CC in a nutshell

Ok. So, the Creative Commons currently has a newsletter that explains their history and purpose. If you are very interested in the history and philosophy of CC, go read the archives and/or sign up for yourself. If you are just interested in the bare-bones practical aspects of the licenses, this post is for you. In the spirit of CC, I attribute and reformat to make it easier for the casual browser and average writer/composer/producer to digest. Stay tuned for the last of my comments on the creative commons and you.

• The Creative Commons (CC) is a response to the difficulty of utilizing copyright law effectively given the Internet; the inability of the traditional framework to cope well with the tremendous changes that the Internet and related technologies present to the economy.
• The basic idea of the CC is taken from the Free Software Foundation: Give copyright licenses away for free.
• Traditional copyright leaves too many potential uses of a work unregulated: the act of reading a book is not covered by copyright because no copy of the work has been made.
• In cyberspace, there is no way to read a book without making a copy.
• In principle, any use of a work in cyberspace would require permission from the copyright owner.
• CC does not seek to eliminate proprietary culture, it seeks to build a buttress of freely available culture.
  
• CC was created as a way to allow authors to announce to the world the freedoms that they wish their work to carry.
• Copyright: All rights reserved.
• CC: Some rights reserved.
• There are Four Basic Components to the CC license scheme:
1. Attribution
2. Non-Commercial
3. No Derivatives
4. Share Alike (any derivative made using the licensed work must also be released under a Share Alike license)
• 98% of original adopters chose the Attribution option, so the core licenses have dropped Attribution as an option (it is now automatically included), the six resultant core licenses of the CC are as follow:
1. Attribution (use the work however you like, but give me attribution)
2. Attribution-ShareAlike (use the work however you like, but give me attribution, and license any derivative under a Share Alike license)
3. Attribution-NoDerivatives (use the work as is, and give me attribution)
4. Attribution-NonCommercial (use the work for noncommercial purposes, and give me attribution)
5. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (use the work for noncommercial purposes, as is, and with attribution)
6. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (use the work for noncommercial purposes, give me attribution, and license any derivative under a ShareAlike license)
• Creative commons licenses are default.

  A 'Noncommercial' license does not mean the creator would never take money for his or her creativity. It means simply, 'Ask if you want to make a commercial use. No need to ask if you want to make just a noncommercial use.'