524creative Commonsmcdowell

RUNNING HEAD: CREATIVE COMMONS
Creative Commons Ashley McDowell Azusa Pacific University
CREATIVE COMMONS Abstract
Creative Commons is a form of copyright licensing that allows the user the flexibility to choose the degree to which their work is protected. This type of license is ideal for anyone who wishes to share their work with others and who dont mind if those people use their work as part of another project. At the core, the author just wants to ensure they are given credit when credit is due. Creative Commons licenses use a symbol system so that a user can quickly and easily identify the type of license the user has placed on the work. These licenses are great for teachers who wish to share their creations with the teaching community without being bogged down with strict copyright rules that prohibit other teachers from benefiting from their work. Keywords: attribution, noncommercial, no derivative works, share alike
CREATIVE COMMONS Creative Commons
Educators today are looking for solutions for issues regarding copyright laws and those getting in the way of them being able to use and share materials that they want in their classroom. Creative Commons is offering solutions to help people like teachers in protecting their work with a license, but not restricting others from using it. It helps with making citing and using works of another person much more manageable. Like other copyright policies, Creative Commons offers users the same basic protections of distributing a piece of work without changing it, free of charge. (Creative Commons License, 2012.) The main differences come in how a user can make combinations of the conditions associated with their licenses. There are four conditions from which a user can select to create their license. Attribution Attribution is also referred to as by in the realm of Creative Commons. This condition is applied in all combinations of license options for users. Attribution is also the only condition in which the licensor can choose to have it stand-alone. When a person chooses to have a Attribution alone license the author or licensor is agreeing that the licensee may copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these. (Creative Commons License, 2012, para. 4). Noncommercial The next condition that a licensor can add to their license is that it is a noncommercial license meaning that the work can only be used for noncommercial purposes. While this still
CREATIVE COMMONS
leaves plenty of flexibility open for licensees it also gives the author a little more control over their work and how it can be used. It will only be used for private use. No Derivative Works Another condition that can be added to a Creative Commons license is the No Derivative Works condition. This is probably the most rigid of the conditions offered. It ensures that only verbatim copies of the work may be used. (Creative Commons License, 2012.) This is perfect for those who want to share their work but are concerned about it being altered in any way. Share-alike The fourth and final condition is that of Share-alike. This allows the end user the most freedom as they can distribute derivative works as long as they use the identical license to that of the original work. (Creative Commons License, 2012.) This seems to offer end users the option to make something their own so that it best serves their purpose. Licensing Options There are six licensing options that are available for individuals to choose from. Since each license offers a simple symbol guide it is easy to determine what a license does and does not include. The list of potential options for a licenses is: Attribution Attribution-ShareAlike Attribution NoDerives Attribution-Noncommercial Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs
CREATIVE COMMONS
Creative Commons Layers Creative Commons is an innovative new licensing option that is much different than anything before. The company utilizes what they refer to as a three-layer design. (About the Licenses, 2012.) The first layer of the license covers the legal side of the license and is called Legal Code. This is designed specifically for lawyers if an issue is ever to arise. The second layer is what they refer to as the Human Readable layer. The beauty of this layer is that it includes much of the same information that the Legal Code layer does but in language that is accessible to the general population. They also refer to this layer as the Commons Deed. The third and final layer is the Machine Readable layer. This layer helps search engines to know when a work is available under a Creative Commons license. (About the Licenses, 2012.) Creative Commons Users Creative Commons offers many options that work for a wide range of professionals. Many large business such as Google, Flickr, and Wikipedia use Creative Commons to license their works. The Obama Administration has even used CC licenses in much of their campaigning to allow others to easily use it to further their cause. (Who Uses CC?, 2012). Educators fall perfectly into the group that uses Creative Commons licenses. There are several online-based education resources such as Open Course Library that use this to protect, and share their work all at the same time. (OER Case Studies, 2012.) 21st Century Relevance Creative commons is a great tool for the 21st century. It is very early in its life, only being founded in 2001 and version 1.0 was released in 2002. Growing from one million users in 2003 to over 350 million users in 2009 the program as proven to be effective in protecting the work of
CREATIVE COMMONS
others. (History, 2009) During that time they had many of the big name companies transition over to Creative Commons licenses. Those who founded the company were progressive for their time and as of late more and more people are realizing that is truly the way to go. Conclusion Creative Commons is a copyright licensing option for those who wish to share their work but are not as concerned about detailed and confusing copyright laws. Creative Commons is straightforward and offers users on both ends the freedom to share and use materials in ways that other licensing options do not allow for. The flexibility that this license allows makes it the perfect choice for professionals such as teachers since it allows them to choose how much they share and what the end user can do with their work. The world is changing and much of our work is on display for the world to see. Copyright licensing such as Creative Commons helps to ensure that whats ours stays ours and what is theirs stays theirs.
CREATIVE COMMONS References About the licenses. Creative Commons. Retrieved July 26, 2012 from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Before licensing. Creative Commons. Retrieved July 27, 2012 from http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Before_Licensing Creative commons license. In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 28, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license History. Creative Commons. Retrieved July 27, 2012 from http://creativecommons.org/about/history OER case studies. Creative Commons. Retrieved July 28, 2012 from http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OER_Case_Studies Who uses cc? Creative Commons. Retrieved July 26, 2012 from http://creativecommons.org/who-uses-cc

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RUNNING HEAD: CREATIVE COMMONS

Creative Commons Ashley McDowell Azusa Pacific University

CREATIVE COMMONS Abstract

CREATIVE COMMONS Creative Commons

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