Creative Commons began in response to what many considered an outdated copyright legal system. The original intent of copyright was to provide a limited monopoly on creative works in order to incentivize creators to create more work and add to society's intellectual capital. However, over time, the continued extension to the length of copyright turned the monopoly into a barrier to those wishing to use and build on the work of others. From this tension the Creative Commons was born.
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CREATIONS |
INTERNET |
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All products of human creation as subjected to copyright |
As Internet appears, sharing and communication dynamics changes significantly. |
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Copyright is generated as a product is created |
Creators are capable of accessing and exchanging creations in unexpected manners |
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Copyright laws regulate the manner in which a product can be shared, copied and modified |
All creations are protected by copyright laws |
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act – also known as the Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or the Mickey Mouse Protection Act – extended copyright terms in the United States in 1998. It is one of several acts extending the terms of copyrights.
The previous (1976) CTEA stated that copyright would last the author's life plus 50 years, 75 years for corporate authorship.
CTEA of 1998 extended 1976 terms to life author plus 70 years. For corporate authorship to 120 years after the creation of 95 years after publication
Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186, was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
Professor Lawrence Lessig believed that CTEA violated constitutional principles.
CTEA extended the copyright to the point in which novel creations could be
compromised. Furthermore, it could discourage authors to produce new creative works, publications, etc., as novelties result from already existing knowledge.
Eric Eldred created and made contributions to internet spaces to share works that came into the public domain. Some examples are Article World and Project Gutenberg.
Eric Eldred is also a co-founder of Creative Commons.
Prof Lessig represented Eldred and together they tried to prove that CTEA was inconstitutional. They lost the case.
Creative Commons is:
Creative Commons began in response to what many considered an outdated copyright legal system. The original intent of copyright was to provide a limited monopoly on creative works in order to incentivize creators to create more work and add to society's intellectual capital. However, over time, the continued extension to the length of copyright turned the monopoly into a barrier to those wishing to use and build on the work of others. From this tension,the Creative Commons was born.
what CC tries to accomplish with its licenses
Copyright licenses different to CC licenses can be very restrictive for all those creators willing to share and spread their work in a collaborative and open way.
The CC licenses are legal tools allowing to share creations to the public in a more permissive fashion .
From my perspective, the usage and lecturing about CC licenses represent an opportunity to discuss about the purpose are searcher pursues, the licenses rise the question what is the aim of my research?.
As long as the licenses generate questions about the purpose of any research or creative work, they operate as a mean to understand the perspective and the potential impact of that work.
Today there are over 2.0 billion works that use Creative Commons licenses, and the Creative Commons organization is involved in global educational efforts to promote open movements in education, cultural institutions, science, and government policy. Creative Commons continues to work to improve the technical infrastructure to make it easier to find and use content in the digital commons.
The CC Global Network welcomes all people interested in strengthen the usage of commons worldwide.