Sharing
Intellectual Property: Creative Commons
In
the Open Systems environment, software can be created and shared
freely, under certain rules.
Intellectual property experts like Lawrence Lessig have long
argued that
it should be possible for any owner of intellectual property of
any type
to place his IP out into the community for shared usage, completed
unfettered, or with whatever restrictions the IP owner might
require.
With the help of IP experts and law students, that day has now
arrived.
Visit the Creative Commons site at http://www.creativecommons.org/
for
the rules that govern this new idea. Here you will find
information as well as engines that will generate licenses, finely
tuned to any IP owner’s needs. The licenses are free,
machine-readable, and provide the
basis for more sharing.
It’s not at all limited to software, but rather includes ANY IP
– music,
written material, art, etc., etc.
We are fascinated to the attention to detail – I can send off a
piece of
writing and protect its content against change, restrict how
it’s used
(only for non-commercial use, except by permission, for example),
and so
forth.
Some copyright owners may choose to share their IP in an
unrestricted
way my waiving all their rights and declaring No Rights Reserved,
dedicating their work to the public domain. This allows
others to use
such work in any way they might find useful.
The hope is that an easy, straightforward
way to protect IP but still
share it will encourage creators of every type to share their
creations
with the world. The motivation is simply self-interest –
Copyright
owners independently choose to give up some or all of their IP
rights
because they believe sharing their work will be useful to them –
or
because they want to contribute to the community’s available IP
wealth.
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