The Stamping option produces a photo like the one above, adding a strip of attribution to the bottom.
(The coding and design of A flickr CC search toy is pretty horrible, but I think it does what I wanted it to do.)
Instead of limiting myself to one website, I looked at a few to learn and understand what exactly Creative Commons was and what was the point of even learning about it.
My first instinct was to go to YouTube and watch a tutorial on Creative Commons.
 âA Shared Cultureâ
This almost 4 minute clip discussed how there is another form of copyright that allows for people to share their work while still having certain limitations on how much of their work can be used. The people of Creative Commons believe the world thrives off of shared culture and how can one share culture if there is always an âall rights reservedâ labeled on to it. The creators of images, music, art, and so on allow others to use their art to their level of comfort. Creative Commons allows people to âexercise [their] copyright in more ways.â
The next link I explored was of course to the most obvious one, the website itself based on Creative Commons.
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that allows people to share their art and creativity through using free and legal tools. This organization provides a free copyright license, which allows ANYONE to provide their art to the public under certain conditions of THEIR choice. They have a saying that is âAll Rights Reservedâ is now âSome Rights Reserved.â This website included some of the âBIGâ names on the Internet that use Creative Commons.
Al Jazeera
Flickr
Google
Nine Inch Nails
Public Library of Science
Wikipedia
Whitehouse.gov
The vision that creative commons has in their mindset is to reach the full potential of the Internet. In other words have people be able to fully participate in a global movement of sharing creativity across the planet.
This is where all searches start and is the basis for any information (reliable or not) Wikipedia!
According to Wikipedia, Creative Commons is from Mountain View, California. This website allows creators, artists, amateurs, and people in general to practice their rights to reserve their work in any way they want. They provide an alternative method to the traditional copyright of âAll Rights Reserved.â This movement is described as the âcopy left movementâ which is building an abundant public domain for creativity and knowledge.
The next two websites I explored was their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The information on these social media platforms may not be as rich as other websites but it generally cuts straight to the point with out the âfluff.â
I suggest all DS106 members follow these guys on Twitter!
The Bio section or About Me section discusses that they are a nonprofit that is dedicated to let people share and develop on other peoples works while using a certain type of copy right.
Like all of the other websites, Facebook discusses what Creative Commons is and what their mission is as a corporation. One of their goals is to increase creativity through cultural, educational, and scientific content. Creative commons does not necessarily replace copyright but it applied on top of it so you can modify it to your interests. Creative Commons is open not just to artists but also to students, educators, and scientists, anyone who puts information on the Internet. They offer a vast amount of Creative Commons licenses depending on what sparks your interests.
What Did I get out of all this research on Creative Commons?
This is a great way to share your creativity and knowledge while allowing other people to enjoy it while having some restrictions. The Internet is a place to share and learn, this allows for that to continue and grow. There are different types of license available to use and how restricted you want to be is totally your choice! In my opinion this is phenomenal in the copyright industry, you can adjust privacy in your own manner, something never done before.
The title may not be the most appropriate, because it doesn’t seem to be a tragedy at all that the work is shared. I did just learn this term in regards to environmental degradation so now when I hear the word commons I immediately turn to this phrase.
Creative Commons is a non-profit out of California that has created a forum and way of sharing creative work that others can build upon… legally.
Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical
infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and
innovation.
So, the CC has six different types of licenses you can use, free of charge, on your creative works. They have all combinations of permissions to…
editing
commercial/non-commercial use
accreditation
license continuance
You can search the Creative Commons database and see results immediately of CC licensed photographs that you can use.
CC receives donations and support from from Google, Mozilla, Red Hat, Best Buy, Duke, eBay, Microsoft, Nike, and more. Wikipedia uses the CC license for information on their site, and Al Jazeera has used the CC license on some broadcasts.
For licensing and honor code purposes, I used the Creative Commons website directly and Wikipedia.
Camp is now over (see the final story. If you are craving an experience like this, head over to ds106 and see how to participate. For more on the Summer of Magic Macguffin, see.....
