Creative Commons is a global movement with over 50 countries participating, to encourage the distribution and sharing of creative work in the digital age. “Share, Remix, Reuse- Legally”.
Many images and photos found on the internet can be reused on your blog if they carry a creative commons license. In short, creative commons licenses protect the owner of the original licensed work without applying a full copyright, meaning others can use it (with possible restrictions).
This task by Media Practice ( RMIT) helps me to manage my blog better. This is partly making sure it is well-organised and clean of spam, but partly also legal. Working as free-lance journalist and photographer, it is eventually more important to me to understand this issue as to protect the originality of my work.
There is no need for a one-size-fits-all licence and it would actually be disastrous if there were. For this Blog, I chose Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons License.
In brief, this license allows others to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
The license essentially allows others to share the posts that I make, and/or adapt it into any form or medium, provided they attribute the work to me and give me proper due credit. It does not allow commercial use of any of my posts, as I do not want anyone to make money off of my creative ideas without my expressed and explicit permission and/or involvement in the project.
Version 3.0 included a provision allowing a licensor to request that a licensee remove the attribution from an adaptation, if she did not want her name associated with it. Version 4.0 expands that provision to apply not only to adaptations but also to verbatim reproductions of a work.
Final Thought
Take the time to learn more about the specific licenses and then register one for your work (it’s free). I suggest selecting an attribution or attribution share-alike license if you’re interested in the widest exposure possible.
For instant, other publishers and individual photographers need to decide what works best for them. I think we should be clear as to the how’s and why’s of CC when they are looking to participate in the community.
Holding onto your copyright makes complete sense for the professional photography market. This move is our adaptation to the way we see the media landscape changing, where the use of our photographs under the CC license makes more sense then trying to keep them to ourselves ( Wired, 2011).
P/S: this article I found online is pretty great in discussing different issues around Creative Commons.
Check them out: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/16/creatice-commons-chat-with-wiredcom
Confession of a shoppaholic 