Creative Commons
Founded in 2001, Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization with headquarters centered in California and over 100 affiliates located throughout the world.[1] CC aims to facilitate the legal sharing of creative works. To this end the organization provides a number of copyright license options to the public, free of charge. These licenses allow copyright holders to define conditions under which others may use a work and to specify what types of use are acceptable. Terms of use have traditionally been negotiated on an individual basis between copyright holder and potential licensee. Therefore, a general CC license outlining which rights the copyright holder is willing to waive enable the general public to use such works more freely. Four general types of CC licenses are available. These are based upon copyright holder stipulations such as whether the he or she is willing to allow modifications to the work, whether he or she permits the creation of derivative works and whether he or she is willing to permit commercial use of the work.[2]
Individuals may register for a CC license via the Creative Commons website. As of 2009 approximately 130 million individuals had received such licenses.
==References==
- ^ Creative Commons Website http://creativecommons.org/ retrieved October 24, 2011.
- ^ Rubin, R. E. (2010) "Foundations of Library and Information Science: Third Edition", Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., New York, p. 341