Question re: Lessig and the Creative Commons project

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

I have a question for the Collective Wisdom regarding a brief news item I
just saw in the LJ Academic News Wire.  Referring to Lawrence Lessig's
Creative Commons project, the story said this:

"The Creative Commons, formed by a coalition of academics, is currently
developing tools to make some or all creators' works available to the
public for free. The non-profit organization says it aims to 'lower the
legal barriers to creativity' by allowing creators to immediately share
aspects of their copyrighted works with the public."

I'm sure I'm missing something fundamental here, but it's not clear to me
what problem this project is supposed to solve.  We already have an
excellent "tool to make... creators' works available to the public for
free" -- the Internet.  Assuming that the creator holds the copyright,
there are no legal barriers whatsoever between the creator and the public.  
If I want to write a novel and distribute it freely to the world, I'm at
complete liberty to do so (as long as I haven't sold the copyright to
someone else).

What am I missing or misunderstanding?  Does the Creative Commons have a
website somewhere that might offer additional info?

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno          "Beware any theory that
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rickand@unr.edu