Difference between revisions of "Creative Commons" - New World Encyclopedia

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The '''Creative Commons (CC)''' is a [[United States|U.S.]] [[Non-profit organization|non-profit]] corporation founded in 2001, devoted to expanding the range of [[creativity|creative]] works available for others to legally build upon and share. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as "[[Creative Commons licenses]]." These licenses, depending on the one chosen, restrict only certain rights (or none) of the work instead of traditional copyright, which is more restrictive.
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The '''Creative Commons (CC)''' is a [[United States|U.S.]] [[Non-profit organization|non-profit]] corporation founded by [[Lawrence Lessig]] in 2001, devoted to expanding the range of [[creativity|creative]] works available for others to legally build upon and share. The organization has released several copyright licenses, known as "[[Creative Commons licenses]]." These licenses allow the authors to share their works more freely than those protected by traditional copyright laws. Authors can choose from a range of limited rights in between traditional copyright (all rights reserved) and public domain (no right reserved).  
  
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Creative Commons licenses are currently available in 43 different jurisdictions worldwide, with more than nineteen others under development.<ref>[http://creativecommons.org/international/ Creative Commons International]. Retrieved May 13, 2008.</ref>  
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Some projects using Creative Commons license are [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW)] and [http://www.plos.org/ Public Library of Science].
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{{toc}}
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Creative Commons licenses are currently available in 43 different jurisdictions worldwide, with more than nineteen others under development.<ref>Creative Commons, [http://creativecommons.org/international/ International.] Retrieved May 13, 2008.</ref>  
  
 
==Aim==
 
==Aim==
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The Creative Commons licenses enable [[copyright]] holders to grant some or all of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes including dedication to the [[public domain]] or [[open content]] licensing terms. The intention is to avoid the problems current copyright laws create for the sharing of [[information]].
 
The Creative Commons licenses enable [[copyright]] holders to grant some or all of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes including dedication to the [[public domain]] or [[open content]] licensing terms. The intention is to avoid the problems current copyright laws create for the sharing of [[information]].
  
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The project provides several free licenses that copyright owners can use when releasing their works on the [[World-Wide Web|Web]]. It also provides [[Resource Description Framework|RDF]]/[[Extensible Markup Language|XML]] [[metadata]] that describes the license and the work, making it easier to automatically process and locate licensed works. Creative Commons also provides a "Founders' Copyright"<ref>{{cite web | title=Founder's Copyright | work=Creative Commons | url=http://creativecommons.org/projects/founderscopyright/ | accessdate=2006-04-07}}</ref> contract, intended to re-create the effects of the original [[United States|U.S.]] Copyright created by the founders of the U.S. Constitution.
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The project provides several free licenses that copyright owners can use when releasing their works on the [[World-Wide Web|Web]]. It also provides [[Resource Description Framework|RDF]]/[[Extensible Markup Language|XML]] [[metadata]] that describes the license and the work, making it easier to automatically process and locate licensed works. Creative Commons also provides a "Founders' Copyright"<ref>Creative Commons, [http://creativecommons.org/projects/founderscopyright/ Founder's Copyright.] Retrieved April 4, 2006.</ref> contract, intended to re-create the effects of the original [[United States|U.S.]] Copyright created by the founders of the U.S. Constitution.
  
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All these efforts, and more, are done to counter the effects of what Creative Commons considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive [[permission culture]]. In the words of [[Lawrence Lessig]], founder of Creative Commons and former [[Board of directors|Chairman of the Board]], it is "a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past".<ref>{{cite book | first=Lawrence | last=Lessig |url=http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf |year=2004 | title=Free Culture | publisher=Penguin Press | location=New York | pages=8 }}</ref>  Lessig maintains that modern culture is dominated by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema, and that Creative Commons can provide alternatives to these restrictions.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Ermert, Monika | title=Germany debuts Creative Commons | journal=Register | year=2004| url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/15/german_creative_commons/ }} Retrieved May 13, 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite web | author=Lessig, Lawrence| year=2006| title=Lawrence Lessig on Creative Commons and the Remix Culture | format=mp3 | work=Talking with Talis | url=http://talk.talis.com/archives/2006/01/lawrence_lessig.html | accessdate=2006-04-07}}</ref>
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All these efforts, and more, are done to counter the effects of what Creative Commons considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive [[permission culture]]. In the words of [[Lawrence Lessig]], founder of Creative Commons and former [[Board of directors|Chairman of the Board]], it is "a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past."<ref>Lawrence Lessig, [http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf Free Culture] (New York: Penguin Press, 2004). Retrieved May 31, 2008.</ref>  Lessig maintains that modern culture is dominated by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema, and that Creative Commons can provide alternatives to these restrictions.<ref>Monika Ermert, Germany debuts Creative Commons, ''Register'' 2004.</ref>
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
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[[Image:GoldenNica CreativeCommons.jpg|thumb|[[Golden Nica Award]] for Creative Commons]]
 
