CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSING

Commonly associated with the world wide web is the concept of universal access to information and indeed this holds true when considering individual research, but the sharing of any direct information such as photos, quotes or even economic charts is almost always prohibited.  Because copyright laws were created before  the idea of the internet was realized, our legal system stymies our ability to share direct and pertinent information that we have unearthed during our research without express permission from the author.   The ability to copy, or edit source is often unavailable without author permission and this ultimately undermines the idea of universal access, thus a solution to the problem was required and Creative Commons Licensing was proposed. (http://creativecommons.org/about)

Creative Commons Licensing was created to allow for the sharing of all knowledge to help promote creativity throughout the world.  Basically, they created a new standardized method for authors to indicate their sharing preferences while maintaining a legal copyright.   With varying degrees of permission ranging from copy only with no commercial use, to fully edit and remix, authors maintain control over their material while legally and simultaneously allowing any and all people to utilize their material in a new work.   Because their is no registration required to use CC(Creative Commons Licensing) an author simply needs to choose one of six licenses that best suits their work and voila, they have shared their material with the world in a manner that benefits both the creator and the consumer.   

For those truly new to the world of CC, Flickr was one of the first online communities to give photographers the ability to share photos with the world on their own terms by incorporating CC options into its user interface.   Current numbers would suggest a huge success with over 200 million images on Flickr being shared and while this alone might not excite you, I would hope that as educators the notion that a single idea  can be considered, revised, or added to by a group of one billion people, and can maintain its integrity by legally acknowledging the contributions of every author that invokes change, should. (http://creativecommons.org/about)

As the Occupy Movement begins to regain form, and the tuition strikes in Montreal wind down, I am reminded that the free exchange of knowledge is essential for the promotion of the common good.  The elimination of the restrictions upon scholarly materials not only encourages collaboration among teachers, but allows for the presentation of the best material and information to the very students that we have dedicated ourselves to teaching.  In the end it is all about the students, and once we rid ourselves of the selfish act of hoarding inspirational ideas for our own success, the sooner we can do the world a favor by educating its students with the same and best knowledge, available to us all.   Below is a video that further explains the uses and nuances of Creative Commons Licensing.