Creative Commons

The Creative Commons is a new web-based initative intended to allow the easy creation, distribution and location of material published using a variety of legal methods, which may include dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms. The intention is to avoid the problems which current intellectual property and copyright law creates for the sharing of information.

The project is providing free licenses that copyright holders can use when they release their works on the web. It also supports RDF/XML metadata formats to enhance automated processing and locating of licensed works.

One recent Creative Commons initiative is the Founders' Copyright, intended to re-create the effects of the originial U.S. Copyright created by the founders of the U.S. Constitution.

Its board of directors include Lawrence Lessig.

The official launch of the Creative Commons took place in 2001.

See also:

• Creative Commons License
• Public domain resources

External link

• The creativecommons.org website (http://creativecommons.org/)