Creative+Commons

=Creative Commons= toc

History of Creative Commons
Creative Commons was founded in 2001 in an effort to turn the internet into a truly communal space. The stated vision of Creative Commons is "nothing less than realizing the full potential of the Internet — universal access to research and education, full participation in culture — to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity... To achieve the vision of universal access, someone needed to provide a free, public, and standardized infrastructure that creates a balance between the reality of the Internet and the reality of copyright laws. That someone is Creative Commons." ([|Creative Commons], 2011)

media type="youtube" key="xVk77VQuPAY" height="315" width="420"

Lawrence Lessig, the founder of Creative Commons, believed that ([|Lessig], 2005)
 * 1) Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.
 * 2) The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.
 * 3) Free societies enable the future by limiting the past.
 * 4) Ours is less and less a free society.

In this view, things like copyright and trademarks prevent the future from building upon the past freely and effectively. For this reason, Creative Commons created several licenses that can be used to explicitly give up traditional copyrights (dubbed the "copyleft" movement).

media type="youtube" key="io3BrAQl3so" height="315" width="420"

How Creative Commons Exemplifies the Commons
Strict copyright laws act as locked gates and high fences in the virtual spaces of the internet. They prevent use of "intellectual property" and put the cultural artifacts of our time behind a turnstile, requiring payment for entry. Instead of closing art and other cultural artifacts off from broad use by the community, Creative Commons destroys these barriers and places art and other creative works in the public space to be used and shared by all.

Creative Commons (and other "copyleft" organizations) is a perfect example of the ecological intelligence called for in Bowers' description of the commons. Our current copyright system is not sustainable. As creative works are cut off from use more and more, the cross-pollination that art needs in order to survive is destroyed. Artists and members of the general public have always built upon the creative works of the past to produce tomorrow's masterpieces. The Creative Commons movement represents a more sustainable way of looking at creative works.

media type="youtube" key="1DKm96Ftfko" height="315" width="420"

Creative Commons provides normal people the legal tools required to break down the barriers that prevent the formation of the virtual commons. In the physical world, you may simply put up a sign that says "free water" near a local water source. On the internet, if you want to make something free to use, you can give it a creative commons license.