Creative Commons

A word about copyright

All creative work - reports, articles, web pages, music, photographs, presentations - is automatically protected by copyright. This means it is owned by someone (either an individual or an organisation). Under copyright law the owner has certain rights to control who copies and uses their work.

If you copy or reuse a work for any purpose, you need the rights holder's explicit permission (a licence).

But the process of obtaining permission can lead to unwelcome administrative costs for all parties:

It takes time to find and ask the owner
The owner may not be sure that he/she is the owner (copyright in works created by employees in the course of their employment is normally owned by the employer)
If a company owns the rights, who in the company is authorised to grant permission?

Yet many rights holders would rather their work was widely copied and reused and don't want to be bothered by requests for permission to copy.

Enter Creative Commons...

Creative Commons is a simple, standardised way for creators to grant permission to others to copy, distribute and use their work:

It helps creators promote the use of their work without having to negotiate terms with each and every user
It provides users with a clear indication of what uses are allowed without asking permission
It removes administrative costs, legal fees and uncertainty for everyone

How does it work?

For creators

Creators simply choose a suitable licence from the Creative Commons website. The website provides simple guidance on how to display the licence on your work.

There are six types of licence, each specifying a different set of permissions. Don't be put off - it is quite easy to understand what each type does: this short Creative Commons Kiwi video explains it (with a slight New Zealand flavour)

All licences require that the creator be credited (this is called attribution).

For users

When you find something, say through a web search, and it has a Creative Commons license, you will know exactly what you can do with it, legally. Further, many services, such as Flickr, allow you to search for CC licensed photos.

The CC site itself offers a search engine to find CC licensed content on the web, while Wikimedia Commons will help you find all kinds of CC licensed content: images, videos and even sounds.

For everyone, including lawyers and search engines

There are three versions of each licence:

A simple, plain English one-page summary for other humans (you will need to read this one)
One for lawyers, which you needn't bother with unless you like that kind of thing
A machine readable version for search engines

Isn't this tantamount to giving away your work?

No. The creator retains copyright and has only indicated what uses are allowed without asking.

By using a Creative Commons license, the owner is encouraging others to share, remix, reuse the work as long as a few requirements are met. These requirements are usually that the creator is acknowledged and that the work is not used for commercial purposes.

Remember - when you copy or reuse a Creative Commons licensed work you must credit the author.

Side note: here is a useful website regarding copyright and licensing artistic works DACS

Who's using it?

Creative Commons began providing licenses for the open sharing of content around 2001. Now, an estimated 400 million CC-licensed works are available on the internet, from music and photos, to research findings and entire college courses.

Creative Commons created the legal and technical infrastructure that allows effective sharing of knowledge, art and data by individuals, organisations and governments. More importantly, millions of creators have taken advantage of that infrastructure to share work that enriches the global commons for all humanity. Source: The Power of Open (contains examples of how all kinds of creators have benefited from creative commons licensing).