Learning Labyrinth

Thing 9 – Learn about Creative Commons (not just for photos)

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I am very excited about Creative Commons and hopeful for the coming future of a shared culture. I often try to explain to teachers that they need to be aware of using copyrighted material in and outside of class. Too often I walk into a classroom to see a teacher searching Google Images in front of the class and then copying and pasting pictures straight from the search results. When I later try to explain that those images are copyrighted and they need to begin using Creative Commons to look for media they look at me with confusion and bewilderment.

I think it is ridiculous that corporations like Disney have gone to such lengths to extend the length of copyright protection. Copyright as it now stands is a parody of its original intent, so maybe it’s appropriate that Mickey Mouse should have held such a prominent role in making it so. The original purpose of copyright was to protect the creator’s right to earn income from their work. It was not intended to lock down all intellectual property for decades and prevent society from creating a shared culture.

It is my hope that more educators around the world began using Creative Commons, so we can begin to grow a shared culture of art, music and science once again. I share my creative work openly with teachers and colleagues in my personal network. However, I hesitate to share openly on the internet because of the legal jargon surrounding many of the applications and tools I have used in its creation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 2:48 pm and is filed under K12L2, copyright vs. creative commons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.