Creative Commons, what is this?

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.

 “A Shared Culture”

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 “all rights reserved” 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 “exercise [their] copyright in more ways.”

The next link I explored was of course to the most obvious one, the website itself based on Creative Commons.

www.creativecommons.org

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 “All Rights Reserved” is now “Some Rights Reserved.” This website included some of the “BIG” 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!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons

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 “All Rights Reserved.” This movement is described as the “copy left movement” 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 “fluff.”

https://twitter.com/#!/creativecommons

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.

https://www.facebook.com/creativecommons

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.