Creative Commons

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Forwarded from the cni-copyright list.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 14:38:27 -0500
From: Michael  Carroll <carroll@law.villanova.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cni-copyright@cni.org>
Subject: Creative Commons

Hi folks,

Last week marked the launch of a new project called Creative Commons, of
which I'm a part.  The idea is to facilitate royalty-free licensing of
copyrighted works, particularly on the Internet.

For those of you who depend on copyright royalties, or whose clients
depend on copyright royalties, for income, licensing some content under a
Creative Commons license may still make sense either as a loss leader or
as advertising.  One option is a non-commercial use license.  Adopting
such a license could increase awareness of the work which could lead
someone to seek the licensor out so as to negotiate a commercial use
license.

For those who are more interested in broad dissemination of their works -
e.g., scholars, amateur photographers, amateur musicians, etc. - rather
than in exercising the control that copyright law presumes you want, this
is a simple way to authorize broader dissemination across the Net.

   I'd be curious to get reactions either on the list or off.

For a Flash presentation, explaining the aims of the project see
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/

The main site is at
http://www.creativecommons.org 

Warm regards,

Michael W. Carroll
Assistant Professor of Law
Villanova University School of Law
299 N. Spring Mill Road
Villanova, PA  19085
(610) 519-7088
(610) 519 5672 (fax)
carroll@law.villanova.edu