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The [[Creative Commons License|Creative Commons licenses]] were pre-dated by the [[Open Publication License]] and the [[GNU Free Documentation License]] (GFDL). The GFDL was intended mainly as a license for software documentation, but is also in active use by non-software projects such as [[Wikipedia]]. The Open Publication License is now largely defunct, and its creator suggests that new projects not use it. Both licenses contained optional parts that, in the opinions of critics, made them less "free." The GFDL differs from the CC licenses in its requirement that the licensed work be distributed in a form which is "transparent," i.e., not in a proprietary and/or confidential format.
 
  
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Headquartered in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]], Creative Commons was officially launched in 2001. [[Lawrence Lessig]], the founder and former chairman, started the organization as an additional method of achieving the goals of his Supreme Court case, ''[[Eldred v. Ashcroft]]''. The initial set of Creative Commons licenses was published on December 16, 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/2002/12/creativecommonsunveilsmachinereadablecopyrightlicenses/|title=Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses|work=Creative Commons|date=2002-12-16|accessdate=2007-02-09}}</ref> The project itself was honored in 2004 with the [[Prix Ars Electronica|Golden Nica Award]] at the Prix Ars Electronica, for the category "Net Vision."
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The [[Creative Commons License|Creative Commons licenses]] were pre-dated by the [[Open Publication License]] and the [[GNU Free Documentation License]] (GFDL). The GFDL was intended mainly as a license for software documentation, but is also in active use by non-software projects such as [[Wikipedia]]. The Open Publication License is now largely defunct, and its creator suggests that new projects not use it. Both licenses contained optional parts that, in the opinions of critics, made them less "free." The GFDL differs from the CC licenses in its requirement that the licensed work be distributed in a form which is "transparent," that is, not in a proprietary and/or confidential format.
  
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The Creative Commons was first tested in court in early 2006, when podcaster [[Adam Curry]] sued a Dutch tabloid who published photos without permission from his [http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamc1999/ Flickr page]. The photos were licensed under the Creative Commons NonCommercial license. While the verdict was in favour of Curry, the tabloid avoided having to pay restitution to him as long as they did not repeat the offense. An analysis of the decision states, "The Dutch Court’s decision is especially noteworthy because it confirms that the conditions of a Creative Commons license automatically apply to the content licensed under it, and bind users of such content even without expressly agreeing to, or having knowledge of, the conditions of the license."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060316052623594|title=Creative Commons License Upheld by Dutch Court|work=[[Groklaw]]|date=2006-03-16|accessdate=2006-09-02}}</ref>
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Headquartered in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]], Creative Commons was officially launched in 2001. [[Lawrence Lessig]], the founder and former chairman, started the organization as an additional method of achieving the goals of his Supreme Court case, ''[[Eldred v. Ashcroft]]''. The initial set of Creative Commons licenses was published on December 16, 2002.<ref>Creative Commons, [http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/2002/12/creativecommonsunveilsmachinereadablecopyrightlicenses/ Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses.] Retrieved February 9, 2007.</ref> The project itself was honored in 2004, with the [[Prix Ars Electronica|Golden Nica Award]] at the Prix Ars Electronica, for the category "Net Vision."
 +
 
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The Creative Commons was first tested in court in early 2006, when podcaster [[Adam Curry]] sued a Dutch tabloid who published photos without permission from his Flickr page. The photos were licensed under the Creative Commons NonCommercial license. While the verdict was in favor of Curry, the tabloid avoided having to pay restitution to him as long as they did not repeat the offense. An analysis of the decision states, "The Dutch Court’s decision is especially noteworthy because it confirms that the conditions of a Creative Commons license automatically apply to the content licensed under it, and bind users of such content even without expressly agreeing to, or having knowledge of, the conditions of the license.<ref>www.groklaw.net, [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060316052623594 Creative Commons License Upheld by Dutch Court.] Retrieved September 2, 2006.</ref>
  
 
On December 15, 2006, Professor Lessig retired as chair and appointed [[Joi Ito]] as the new chair, in a ceremony which took place in [[Second Life]].
 
On December 15, 2006, Professor Lessig retired as chair and appointed [[Joi Ito]] as the new chair, in a ceremony which took place in [[Second Life]].
  
