|||

Five Years of Creative Commons

cc.logo.circle.pngFive years ago today things changed online in the copyfight. Frustration with the increasingly hostile environment surrounding intellectual property and a fundamental shift in copyright law in the United States, a brilliant and positive initiative called Creative Commons launched. It shifted things around by not asking how can I stop people from stealing things?,” but by asking how I can I share what I make and work with others?” With a set of licenses that were legal as well human and machine readable, an amazing amount of creativity and collaboration became possible.
This blog had started a few months before the launch in December of 2002 and I licensed all my blog posts from that point on. Now I have 331 posts that can be shared and remixed as long as it’s noncommercial and I’ve given credit. All of my 6,547 public photos on Flickr have the same license. The 10 episodes of the Bad Metaphor podcast are also licensed and everything that I create and put online will be licensed in a similar way.
It’s been a positive and encouraging experience to use the licenses as I’ve been able to meet and work with people from all over the world because of the project. The more that you give and share, the more you get back.

Up next Changing Bitdepth When I started this site in May of 2002, I was using Rael Dornfest’s amazing Blosxom script that takes text files and converts them into postings. Favourite Software of 2007 I’m not a fan of big expensive applications (with the notable exception of Final Cut Pro), but I love open source and shareware that is the product
Latest posts Favourite Films of 2020 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2020 Galas FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2020 Preview My Favourite Films of 2019 Best of the 39th FIN Atlantic International Film Festival FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2019 Fiction Features 2019 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival Galas The Films of Agnès Varda Archiving Moving Hosts Best Films of 2018 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2018 Documentaries, Features, and Special Presentations FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2018 Preview, Galas, Restored!, and Extreme Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival 2018 Preview How and What I Watched in 2017 Favourite Films of 2017 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 FIN ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2017 PREVIEW PART 3 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 Preview Part 2 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 Preview Part 1 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 Gala Preview 52 Films by Women Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival 2017 Favourite Films of 2016 Breaking a Streak Day 8 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 7 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 6 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 5 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 4 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 3 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016