Creative Commons

When I was in my own classroom teaching (before my library gig), I know that there were certain copyright laws which regulated printed materials and what I could reproduce and how much I could reproduce. Today was the first time I had ever heard of Creative Commons.

To the best of my understanding, Creative Commons (CC) was created in 2001. In late 2002 they completed their first project which was the release of a set of copyright licenses free for public use. CC created 6 different licences which allow people to control or protect their original works on line. The different licenses do different things. The 4 main areas are: 1) attribution, 2) noncommercial, 3) no derivative works, and 4) share alike.

1. Attribution: This allows anyone redistribute your work as long as they give you credit.

2. Noncommercial: This allows anyone to use and redistribute your work as long as they make no money in the venture.

3. No Derivative Works: This makes it so people can not change your work.

4. Share Alike: This makes anyone who builds on your work to make it available at the same level to the public as you currently have.

At any point people can contact the person who created the original work and ask their permission for one or all of the above restrictions be lifted. At the point it is the creators decision if they want to allow their original work be changed or if they can create a deal to make money based on the new use of their original work.

The last option CC give people is to donate they original work to the public domain. At this point anyone can do anything to your original work and you have no recourse or authority over what happen to your original work.