 
==Localization==
 
==Localization==
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The original non-localized Creative Commons licenses were written with the U.S. legal system in mind, so the wording could be incompatible within different local legislations and render the licenses unenforceable in various jurisdictions. To address this issue, '''Creative Commons International''' has started to port the various licenses to accommodate local copyright and private law. As of February 2008, there are 43 jurisdiction-specific licenses, with 8 other jurisdictions in drafting process, and more countries joining the [http://creativecommons.org/worldwide project].
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The original, non-localized Creative Commons licenses were written with the U.S. legal system in mind, so the wording could be incompatible within different local legislations and render the licenses unenforceable in various jurisdictions. To address this issue, Creative Commons International has started to port the various licenses to accommodate local copyright and private law. As of February 2008, there are 43 jurisdiction-specific licenses, with 8 other jurisdictions in drafting process, and more countries joining the project.
  
 
==Projects using Creative Commons licenses==
 
==Projects using Creative Commons licenses==
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(See: [[Creative Commons licenses]])
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Several million pages of web content use [[Creative Commons licenses]]. Common Content was set up by Jeff Kramer with cooperation from Creative Commons, and is currently maintained by volunteers.
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Several million pages of web content use [[Creative Commons licenses]]. [http://www.commoncontent.org Common Content] was set up by Jeff Kramer with cooperation from Creative Commons, and is currently maintained by volunteers.
 
  
 
This list provides a short sampling of CC-licensed projects which convey the breadth and scope of Creative Commons adoption among prominent institutions and publication modes.
 
This list provides a short sampling of CC-licensed projects which convey the breadth and scope of Creative Commons adoption among prominent institutions and publication modes.
  
 +
*[http://www.plos.org/ Public Library of Science]
 
*[http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW)]
 
*[http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW)]
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*[http://www.plos.org/ Public Library of Science]
 
 
*[http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators Content Directories, Creative Commons]. The list of projects using Creative Commons license.
 
*[http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators Content Directories, Creative Commons]. The list of projects using Creative Commons license.
  
 
==Criticism==
 
==Criticism==
 +
The critical positions taken can be roughly divided up into complaints of a lack of:
  
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The critical positions taken can be roughly divided up into complaints of a lack of:
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*A political position—Where the object is to critically analyze the foundations of the Creative Commons movement and offer an eminent critique. One of the more notable concerns to be found in this vein of criticism is on the role the Creative Commons plays as an unconcerned corporate filter. As mentioned in ''Martin Hardie and "Creative License Fetishism,"'' "When one examines closely just exactly what sort of 'freedom' is ultimately to be had within these licenses, one is quick to discover that they are primarily set up as tools meant to feed directly into corporate co-option." [[Matteo Pasquinelli]] (2008) describes two fronts of criticism: "Those who claim the institution of a real commonality against Creative Commons restrictions (non-commercial, share-alike, etc.) and those who point out Creative Commons complicity with global capitalism." Pasquinelli specifically criticizes CC for not establishing "productive commons."
 +
*A common sense position—These usually fall into the category of "it is not needed" or "it takes away user rights" (Toth 2005 and [[John C. Dvorak|Dvorak]] 2005).
 +
*A pro-copyright position—These are usually marshaled by the [[content industry]] and argue either that Creative Commons is not useful, or that it undermines copyright (Nimmer 2005).
 +
* Another criticism is that it worsens [[license proliferation]], by providing multiple licenses that are [[license compatibility|incompatible]]. Most notably, "attribution-sharealike" and "attribution-noncommercial-sharealike" are incompatible, meaning that works under these licenses cannot be combined in a derivative work without obtaining permission from the license-holder.
  
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*A political position - Where the object is to critically analyze the foundations of the Creative Commons movement and offer an eminent critique (e.g. [http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/free_issues/issue_05/commons_without_commonality/ Berry & Moss 2005], [[Geert Lovink]], Free Culture movements). One of the more notable concerns to be found in this vein of criticism is on the role the Creative Commons plays as an unconcerned corporate filter. As mentioned in [http://summit.kein.org/node/308 ''Martin Hardie and "Creative License Fetishism"''], "When one examines closely just exactly what sort of 'freedom' is ultimately to be had within these licenses, one is quick to discover that they are primarily set up as tools meant to feed directly into corporate co-option." [[Matteo Pasquinelli]] (2008) describes two fronts of criticism: "those who claim the institution of a real commonality against Creative Commons restrictions (non-commercial, share-alike, etc.) and those who point out Creative Commons complicity with global capitalism." Pasquinelli specifically criticises CC for not establishing "productive commons."
+
==Tools for finding CC-licensed content==
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*A common sense position - These usually fall into the category of "it is not needed" or "it takes away user rights" (see Toth 2005 or [[John C. Dvorak|Dvorak]] 2005).
 
