2013-07-06

What is a Creative Commons (CC) Licence?

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

There is no doubt that Joel Watts attached a CC (Creative Commons) Licence notice to the blog post of his that I copied and reused.

So what IS a CC licence?

The whole idea behind a CC licence (we might even call it the CC philosophy) is to foster a win-win situation in the world of ideas. That is, the person who creates the new work will not lose anything if someone else, who likes that work enough to want to re-use it, picks it up and does re-use it to create something new.

So, for example, if I post a new literary work, all sweated from my own furrowed imagination, like,

I feel so egg-ceptionally, god-blessed smart today that I think you have egg all over your godless dumb face

and you think, Wow!, I like that! — then the CC licence is just for you! But it’s also for me who was inspired to write the original!

It’s for me, since I only need check of the tick-boxes in the CC form to tell the world what I want and don’t want others doing with my inspired words — e.g. do I allow you to make $$$$ from my words? do I allow you to re-use without telling the world I was the original creator of those words?

And it’s for you — you can re-use my words any way you would like within the constraints of the check-boxes I ticked.

So if you take my words and create something that argues against their original intent, and even proves they are shite, no worries! If you have also created your post under a CC then I can take that, re-use it, and argue the exact opposite!

We could even have a dialogue! Continue reading “What is a Creative Commons (CC) Licence?”


Can we help Burma? Another Rwanda Looming?

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

English: Burma (Myanmar) (dark green) / ASEAN ...
English: Burma (Myanmar) (dark green) / ASEAN (dark grey) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Greg Jenks — a Jesus Seminar Fellow who brought John Shelby Spong to the little city of Toowoomba where I once lived and worked (and met Spong) — has posted the following on Facebook: (I think it’s a form notice, but no matter. . . .)

Burma may turn into the next Rwanda unless we raise our voices and stop the racist attacks right now — will you join me?

Sign here:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/we_said_never_again_c/?duWtKdb

Let’s also protest against those who are using the violence there to score points in their shallow anti-religion crusade:

To blame the killing on “religion” is simplistic and hides a far deeper and more complex problem. There are ethnic differences; local jobs are thought to be at stake; cultural differences are sharp and offensive to some; there is a new nationalist sentiment beginning to blossom in Burma; religious difference is easily identified for hostile targeting and becomes the scapegoat. Continue reading “Can we help Burma? Another Rwanda Looming?”