Hands down, one of the coolest things to happen to copyright in the past decade is the Creative Commons, a quick and simple way for content creators to share their creative works. Based on the premise that not all authors, artists, programmers, and other creative individuals want to lock-down what they create, the Creative Commons allows for a ‘some rights reserved’ copyright license that’s both easy to understand and use, and backed by some serious legalese.
As a case in point (and an experiment), I’ve created a Creative Commons license for this weblog. It sets the terms for anyone who wants to copy and paste the words and weblinks that I write into a newsletter, magazine, web site, newspaper, or whatever. I give you permission up front, providing you follow a few simple rules (in my case, that you give attribution that I wrote it, and that you do not alter, edit, or create derivative works from it without my specific permission).
It may well be that nobody cares to use this stuff. But it may be that they do. The beauty of the ‘some rights reserved’ license is that I open up the opportunity without having to know that fact in advance. Through a minimal effort, I can release my thoughts and questions to a wider world, which is the point of this weblog, anyway.
So, if you have hole to fill in your organization newsletter, newspaper, or magazine‹or if you just want to print and distribute an entry to your staff, board, friends, or family‹feel free to find an entry you like on this weblog, or a book review, or an ‘uncertain term’, and use it as much as you like. If you want to let me know that you’ve done so, I’d love to know. But that’s entirely up to you.