−
*A pro-copyright position - These are usually marshalled by the [[content industry]] and argue either that Creative Commons is not useful, or that it undermines copyright (Nimmer 2005).
 
−
* Another criticism is that it worsens [[license proliferation]], by providing multiple licenses that are [[license compatibility|incompatible]]. Most notably, [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 'attribution-sharealike'] and [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ 'attribution-noncommercial-sharealike'] are incompatible, meaning that works under these licenses cannot be combined in a derivative work without obtaining permission from the license-holder.
 
−
==Tools for discovering CC-licensed content==
 
 
*[http://search.creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons' Search Page]
 
*[http://search.creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons' Search Page]
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* [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators Creative Commons' Content Directories]
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*[http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators Creative Commons' Content Directories]
 
*[[Yahoo!|Yahoo]]'s Creative Commons Search
 
*[[Yahoo!|Yahoo]]'s Creative Commons Search
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*[http://www.google.com/advanced_search Google Advanced Search] - select an option under Usage Rights, to search for CC content.
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*[http://www.google.com/advanced_search Google Advanced Search]—select an option under Usage Rights, to search for CC content.
 
*[[Mozilla Firefox]] web browser with default Creative Commons search functionality
 
*[[Mozilla Firefox]] web browser with default Creative Commons search functionality
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*[[Internet Archive|The Internet Archive]] - Project dedicated to maintaining an [[archive]] of [[multimedia]] resources, among which Creative Commons-licensed content
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*[[Internet Archive|The Internet Archive]]—Project dedicated to maintaining an [[archive]] of [[multimedia]] resources, among which Creative Commons-licensed content
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*[[Ourmedia]] - Media archive supported by the [[Internet Archive]]
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*[[Ourmedia]]—Media archive supported by the [[Internet Archive]]
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*[[ccHost]] - Server web software used by ccmixter and Open Clip Art Library
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*[[ccHost]]—Server web software used by ccmixter and Open Clip Art Library
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* [http://musicc.corank.com MusiCC - "Your Free Social Booking" ]
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*[http://musicc.corank.com MusiCC]
  
 
=== Audio and music ===
 
=== Audio and music ===
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*Electrobel Community - More than 10,000 electronic music songs released under one of the CC licences.
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*Electrobel Community—More than 10,000 electronic music songs released under one of the CC licences.
 
*[[iRATE radio]]  
 
*[[iRATE radio]]  
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*Adrenalinic Sound - Italy
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*Adrenalinic Sound—Italy
 
*[[Gnomoradio]]
 
*[[Gnomoradio]]
 
*[[Starfrosch]] Community MP3 Blog with a huge Creative Commons Section
 
*[[Starfrosch]] Community MP3 Blog with a huge Creative Commons Section
−
*[[Jamendo]] - An archive of music albums under Creative Commons licenses  
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*[[Jamendo]]—An archive of music albums under Creative Commons licenses  
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*[[Phlow]] - Magazine that picks Creative Commons music and music from the Netlabel Community on a daily basis
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*[[Phlow]]—Magazine that picks Creative Commons music and music from the Netlabel Community on a daily basis
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*CC:Mixter - A Creative Commons Remix community site.
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*CC:Mixter—A Creative Commons Remix community site.
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*Date a Conocer [www.dateaconocer.com] - A Spanish archive of music under Creative Commons licenses<ref>[http://www.dateaconocer.com/ Música Libre - Date a Conocer. Retrieved May 13, 2008.</ref>
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*[http://www.dateaconocer.com/ Date a Conocer]—A Spanish archive of music under Creative Commons licenses.
  
 
=== Photos and images===
 
=== Photos and images===
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*[http://www.everystockphoto.com/ Everystockphoto.com] – Search engine and member bookmarking for Creative Commons Photos
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*[http://www.everystockphoto.com/ Everystockphoto.com]—Search engine and member bookmarking for Creative Commons Photos
 
*[[Open Clip Art Library]]
 
*[[Open Clip Art Library]]
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*[http://www.ccpics.com/ ccpics.com] - Collection of Creative Commons Photos
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*[http://www.ccpics.com/ ccpics.com]—Collection of Creative Commons Photos
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==See also==
 
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{{Commons|Commons:Copyright_tags#Free_Creative_Commons_licenses|Free Creative Commons licenses on Wikimedia}}
 
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* [[Creative Commons licenses]]
 
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* [[List of works available under a Creative Commons License]]
 
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* [[Copyleft]]
 
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* [[Digital freedom]]
 
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* [[FairShare]]
 
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* [[Free content]]
 
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* [[Free software]]
 
