Copyright Law

Creative Commons is a licensing system that enables authors to grant the rights to use their own work. It opposes copyright with a culture of the free exchange of intellectual property.

The large, encircling “C” stands for “copyright”. Anyone who produces something such as pictures, music, texts or films has, according to the so-called “creator principle”, the automatic copyright on his work. This reserves all rights to the author. No one may copy, publish or adopt his work completely or in part without his permission.

In the digital age, however, in which thanks to the Internet artists have become their own curators and musicians can produce and publish their song at low costs, the automatic copyright for their works no longer serves their interests. Films by still young directors enjoy success because they can be distributed throughout the world and so can be seen by many people with the help of the “embedded code”, which video portals offer for the easy integration of videos in websites. The copyright stands in the way of this free exchange.

Creative Commons as alternative

In order to promote a culture of the free exchange of intellectual property, the non-profit organization Commons developed a no-cost copyright system for users, the “Creative Commons Licenses”. Abbreviated as CC, the two capital letters surrounded by a circle stand for “some rights reserved”. With CC licenses, authors can themselves grant use of their works. Their intellectual property is protected in their own interests.

Who is allowed to reproduce, distribute or edit what works is regulated by a total of six CC license agreements. Their building blocks form a spectrum ranging from copyright (“all rights reserved”) to public domain (“no rights reserved”). The latter takes effect with copyrighted works only 70 years after the death of copyright holder. The CCO license establishes this status ahead of time.

The name is enough

The other CC licenses determine which rights of use are to be granted third parties. The CC license “attribution” allows the dissemination, reproduction or processing of a work on condition that the name of the author is expressly named. Another CC license module introduces the restriction that a work may be disseminated and copied, but not altered.

The CC license “ShareAlike” stipulates that, in the case of the allowed processing of a work, the resulting work may be made available to the public only if it is published under the same CC license or a comparable license. This excludes the possibility that the new content comes under copyright. Another assignment of rights excludes commercial use. There is a symbol for each of these modules.

The principle of private autonomy

The CC licensing system is an alternative to copyright. Behind it lies the principle of private autonomy: the freedom of the individual to shape his legal relations within certain bounds in accord with his own will. This principle has changed the distribution of intellectual property. The CC license “ShareAlike” has enriched cultural diversity by enabling the constant changing of works.

Authors who make their works available through Creative Commons want to disseminate them: the more users who do this, the better. This increases name recognition. And in the information age awareness of one’s work has become a scarce commodity. Those who succeed in drawing attention to their work have gained initial media success. This then can lead to financial success because, thanks to the changed channels of distribution in the digital age, publishing, production and record companies are not longer necessary. Websites serve as exhibition and sales rooms, networks and Internet portals help in self-marketing.

A spreading trend

The photo community Flickr, for example, offers numerous photographs that have been published by its members under CC licenses. Visitors to the portal can use the search function to search for such CC licensed photographs, which they may then use for their purposes without having beforehand to gain the author’s permission. Depending on the CC license, they can use these photographs to illustrate their own texts or in collages.

But Flickr is only the best known example of this trend. At Scribd, authors can make their texts available to the public for reading, distribution or reproduction. The music sharing service Soundcloud describes its function with three words: “receiving”, “sending” and “distributing”. Internet Archive is the first officially recognized online library that has made it its task to archive the cultural heritage. It publishes and makes available for download copyright-free and CC licensed films, texts, music and audio files.

The CC licensing system not only enables creative artists, scholars, cultural and media actors to publish their works and content on their own terms; it also enriches cultural diversity by promoting the free exchange of intellectual property. It legitimizes, under specified legal conditions, not only the distribution and reproduction of works and content, but also their interpretations. Creative Commons is the logical consequence of a cultural understanding which assumes that every new idea is based on existing ideas and that culture is created through transmission.