Creative Commons: Some Rights Reserved
If each person was to receive a dollar for every time their assignment had to be rushed and completed half heartedly in order to get it in on time, it would be very likely that some people would have enough money to buy themselves dinner at an overpriced restaurant. If only relevant journal articles could be copied and pasted into assignments without the worry of referencing or quoting where the information from the assignment came from, much better essays would be produced and they would be finished with plenty of time to spare. Although, what’s the point of that? Nobody would never really learn anything, and everyone in the class would be producing top quality work. This essay is based on the topic Creative Commons, also known as CC. Even though there are both positive and negative argument towards Creative Commons, this essay is focusing towards the reasons as to why Creative Commons will need to play a big part in the future of media and technology.
Creative Commons is a non-profitable service which has been around for 8 years. Michael Baumann (2009) says “it serves as a digital tour guide for intellectual property licences.” Without copyright laws we would have the right to use other people’s work for our own. Ever wanted to perform someone else’s song without acknowledging who wrote or produced it, or ever wanted to use a peer reviewed article in an assignment and said it was your own? If copyright laws didn’t exist, we would be able to perform Britney Spears’ latest song and call it our very own, not that we would want to, however this would be acceptable (Gordon-Murnane, 2005). However what if you wanted your work to be recognised by others? What if you didn’t mind that your music was being used in a movie, as long as you were being recognised as the creator? This is where CC licensing is introduced. Rather than the traditional “all rights reserved”, CC offers an alternative system which offers “some rights reserved” (Anonymous, 2006).
A brief explanation of the copyright laws and free licensing is accessible on the Creative Commons website. The Creative Commons website also offers eight special licences, six basic licences and a core licensing engine. Music sampling and sharing along with contributing works to public domain is all covered by Creative Common’s ‘special licences’, whereas, the ‘basic licence’ offers various options for authors. Butler (2005) states the basic licence also includes “the offering of works for mere attribution (credit), restricting use to non-commercial purposes, permitting adaptation (derivative use) and requiring users to ‘share alike’ if they make changes.”
Below are examples of the four basic conditions of licensing, which are also mentioned above:
1. Attribution – credit must be given to you whenever someone uses your work as a public domain.
2. Share Alike – Anyone is allowed to edit, remix, or build on your work. However one condition applies: The licensing agreement that the derivative works are distributed under must be identical to the original.
3. Non-commercial –Your work can be copied or distributed by anyone, although it cannot be derived or used for commercial purposes. “The non-commercial licence condition keeps the spirit of sharing and creation for the public good.”
4. No Derivative Works – Your work can not be edited or remixed, but it can be copied, displayed or distributed. For example, if you produced a movie, nobody but yourself has the rights to change or distort it; however they can copy or issue it out.
These four basic licensing conditions can be used in different combinations to make up any basic or special CC licence (Baumann, 2009). If an unsigned song writer is looking to create a fan base, they are best off applying for a Creative Commons licence. A Non-commercial CC licence would best suit an unsigned song writer who has career objective. This is because a Non-commercial CC licence allows the writer to reserve the commercial rights to their music (Anonymous, 2006). Flickr offers a range of photos under a CC licence. There are several photos on the site, some with a combination of CC licences, and some with just a basic CC licence. Another organisation which incorporates CC licensing is Jamendo. They provide free download and streaming of music published under a Creative Commons licence. CC licences have also been welcomed by the open access (OA) community. Author of Open Access News, Peter Suber states “Creative Common’s licences are terribly useful. They are very easy to implement. They come in a good variety of flavours, including several that closely match the best public definitions of open access (Anonymous, 2007).” More information regarding Peter Suber’s views on Creative Commons can be found on his website.
Another reason as to why there are multiple arrangements regarding CC licences is due to the fact that Creative Commons doesn’t just stop at music and media, it also continues on to science and technology.
"Great science and medicine is teamwork, disputation and the resulting creativity and progress in the world needs sharing and a much wider understanding among a more literate public (Anonymous, 2006).”
No matter what classification your work may lie in, if one’s creation is envied by the public, they will more than likely want their work to be shared. That’s why Creative Commons is becoming extremely popular towards the people of art, music, technology and science. With Creative Commons, they know their work will be used and shared as the way they want it to be within the public. Donations and support can be given to Creative Commons through their website. One of the many ways to help Creative Commons is by simply joining their network. To do so click on the following website, Creative Commons Support.
References
Journal Articles
ANONYMOUS (2006) Made for Sharing. Creative Review, 1.
ANONYMOUS (2007) Common Touch on Rights. Information World Review, 1.
BAUMANN, M. (2009) An Insider's guide to Creative Commons. Information Today, 26, 1.
GORDON-MURNANE, L. (2005) Generosity and Copyright: Creative Commons and Creative Commons Search Tools. Searcher, 13, 8.
GOULD, P. (2004) Creative Commons ponders share options. Nature. London.
Websites
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/hometoc.htm
http://www.creativecommons.org.au/
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
https://support.creativecommons.org/
www.jamendo.com/