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* [[Gratis versus libre]]
 
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* [[Open content]]
 
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* [[Open source]]
 
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* [[Public domain]]
 
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* [[Science Commons]]
 
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* [[Share-alike]]
 
  
 
==Notes==
 
==Notes==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
 +
 
==References==
 
==References==
−
*Ardito, Stephanie C. "Public-Domain Advocacy Flourishes." ''Information Today'' 20, no. 7 (2003): 17,19.
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*Ardito, Stephanie C. "Public-Domain Advocacy Flourishes." ''Information Today'' 20(7) (2003): 17-19.
−
*Asschenfeldt, Christiane. "[http://agenda.cern.ch/askArchive.php?base=agenda&categ=a035925&id=a035925s5t6/ Copyright and Licensing Issues—The International Commons.]" In ''CERN Workshop Series on Innovations in Scholarly Communication: Implementing the Benefits of OAI (OAI3), 12 February-14 February 2004 at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland''. Geneva: CERN, 2004. (video)
+
*Conhaim, Wallys W. "[http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb020603-2.htm Creative Commons Nurtures the Public Domain.]" ''Information Today'' 19(7) (2002): 52-54.  
−
*Brown, Glenn Otis. "[http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7475 Academic Digital Rights: A Walk on the Creative Commons.]" ''Syllabus Magazine'' (April 2003).
+
*''Cover Pages.'' "[http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2004-04-28-a.html Delivering Classics Resources with TEI-XML, Open Source, and Creative Commons Licenses.]" April 2004. Retrieved May 7, 2020.  
−
*———. "[http://www.plosbiology.org/plosonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0000009 Out of the Way: How the Next Copyright Revolution Can Help the Next Scientific Revolution.]" ''PLoS Biology'' 1, no. 1 (2003): 30-31.
+
*Denison, D.C. "For Creators, An Argument for Alienable Rights." ''Boston Globe.'' December 22, 2002, E2.  
−
*Chillingworth, Mark. "[http://www.iwr.co.uk/iwreview/1155821/ Creative Commons Attracts BBC's Attention.]" ''Information World Review'', 11 June 2004.  
+
*Ermert, Monika. "[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/15/german_creative_commons/ Germany Debuts Creative Commons.]" ''The Register.'' June 2004. Retrieved May 7, 2020.  
−
*Conhaim, Wallys W. "[http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb020603-2.htm Creative Commons Nurtures the Public Domain.]" ''Information Today'' 19, no. 7 (2002): 52, 54.  
+
*Fitzgerald, Brian, and Ian Oi. "[http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00000122/ Free Culture: Cultivating the Creative Commons.]" 2004. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
−
*"[http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2004-04-28-a.html Delivering Classics Resources with TEI-XML, Open Source, and Creative Commons Licenses.]" ''Cover Pages'', 28 April 2004.  
+
*Johnstone, Sally M. "Sharing Educational Materials Without Losing Rights." ''Change'' 35(6) (2003): 49-51.  
−
*Denison, D.C. "For Creators, An Argument for Alienable Rights." ''Boston Globe'', 22 December 2002, E2.  
+
*Lessig, Lawrence. "The Creative Commons." vol.55 ''Florida Law Review'' 763 (1994).
−
*Ermert, Monika. "[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/15/german_creative_commons/ Germany Debuts Creative Commons.]" ''The Register'', 15 June 2004.  
+
*Plotkin, Hal. "[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2002/02/11/creatcom.DTL All Hail Creative Commons: Stanford Professor and Author Lawrence Lessig Plans a Legal Insurrection.]" ''SFGate.com.'' February 2002. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
−
*Fitzgerald, Brian, and Ian Oi. "[http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00000122/ Free Culture: Cultivating the Creative Commons.]" (2004).  
 
−
*Johnstone, Sally M. "Sharing Educational Materials Without Losing Rights." ''Change'' 35, no. 6 (2003): 49-51.  
 
−
*Lessig, Lawrence. "The Creative Commons" (1994) vol.55 ''Florida Law Review'' 763.
 
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* Pasquinelli, Matteo. [http://www.rekombinant.org/docs/Ideology-of-Free-Culture.pdf "The ideology of Free Culture and the Grammar of Sabotage"], Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2008.
 
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*Plotkin, Hal. "[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2002/02/11/creatcom.DTL All Hail Creative Commons: Stanford Professor and Author Lawrence Lessig Plans a Legal Insurrection.]" ''SFGate.com'', 11 February 2002.  
 
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*Schloman, Barbara F. "[http://www.nursingworld.org/ojin/infocol/info_12.htm Creative Commons: An Opportunity to Extend the Public Domain.]" ''Online Journal of Issues in Nursing'', 13 October 2003.
 
