17 Creative Common Licensing Information

Copyright law is traditionally based on a legacy of physical materials, in which copying multiplied the existing supply of a given intellectual work. In the digital era, our relationship with media and the constraints of duplication, storage, and dissemination are very different. The traditional “All Rights Reserved” copyright keeps material under highly restrictive control for the rights holder, which may be the creator but is in many cases the publisher. Creative Commons licenses are a response to this new environment, and allow for creators to define exactly how they permit others to engage with their intellectual property.

They may not mind copying and adapting, and may in fact encourage it. This is particularly common in academia and education, as permissive sharing allows for greater reach of ideas and more effective learning & teaching across disciplines.

Even when applying a Creative Commons license to their work, the creator still retains the copyright to their intellectual property. By making it available with an open license, they can stipulate how they would like to see their work used and engaged, always with the expectation of attribution. In this way, contributing Creative Commons-licensed material is not altogether different to academic publishing where authors make their scholarship available without a profit interest but anticipate responsible citations of their work.