Creative Commons

To overcome copyright restrictions and issues of intellectual ownership/property rights, the globalised CoP , called Web2.o on the Internet, required a way of assigning rights and responsibilities. The Creative Commons, created by L. Lessing, H. Abelson, J.Boyle, E. Eldred & E. Saltzman, in 2001 allows three forms of copyright

1. -human readers
2. lawyer readers
3. computer readers

and choice of level of ownership

1. attribution, that is that the work can be used but needs to be referenced and attributed to the original owner
2. non-commercial, self explanatory
3. no derivatives, this means that you cannot change the original
4. share alike, allows free access. In this way knowledge can be built, in a collectivist constructionist way via Web connectivity.

Do you think we can ever arrive at position in which all knowledge belongs to all people? We used to see the environment as a commons, free for all people to use, all the sky, air, water, trees etc but then some people were acting irresponsibly so we needed to control it. The environment became a global commodity item with a price tag attached. However the grass roots, commons philosophy was more powerful that the economic position. Is it possible that the grass roots creative commons will triumph over economic and corporate/government philosophies?

Reference

Quinn, M., 2006 Ethics for the Information Age, 2nd edition. U.S.A. Pearson Addison Wesley