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*Stix, Gary. "[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=7&articleID=000C2691-4F88-1E40-89E0809EC588EEDF Some Rights Reserved.]" ''Scientific American'' 288, no. 3 (2003): 46.
 
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*Weitzman, Jonathan B., and Lawrence Lessig. "[http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/archive/?page=features&issue=16 Open Access and Creative Common Sense.]" ''Open Access Now'', 10 May 2004.
 
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Creative-Commons.ogg|2005-12-02}}
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All links retrieved January 11, 2024.
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{{wikiquote}}
 
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{{Commons|Creative Commons icons|Creative Commons icons}}
 
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{{Commons|Creative Commons}}
 
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{{wikisourcecat|Creative Commons}}
 
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{{wikiversity}}
 
  
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{{wikisource|Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License}}
 
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* [http://creativecommons.org/license/ Full selection of licenses]
 
 
* [http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons web site]
 
* [http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons web site]
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* [http://creativecommons.org.tw/licwiz/english.html Creative Commons Licenses Compatibility Wizard]
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** [http://creativecommons.org/license/ Full selection of licenses]
 +
** [http://wiki.creativecommons.org Creative Commons Wiki]
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** [https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/CC_Publisher CCPublisher] -(a tool to tag files with a Creative Commons license and upload them to the Internet Archive)
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*[http://www.lessig.org/ Web site of Lawrence Lessig]. The founder of Creative Commons.
 +
** Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/187 (20 min presentation on video)]
 +
**Lawrence Lessig. [http://free-culture.cc/ Free Culture epublication]
 +
*[http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/ A short Flash animation describing Creative Commons]
  
 +
===Articles===
  
−
*[http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons] and [http://wiki.creativecommons.org Creative Commons Wiki]
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*Hill, Benjamin Mako. (2005). [http://mako.cc/writing/toward_a_standard_of_freedom.html Towards a Standard of Freedom: Creative Commons and the Free Software Movement.] Fri, 29 Jul 2005 13:39:49 -0400.
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*[http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/ A short Flash animation describing Creative Commons]
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*Orlowski, Andrew (2005). [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/21/creativity/ On Creativity, Computers and Copyright]. The Register. Thursday 21st July 2005 01:43 GMT
−
* Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/187 (20 min presentation on video)]
 
−
* [http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=975 Creative Commons Explained: Lawrence Lessig] on ''[[The Hour]]'' with [[George Stroumboulopoulos]]
 
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*[http://www.creativecommons.org/projects/international/ International Commons: Creative Commons initiatives outside the United States]
 
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*[http://creativecommons.org/tools/ccpublisher/ ccPublisher] -(a tool to tag files with a Creative Commons license and upload them to the [[Internet Archive]])
 
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*[http://yergler.net/projects/mozcc/ Plugin] for [[Mozilla Firefox]] -(displays Creative Commons attributes in the status bar)
 
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*[http://www.commoncontent.org/ Common Content]—"a catalog of works licensed in the Creative Commons"
 
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*[http://search.yahoo.com/cc Yahoo! Search for CC content]
 
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*[http://www.podseek.net/directory/podcasting/podsafe_resources.html List of Creative Commons Websites]
 
  
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===Articles===
 
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*[http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/free_issues/issue_01/commons_as_ideas "The Commons: The Commons as an Idea - Ideas as a Commons"] -(article by [[David M. Berry]] about the commons and ideas)
 
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*[http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63857,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4 "''BBC to Open Content Floodgates'' The BBC's Creative Archive project"] -(article in ''[[Wired magazine|Wired]]'' magazine on the BBC's use of Creative Commons licenses)
 
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*[http://www.framasoft.net/article2389.html "Creative Commons: Let’s be creative together"] -(from "Framasoft")
 
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*[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6186259/site/newsweek/ "Take My Music ... Please"] -(a ''[[Newsweek]]'' article about Creative Commons by Brian Braiker)
 
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*[http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1838244,00.asp "Creative Commons Humbug"] -(critical article in ''[[PC Magazine]]'' by [[John C. Dvorak]])
 
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*[http://www.indicare.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=118 "Creative Humbug"] -(critical article by [[Péter Benjamin Tóth]])
 
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**[http://www.indicare.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=124 "Creative Humbug? Bah the humbug, let’s get creative!"] -(response to Tóth's criticism by [[Mia Garlick]])
 
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*[http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/free_issues/issue_05/commons_without_commonality/ Berry, D. M. & Moss, G. (2005). On the “Creative Commons”: a critique of the commons without commonality. Free Software Magazine. No. 5.]
 
