Creative Commons - Week 14

What is 'Creative Commons'?

This week we had a brief lesson in creative commons in which Lars deployed a very motivating video that had some laughing but more wondering what was in store.

So what is it? Well, when you take a photo, make music or shoot a video. It's yours, you own it, you also own the copyright. which means you decide how it is used and who can use it and if it can be copied and shared (or remixed). Creative Commons is a set of licenses that enable lawful collaboration to do things like copy, share and remix. Creative Commons is a way to give permission to everyone to freely reuse your creative works. Hundreds of popular websites use these licences: Wikipedia, Youtube, SoundCloud, etc.

Creative Commons makes us all more free to create.

Creative Commons has been applied to many works and information sources including:

• Books
• Comics
• Educational resources
• Games
• Video Games
• Images/Photos
• Music
• News
• Knowledge, research and science
• Databases and data
• Technology, blueprints and recipes
• Video and film
• Websites

Creative Commons was first presented to the public on 16 October 2002, the first set of licenses were issued on 16 December 2002, this was known as version 1.0. The licenses were compromised of a commons deed which contained a plain-language summary of the licence, the legal code necessary to fine-tune the permissions on offer and a machine-readable translation which helped search engines recognize CC-licensed content. (Geere, 2011)

A month after the presentation to the public the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom that Creative Commons was to be held as constitutional, the only argument presented by the Supreme Court is that there should be some sort of limit for copyright. An hour after the court's decision the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation funded Creative Commons with $1,000,000 to launch the movement. Since then it has completely taken off.(Geere, 2011)

References

Geere, D. (2011, December 13). The history of Creative Commons. Wired UK. Retrieved from https://www.wired.co.uk/article/history-of-creative-commons