Creative Commons (CC) provides free tools that allow artists, authors, educators and scientists to easily mark their creative work with the licensing freedoms they want it to carry. Creative Commons licensing can be used by the owner to change the standard copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”

Copyright tells you what you CAN’T do, Creative Commons tells you what you CAN do.

The following concise video presents an easy to understand explanation of Creative Commons using work licensed under CC licenses. It aims to elevate public awareness of the colossal amount of content that is freely shared by people all over the world under CC licensing.

While watching this video, my personal “Aha!” moment occurred when presented with the key idea that Creative Commons is about moving away from CONTENT and focusing more on COMMUNITY.

A Shared Culture

Director: Jesse Dylan | Producers: Michelle Meier and Priscilla Cohen | Editor: Justin Giugno | Cinematographer: Francis Kenny

Source: YouTube Videos – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DKm96Ftfko

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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.