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*[http://www.noemalab.org/sections/ideas/ideas_articles/berry_moss_libre_commons.html Berry, D. M & Moss, G. (2005). Libre Commons = Libre Culture + Radical Democracy. Noema. No. 44.]
 
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*[http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/wtr_16073,300,p1.html?trk=nl Fitzgerald, Michael (2005), Copyleft hits a Snag. Technology Review]
 
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*[http://mako.cc/writing/toward_a_standard_of_freedom.html Hill, Benjamin Mako. (2005). Towards a Standard of Freedom: Creative Commons and the Free Software Movement.]
 
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*[http://www.ipinfoblog.com/archives/licensing-law-issues-36-open-source-license-proliferation-a-broader-view.html Nimmer, Raymond (2005). Open source license proliferation, a broader view]
 
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*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/21/creativity/ Orlowski, Andrew (2005). On Creativity, Computers and Copyright. The Register]
 
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*[http://www.indicare.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=118 Tóth, Péter Benjamin. (2005). Creative Humbug: Personal feelings about the Creative Commons licenses]
 
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*[http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/entry-20050920.html Richard Stallman explains his disagreement with Creative Commons]
 
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*[http://people.debian.org/~evan/ccsummary.html A Debian Developer gives his summary of problems discussed on the debian-legal mailing list] (note that this comments on the outdated 2.0 versions of the licenses)
 
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*[http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/000123.html "Why the BBS Documentary is Creative Commons" by Jason Scott]
 
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*[http://greentown.co.uk/design/creativecommons.htm Greentown article] Overview of copyright history from 1556 leading to Creative
 
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*[http://www.opensourcejahrbuch.de/download/jb2006/chapter_06/osjb2006-06-02-en-moeller.pdf Möller, Erik (2006). The Case for Free Use: Reasons Not to Use a Creative Commons NC License. Open Source Jahrbuch 2006.]
 
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* [http://turre.com/images/stories/books/webkirja_koko_optimoitu2.pdf "Community Created Content; Law, Business and Policy" Hietanen, Oksanen and Välimäki]
 
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{{credits|Creative_Commons|211136929|Creative_Commons_licenses|211895738}}
 
{{credits|Creative_Commons|211136929|Creative_Commons_licenses|211895738}}
 
* ''Portions of this article are taken from the Creative Commons website, published under the Creative Commons Attribution License v1.0.''
 
* ''Portions of this article are taken from the Creative Commons website, published under the Creative Commons Attribution License v1.0.''

Latest revision as of 06:20, 11 January 2024

Creative Commons
Creative Commons logo
Founder(s)Lawrence Lessig
TypeNon-profit organization
Founded2001
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California
Flag of United States United States
FocusExpansion of reasonable, flexible copyright
MethodCreative Commons licenses
Websitehttp://creativecommons.org/

The Creative Commons (CC) is a U.S. non-profit corporation founded by Lawrence Lessig in 2001, devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to legally build upon and share. The organization has released several copyright licenses, known as "Creative Commons licenses." These licenses allow the authors to share their works more freely than those protected by traditional copyright laws. Authors can choose from a range of limited rights in between traditional copyright (all rights reserved) and public domain (no right reserved).

Some projects using Creative Commons license are MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) and Public Library of Science.

Creative Commons licenses are currently available in 43 different jurisdictions worldwide, with more than nineteen others under development.[1]

Aim

Creative Commons Japan Seminar, Tokyo 2007

The Creative Commons licenses enable copyright holders to grant some or all of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes including dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms. The intention is to avoid the problems current copyright laws create for the sharing of information.

The project provides several free licenses that copyright owners can use when releasing their works on the Web. It also provides RDF/XML metadata that describes the license and the work, making it easier to automatically process and locate licensed works. Creative Commons also provides a "Founders' Copyright"[2] contract, intended to re-create the effects of the original U.S. Copyright created by the founders of the U.S. Constitution.

All these efforts, and more, are done to counter the effects of what Creative Commons considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive permission culture. In the words of Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons and former Chairman of the Board, it is "a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past."[3] Lessig maintains that modern culture is dominated by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema, and that Creative Commons can provide alternatives to these restrictions.[4]

History

The Creative Commons licenses were pre-dated by the Open Publication License and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). The GFDL was intended mainly as a license for software documentation, but is also in active use by non-software projects such as Wikipedia. The Open Publication License is now largely defunct, and its creator suggests that new projects not use it. Both licenses contained optional parts that, in the opinions of critics, made them less "free." The GFDL differs from the CC licenses in its requirement that the licensed work be distributed in a form which is "transparent," that is, not in a proprietary and/or confidential format.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Creative Commons was officially launched in 2001. Lawrence Lessig, the founder and former chairman, started the organization as an additional method of achieving the goals of his Supreme Court case, Eldred v. Ashcroft. The initial set of Creative Commons licenses was published on December 16, 2002.[5] The project itself was honored in 2004, with the Golden Nica Award at the Prix Ars Electronica, for the category "Net Vision."

