Monday, February 15, 2010
Cyberspace is an unlimited realm composed of people and media content. This media content consists of artwork, music, images and more user creations. What happens when you create something, upload it to the Internet and a week later you see someone else using your material without your permission, and even worse, without giving you any credit?
When people create media, artwork, or anything made from scratch, they own copyright to the material. They have an “all rights reserved” copyright, where people can’t duplicate, use or sell the work without the creator’s permission. For example, when musicians create music through a music label, their songs get approved for copyright as long as they aren’t using another artist’s work without permission. There are certain standards that must be met in order to obtain copyright for media outside of the Internet. In regards to cyberspace, there’s no way to police all the media content but obtaining a license online isn't too difficult. Social networking sites, flickr.com, blogs, and other websites don’t have to follow any copyright laws so the pressure of protecting the rights to your own creation is even more prominent. People upload modifications or originals of copyrighted pictures all the time, even on Facebook, and these websites can't regulate the usage of the media.
Some creators don’t mind if other people on the Internet use their work. However, sharing created work may be an atrocious thought for those who are very protective of their work but with many forms of media being available today on the Internet, it’s better to be safe than sorry by licensing online media. That’s where Creative Commons comes in. It’s a non-profit organization that provides licensing options to Internet users. Singers like Kendra Springer has used Jamendo, a music search site with Creative Commons licensed material, to provide her music for listeners to enjoy.
Creative Commons is a useful tool for independent content producers to license their creations on the Internet. The licensing options vary, from “All rights reserved” to “Some rights reserved.” Different attributions for these licenses can be viewed here. Musical Artists like Josh Woodward use Creative Commons to provide their music for free online while allowing listeners to use the songs for videos or other purposes as long as they give Woodward credit. New York Cartoonist Matthew Diffee may upload a cartoon he created an choose to license it as “All rights reserved” which would mean a viewer cannot alter the cartoon in any way.For those that want nothing to do with copyright, they can license their work as "no rights reserved" to let easy and open access to viewers. People can take the creator's work and modify it any way they like. If I created a song and chose this kind of licensing, people can take apart the song, build upon it, modify it and even use it without giving me credit since I claim no rights over it.
According to the video by Creative Commons below, “Copyright protects your creativity against uses you don’t consent to.”
Creative commons allows free copyright licenses to allow people to tell others what parts of their work is allowed to be used. So let's say I want to license a political cartoon I created. I can choose an appropriate Creative Commons license and let viewers know if they can reproduce it, alter it or post it on their pages as long as they give me credit.
After doing intensive research on Creative Commons and reading their Facts and Questions page, I have come to the conclusion that Creative Commons is an innovative tool to help users protect their work while allowing for the distribution of it, especially for educational purposes. If I were to create something one day, I know that I wouldn't want someone to take my work without giving me credit. Additionally I don't want to ever violate someone's copyright by misusing or misrepresenting their work.
Microsoft allows people to download an add-in to quickly license their work in Microsoft 2007. I think Microsoft backing up Creative Commons is very helpful to the non-profit organization and efficient for the creators. There's no lengthy process involved in obtaining a Creative Commons license for your work. The download add-in can be viewed here.
The Creative Commons website quotes, “The idea is to protect you from abuse while offering a stated public license to your work which allows you to specify what rights are reserved, including copyright." Even the White House's website has media content under the Creative Commons license! This non-profit organization may not be able to police the proper use of media content online, but it does raise awareness about online copyright usage and help further the sharing of media content online!
Further information about Creative Commons can be found here.
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Works Cited:
T-Shirt "Some Rights Reserved" Image found at: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2361/2117607887_300a5869c0.jpg licensed by Creative Commons.
Josh Woodward CD Picture found through Creative Commons Search site http://search.creativecommons.org/# licensed by Creative Commons.
Kendra Springer Music link obtained from Jamendo: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/55571. Creator of music is Kendra Springer, music licensed by Creative Commons.
Creative Commons video from organization's website created by Creative Commons, embedded from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhimdwoWM5A&feature=related licensed by Creative Commons.
Creative Commons Website link: http://creativecommons.org/ licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
3 Comments:
I like the licensing deal that Creative Commons offers, but I still have reservations. What if you have your work copyrighted and someone uses it. Then what do you do?
What's interesting is that you mentioned social networking sites don't need to follow any copyright laws...I had absolutely no idea of this. It's actually kind of a scary thought. But I wonder if that means the Creative Commons license (like the "non-commercial use" license) has any effect on whether they use your content?
Great use of media in your blog! The video especially helped with understanding Creative Commons, and it's great that you gave examples of many types of media we're able to use with a Creative Commons copyrights.
Shahnaz! One of the best post yet. You seem to really understand that CC is about a different way to license, protect, profit from and share your work. Great analysis and very good examples.
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