Lost in Space

So my take on Creative Commons is lost, floating somewhere in cyber space.  I could re-write it alas it's one of those strange concepts, where my opinion is evolving the more I read and talk about it.  I had a lengthy discussion about copyright with AnonLibrarian the other day, how quaint, actually speaking to each other as opposed to firing our ideas across the interweb.  We could have spoken for hours, it's such a contentious issue, and possibly the most relevant to librarians of any of the 'Things' covered thus far.

I still feel in essence that Creative Commons is half hearted; it just doesn't go far enough.  Interestingly I've discovered a lot of my friends use it.  You know you're a complete bore when you ask people at a dinner party if they've heard of or used Creative Commons, YES, I am that much of a geek.  I dunno, I'm just strangely fascinated by the whole concept. 

Anyway, it turns out my husband has been using it forever.  He works in publishing and with restrictive budgets getting stock imagery can be a nightmare, now he can use anything with cc logo, and he's not in breach of any laws.  I am warming to it's uses for people who want to reuse other peoples work.  It's good to be covered.  I think it is something that is going to grow massively or completely evolve as we become ever more reliant on internet in all facets of life.

Here's a paper from Project Muse about rethinking copyright and cc licensing in school libraries.  It's quite long, but interesting and  relevant.