Creative Commons and you.

. How much do you know about copyright?



I suppose most people feel that it is a daunting arena of legality, they associate current issues with the hype of Napster and file-sharing at the heels of organizations like the RIAA and/or MPAA. I don't know, if you are out there, please comment and let us know where you are in your understanding/ position.

I know most of my friends aren't as interested in the issues as I am, and that is understandable because I'm flat-chat[1] obsessed. They ask me what they should do when they want to release a song or a poem on the internet. Should they put it out there without any copyright to be cool? Or should they reserve all rights to be safe?

Well, there is this awesome newish paradigm in copyright control that brings the issue to the masses. Remember the poor-man's copyright? Where you put the poem/tape in the sealed registered envelope and sent it to yourself, to someday be opened by a judge in court who would then proclaim you the rightful owner of your now famous material? Yeah, this is sortof like that, but on Steroids.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to the Creative Commons.

Creative Commons offers a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. We have built upon the "all rights reserved" of traditional copyright to create a voluntary "some rights reserved" copyright. We're a nonprofit. All of our tools are free.

Have a look around. It isn't as complicated as you think. In order to do service to the issue, I will be making a few more installments to address some of the more interesting (to me, ha!) aspects of the creative commons and associated issues. If you want me to address some of the more interesting (to you, yay!) aspects, comment and I'll be all about it.

See you then!

[1] Author's Edit. Apparently I picked up this slang somewhere and it isn't universally understood. It means totally, completely, balls-to-the-walls out there, on the line, right there in it, pedal to the floor. Something like that. Wink.