Creative Commons: What is Creative Commons

 

WHAT IS CREATIVE COMMONS?

A Dialogue

[Librarian and an Administrator].

Admin: So, why have you decided to make a guide on… what did you call it… “creative commons”?

Librarian: Actually, it’s “Creative Commons”, capital C’s! I thought it would be a great topic … and a great fit… for our college community.

Admin: Okay, “Creative Commons” then. I’ve heard a few things about it, but what really is it? Where did it come from?

Librarian: Without getting too much into copyright (on which I can’t give you any legal advice… so don’t ask), it basically regulates who can share with who. The copyright holder has blanket control over the work that they create, who can copy it, share it, adapt it, etc. for a specified amount of time.

Admin: Is that what the “All Rights Reserved” thing is about?

Librarian: You got it. Well, along comes the internet and its ability to share works on a monumental level, a real game changer.  So it became clear, very quickly, that there was an innate tension between copyright’s hold on sharing and the capacity of the internet’s ability to share.

Admin: Tension, eh? Well, people can live with a little tension in their lives, right?

Librarian: Up to a point. The problem is that the U.S. Constitution’s take on copyright was that the creator was to be granted limited time control over his/her creation, so when that time was up the work would pass into the public domain. There it would join the body of human knowledge and hopefully inspire others to create more. It was meant as an incentive to create!

Admin: So what’s the problem with that?

Librarian: Well, turns out some people didn’t like the idea of eventually losing control of their works and the revenues which came with them. In response, the people in charge just kept increasing the amount of time a work would be kept under copyright. The tipping point came with the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998, which added another twenty years to the copyright. So it became the life time of the creator plus 70 years!

Admin: Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher?

Librarian: Yep, also, congressman from California.

Admin: Oh, I see, kind of like Jesse “The Body” Ventura.

Librarian: Well, Ventura was actually a governor, but kind of. The act is also sometimes referred to as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act”, as Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” (1928) was just about to pass into public domain.

Admin: So where does Creative Commons fit in?

Librarian: Well, there was this lawyer…

Admin: Of course there was.

Librarian: … named Lawrence Lessing, who believed that the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA, for short) was unconstitutional, lessening the incentive for people to create, which went against what had been intended in the Constitution. The copyright terms were just always being extended. At the same time there was an online publisher, named Eric Eldred, who had been publishing works as they passed into the public domain, who also felt the CTEA was unfair and against the spirit of the law.

Admin: Sounds like the two of them would get along.

Librarian: They apparently did, joining forces to pose a case against the CTEA. Their case, Eldred vs. Ashcroft, made it all the way to the Supreme Court… where it was shot down. Eldred lost.

Admin: So much for that then.

Librarian: This is where it gets interesting tho. Lessig and others were inspired by Eldred’s cause and saw the extent to which works were being created, shared, and remixed on the internet. What if creators had a choice in how their works were shared beyond the rigid rules of copyright and yet still permissible by copyright laws?

Admin: Really?

Librarian: Yep, this is where Creative Commons comes in. Lessig and other professional supporters, including Eldred, created a non-profit organization, the Creative Commons, in 2001, dedicated to advocate for open licensing and educational access to created works. In 2002 they published the Creative Commons licenses, which allow a creator to choose how they want their work to be shared and used, while still retaining their copyright.

Admin: What do you mean, how they wanted to share?

Librarian: Using a set of CC logos or icons, the creator can set how they allow their work to be used. Some just want to be identified as the creator, an “attribution” (BY), but otherwise a person can do what they want with the work. Some are more rigid and say “no derivatives” (ND), you can’t change my work, but you can distribute it. Some let you remix. Some prohibit you from making money off of their work or your adaptation (NC, non-commercial), others don’t care. There is another license that allows you to only license your newly derived work as they did, it’s called “share alike” (SA). And of course combinations of these licenses. 

Admin: “Share alike”. I like the sound of that… sounds like “paying it forward”, as the cool kids say. They still say that, right?

Librarian: I think so. The CC movement is about advocating to make knowledge available to everyone, equitable, you know. And, of course, growing the open resources and the process of how people access them. They’ve done a pretty good job, seeing as there are roughly 2 billion works with CC licenses and public domain tools today.[1]

Admin: So how does the college get involved?

Librarian: Well, we’re doing it right now. Advocating for CC and increasing awareness in our community about its benefits is a start. We do have several professors here at Tarrant County College that are already creating and adopting CC licensed works for their classes, not to mention our zero textbook cost (ZTC) classes that combine real OER with our proprietary library database materials.

Admin: Are there professional organizations, associations, etc?

Librarian: Using Creative Commons licensing is free, as is being part of the CC movement in general. However, we could also get in contact with the CC Global Network ( network-support@creativecommons.org ) to become an official member of that community, so we can help work together on projects and activities that further the goals of Creative Commons.

Admin: This does sound like a good start. So what’s next on your guide? Something on Copyright Law?

Librarian: Let’s see how this one turns out first.

 

 

"What is Creative Commons?: A Dialogue" by Phil Jensen, Tarrant County College is licensed under CC BY 4.0