Creative Commons Presentation for the 2007 Stanford Professional Publishing Course (PDF format)

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that provides free copyright licenses that allow creators to choose how their works can be shared, reused, and built upon. The organization was founded in 2002 to address problems with full copyright, which can sometimes discourage creation and dissemination of works even if creators want their works to be accessible. Creative Commons licenses provide a legal framework that makes it easy for creators to specify how others can use their works while still maintaining copyright over them. This allows for a balance between protecting creator rights and promoting widespread sharing of creative works.