Let's Get Creative with Creative Commons

Editor's Notes

• #3: In August, 1787 “James Madison submitted to the framers of the Constitution a provision ‘to secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time.’” And so, the copyright in the United States was born, protected by the US Constitution and allowing for legal protection of certain works, like books for example, the idea was that copyright would stimulate authors and others to create knowing they had control of their works. This worked great for over two hundred years. As time moved forward, copyright law expanded and evolved to cover new media like audio recordings and film. Then came the Internet and copyright evolved to encompass webpages and software used on the Internet. Somewhere in the late nineties, certain individuals and groups, like the Center for the Public Domain decided that a new type of copyright should be created, The idea was not to do away with regular copyright but rather create a variant. …. A variant of copyright, that lets the creators of their work, easily modify the terms of their copyright. Thus, in 2001, the Creative Commons organization was born. So what is Creative Commons? Let’s get creative with Creative Commons and we will see. Source: United States Copyright Office. Uninited States Copyright Office: A brief introduction and history. [Circular 1a] Retrieved July 7, 2015 from http://copyright.gov/circs/circ1a.html
• #4: So, as I mentioned previously, Creative Commons was designed with the intent of allowing authors, artists, and others to easily waive some of their rights for the purposes of allowing users the ability to be creative with the creators’ works. Pretty much the way copyright is designed, unless something is in the public domain, if someone wants to use someone else’s work, they would need to contact the copyright holder and get permission. This is time consuming and interruptive, both for the person desiring to use the material that is copyrighted, and for the copyright holder. Now, I know your secretly asking, what types of Creative Commons Licenses are there? Let’s take a look.
• #5: So, what are some of the various licenses? There are six. Six basic, and most commonly used, Creative Commons licenses. And they are: Attribution is represented with the symbols shown and the letters “CC-BY” This one is the most basic in that, it states that someone can do pretty much whatever they like, with the work, so long as they attribute the original author named in the license. Is Attribution-Share Alike and it is represented by the letters CC-BY-SA. It is like number 1, except that it adds the qualifier that you maintain the license as is. Thus, I suspect that means you cannot make the license any more or any less res. Number 3 is Attribution and No Derivs. This license uses the letters CC-BY-ND. This license allow for anything, except that the user must not alter the original. In other words, you cannot add to the material. So for example, a music teacher wants to use a CC song for her choir class. She can, with no problems, so long as she does the modify the song in any way. This next license, number 4, removes the No Derivs but adds Non-Commercial. The designators are CC-BY-NC. What this means is that it cannot be used to make any profit. Wow, this a great song and it would make a great Jingle except that it can’t be used for commercial purposes. Better pick a different song for your jingle. So, the last two ramp up the restrictions a little bit by adding another qualifier. Let’s take a look Number 5 is like number 4 except it adds another qualifier. Namely, that a user must also share alike. So, the license cannot be modified. The Letter qualifiers are, CC-BY-NC-SA. So then, the work would be attributable, cannot be used for commercial purposes, and cannot have its Creative Commons License modified by the user. Finally, we come to number 6. This one, according to the Creative Commons website, says of the six, it is the most restrictive. So, what do we see? We see, Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, and No Derivatives. This of course translates to: Name the creator, do not use commercially, and do not make any changes for the work. There are other variations but the ones just mentioned, are the most common licenses used according to the Creative Commons website. So, what does a CC license actually look like? Well you might have seen one on certain websites.
• #6: Here is an example of a Creative Commons License banner that I created for my website in a Web design course and it was my first Creative License. Let’s go through it. We first see the disclaimer, “except where otherwise noted.” This means just what it says. I had a couple of very short music audo clips that were copyrighted, I used the fair-use provision of the copyright law and identified the copyright holder and composer. That is what “except where otherwise noted” means. Moving along, we see the name of the website was, in this case, “A Home Recording Studio.” I am the author of the site and the site holds a Creative Commons License that states, the author is to be identified, the content can only be used for Non-commercial purposes, and the content must be shared without any modifications to the license. Now what is interesting is that I also added “based on a work at” and I gave the web address. Looking back, I don’t think this line was needed. If I am not mistaken, that last line is what is used when the work is a derivative. Since I was the creator, the work would not have been derived. So, I think its fair to say that statement doesn't need to be there. One last thing, if you notice at the top, there are the various symbols and letter combinations describing my license. CC-BY-NC-SA, which were mentioned previously. Now I know your really wanting to find out how to get your own Creative Commons License, Actually, its easy –let’s take a look….
• #7: And the reason there is no attorney needed is because it is very easy to set up and all of the legal aspects have been created for you. It’s true! There is absolutely no fee involved in setting up a creative commons license. However, the organization is a non-profit, so you can donate to them if you want. So, how do you get a Creative Commons License? What are the steps involved? Well first, go to their website, www.creativecommons.org. From there, click on the drop-down tab, at the top of the page that says, “Licenses.” Then click “Choose a License.” You should be taken to the license page, from their just follow the directions, and your done.