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- 2 - CHAPTER 1 1.1 | THE STORY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

To understand how a set of copyright licenses could inspire a global movement, you need to know a bit about the origin of Creative Commons (CC).


 * Retell the story of why Creative Commons was founded
 * Identify the role of copyright law in the creation of Creative Commons

What were the legal and cultural reasons for the founding of Creative Commons? Why has CC grown into a global movement?

Creative Commons’ founders recognized the mismatch between what technology enables and what copyright restricts, and in response they have provided an alternative approach for creators who want to share their work with others. Today this approach is used by millions of creators around the globe.

When did you first learn about Creative Commons? Think about how you would articulate what CC is to someone who has never heard of it. To fully understand the organization, it helps to start with a bit of history.

Acquiring Essential Knowledge

The story of Creative Commons begins with copyright. You’ll learn a lot more about copyright later in this book, but for now it’s enough to know that copyright is an area of law that regulates the way the products of human creativity are used—products like books, academic research articles, music, and art. Copyright grants a set of exclusive rights to a creator, so that the creator has the ability to prevent others from copying and adapting their work for a limited time. In other words, copyright law strictly regulates who is allowed to copy and share with whom.

The Internet has given us the opportunity to access, share, and collaborate on human creations (all governed by copyright) at an unprecedented scale. But the sharing capabilities made possible by digital technology are in tension with the sharing restrictions embedded within copyright laws around the world.

Creative Commons was created to help address the tension between creators’ ability to share digital works globally and copyright regulation. The story begins with a particular piece of copyright legislation in the United States. It