Tuesday Tech Tip: What is Creative Commons

I take a lot of photos. I post most of them on Flickr. While I don’t consider myself a “professional” photographer, more of a hobbiest, I have had a few paid gigs over the years and sometimes companies have wanted to use one of my photos in their product or in advertising. For this, I would expect to be paid. However, if you’re just looking for a good illustration for your PowerPoint deck, and are selling that deck, I’d be more than happy to let you use one of my photos, provided you give me credit for the original creation.

So, how can I let others know which uses do and don’t need my permission? This is where Creative Commons (CC) Licenses come into play. Though these licenses you can pre-set what type of re-use you will an won’t allow yet still keep all of your rights under traditional copyright.

Many online services like Flickr, have licenses built in but there are many other ways you can add a CC license to your content. The best place to start is to head on over to creativecommons.org and click on Share Your Work. Everything you need to know you can find there to start licensing your creative content.