Thing #23 - Creative Commons

I thoroughly explored the Creative Commons website. Credentials for many of the developers and staff members are impressive. A lot of exceptionally intelligent people are involved with this project. I am so excited by this effort at simplifying copyright issues and promoting sharing of great ideas and works that I purchased a shirt from them to show my support. Granted, I didn't make it all the way through the "human-readable summary of the Legal Code," (I could have used the "version for dummies") but I think I got the gist of it.

As others have mentioned, copyright is so complicated that probably only lawyers really understand it. The first time I found a book with "permission to reproduce" pages, I was ecstatic! As a band director, I ended up making many of my own theory sheets because most commercially available materials required the purchase of one workbook per student. I didn't have the budget for that, nor did I want to require students to purchase something else. I realize that creators often depend on sales of their work for their livelihood, but often, materials are created by people (especially educators) who don't mind sharing. Creative Commons licensing adds those works to a searchable database that educators and students can use without worrying excessively about all of the "fair use" details. Symbols designating specific copyright permissions and/or restrictions are very helpful.

The copyright video was pretty funny, but a little long and difficult to understand (one must listen very attentively to catch the words). I don't think it would go over with most of the faculty members at my school, but I laughed several times!

Creative Commons credits appear throughout the LearningThroughPlay program. These credits are included on each page:

Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for Learning 2.0 Through Play has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.Additional content for this program borrowed and duplicated with permission from School Library Learning 2.0 by the California School Library Association.L2.0 LearningThroughPlay logo used with permission from Victorian Public Libraries Learning 2.0 project.

Various Creative Commons symbols appear in many of the linked resources as well.

Our libraries need to educate students and faculty about Creative Commons options. Now that we know about it, we can license our own creations with applicable rights and share them with others. These symbols definitely help cut through copyright confusion and red tape.