Creative Commons is a not lucrative organisation created with the purpose of expanding the creative work available for others legally to share. To do it they give lisences that permit their holders grant part of their copyright and, at the same time, retain some rights. It includes metadata, portals, archives, blogs, and many other works. One of the projects involved in it is the omnipresent Wikipedia.
It was launched in 2001 and it’s headquarter is located in San Francisco. Although at the beginning there was no serious criticism about their work, it has been later been accused of not fulfilling all its objectives. It has been said that it is an unconcerned corporate filter, that it simply takes away user’s rights and that it undermines copyright.
It is anyway a very practical and simple tool for the user. Just go and check it!
Note: This summary was taken from the wikipedia article but if you want to learn more about it you can go to the biblipgraphy.
Bibliography
Berry, David, “Is the Creative Commons missing something?”, Free Sofware Magazine, http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/commons_without_commonality/(accessed January 8, 2008)
Conhaim, Wallys W., “Creative Commons Nurtures the Public Domain”, Computers in Libraries”, http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=17167, (accessed January 8, 2008)
Lessig, Laurence, “Creative Commons and the Remix Culture”, Talking with Talis, http://talk.talis.com/archives/2006/01/lawrence_lessig.html (accessed January 8, 2008)
Wikipedia contributors, “Creative Commons,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creative_Commons&oldid=182909754 (accessed January 8, 2008)