The Creative Commons was first tested in court in early 2006, when podcaster Adam Curry sued a Dutch tabloid who published photos without permission from his Flickr page. The photos were licensed under the Creative Commons NonCommercial license. While the verdict was in favor of Curry, the tabloid avoided having to pay restitution to him as long as they did not repeat the offense. An analysis of the decision states, "The Dutch Court’s decision is especially noteworthy because it confirms that the conditions of a Creative Commons license automatically apply to the content licensed under it, and bind users of such content even without expressly agreeing to, or having knowledge of, the conditions of the license.[6]

On December 15, 2006, Professor Lessig retired as chair and appointed Joi Ito as the new chair, in a ceremony which took place in Second Life.

Localization

The original, non-localized Creative Commons licenses were written with the U.S. legal system in mind, so the wording could be incompatible within different local legislations and render the licenses unenforceable in various jurisdictions. To address this issue, Creative Commons International has started to port the various licenses to accommodate local copyright and private law. As of February 2008, there are 43 jurisdiction-specific licenses, with 8 other jurisdictions in drafting process, and more countries joining the project.

Projects using Creative Commons licenses

Several million pages of web content use Creative Commons licenses. Common Content was set up by Jeff Kramer with cooperation from Creative Commons, and is currently maintained by volunteers.

This list provides a short sampling of CC-licensed projects which convey the breadth and scope of Creative Commons adoption among prominent institutions and publication modes.

Criticism

The critical positions taken can be roughly divided up into complaints of a lack of:

  • A political position—Where the object is to critically analyze the foundations of the Creative Commons movement and offer an eminent critique. One of the more notable concerns to be found in this vein of criticism is on the role the Creative Commons plays as an unconcerned corporate filter. As mentioned in Martin Hardie and "Creative License Fetishism," "When one examines closely just exactly what sort of 'freedom' is ultimately to be had within these licenses, one is quick to discover that they are primarily set up as tools meant to feed directly into corporate co-option." Matteo Pasquinelli (2008) describes two fronts of criticism: "Those who claim the institution of a real commonality against Creative Commons restrictions (non-commercial, share-alike, etc.) and those who point out Creative Commons complicity with global capitalism." Pasquinelli specifically criticizes CC for not establishing "productive commons."
  • A common sense position—These usually fall into the category of "it is not needed" or "it takes away user rights" (Toth 2005 and Dvorak 2005).
  • A pro-copyright position—These are usually marshaled by the content industry and argue either that Creative Commons is not useful, or that it undermines copyright (Nimmer 2005).
  • Another criticism is that it worsens license proliferation, by providing multiple licenses that are incompatible. Most notably, "attribution-sharealike" and "attribution-noncommercial-sharealike" are incompatible, meaning that works under these licenses cannot be combined in a derivative work without obtaining permission from the license-holder.

Tools for finding CC-licensed content

Audio and music

  • Electrobel Community—More than 10,000 electronic music songs released under one of the CC licences.
  • iRATE radio
  • Adrenalinic Sound—Italy
  • Gnomoradio
  • Starfrosch Community MP3 Blog with a huge Creative Commons Section
  • Jamendo—An archive of music albums under Creative Commons licenses
  • Phlow—Magazine that picks Creative Commons music and music from the Netlabel Community on a daily basis
  • CC:Mixter—A Creative Commons Remix community site.
  • Date a Conocer—A Spanish archive of music under Creative Commons licenses.

Photos and images

  • Everystockphoto.com—Search engine and member bookmarking for Creative Commons Photos
  • Open Clip Art Library
  • ccpics.com—Collection of Creative Commons Photos

Notes

  1. ↑ Creative Commons, International. Retrieved May 13, 2008.
  2. ↑ Creative Commons, Founder's Copyright. Retrieved April 4, 2006.
  3. ↑ Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (New York: Penguin Press, 2004). Retrieved May 31, 2008.
  4. ↑ Monika Ermert, Germany debuts Creative Commons, Register 2004.
  5. ↑ Creative Commons, Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
  6. ↑ www.groklaw.net, Creative Commons License Upheld by Dutch Court. Retrieved September 2, 2006.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

External links

All links retrieved January 11, 2024.

Articles

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

  • Portions of this article are taken from the Creative Commons website, published under the Creative Commons Attribution License v1.0.
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