Creative Commons *S*p*a*r*k*

Creative commons are a type of licence that enable the legal sharing, reixing and reusing of content such as images, knowledge, text, music.

They can cover everything a copyright can like can you reproduce it, can you alter this, can you put this in an assignment or text book. An individual or organisation can tailor creative commons to suit their individual needs.

"Creative Commons is much needed ammunition in the battle against digital theft or “borrowing”." — =SeverinaSnape, deviantART

"Each Creative Commons licence comes with the same baseline user rights and restrictions. These allow the material to be copied, distributed and reused, at a minimum in its current form, for non-commercial purposes, and as long as the original creator/s are credited". (Creative Commons.org)

You would already be using some of the biggest creative commons licence users and not even know it..

think:

WIKIPEDIA!

Here's an awesome video that easily explains CREATIVE COMMONS

I found this really great article by a Griffith University Academic Paul Draper called "Who’s really doing the stealing? How the music industry’s pathological pursuit of profit and power robs us of innovation". http://www29.griffith.edu.au/imersd/draper/publications/research/draper_whos_really_doing_the_stealing.pdf. Paul explains how difficult it is to teach music studies at a university with all the contrainsts, copyrights and licences put on music due to it's commercialisation.

Paul is an advocate for creative commons licences, he states: "CC licences have provided a efficient pathway into understanding the basic rights of creators and have been successfully used in Conservatorium classes and projects" (Draper, 2006).

It is absurd to think that academics themselves must check each and every peice produced by a student against licence databases and copyright checks to ensure that their work is legal. Society has gone made with its ownership of things.. a company can patent a colour for crying out loud!

I struggled to find an academic article which discussed online journals or databases however I did find a really great article analysing the benefits and pitfalls of creative commons licensing:

http://law.unh.edu/assets/pdf/idea-vol46-no3-katz.pdf
This article concludes that creative commons may prove negative for the owner of content as it may be reproduced in ways they had not envisaged or intended.


Here is a great, simple FACT SHEET on creative commons in Australia published by the Australian copyright council:

www.copyright.org.au/pdf/acc/infosheets_pdf/g094.pdf

Works using CREATIVE COMMONS



Elephants Dream is a film made entirely from open / shared graphics and images by The Orange Open Movie Project studio in Amsterdam.

The website comes complete with loads of production images and music all free to share under creative commons licence.

Its really interesting to see that this entire movie was made from shared files, heres a link to the website:

http://orange.blender.org/

I also found a music video by "Changing Clocks" made entirely from open flickr images:



The band RADIOHEAD even created a music video using creative commons licensed data, heres a link to the article and video:

http://boingboing.net/2008/07/14/radioheads-new-3dviz.html


PORTABLE APPS!

I had heard this term used before an never actually twigged what it meant. The term portable applications basically refers to computer programs which can run straight from a USB without having to be installed on a computer.

Once I understood the term I do remember students relying heavily on portable apps to be able to play their bloody, gorey war games at school. They used the portable apps to dodge the department of education & trainings firewalls and blocks on their PC's and student access logons.

I decided to try some apps from portableapps.com. I was surprised to find loads of useful apps, not just games. You can get all sorts of programs from music players, word processor to image manipulation software.

I downloaded AssaultCube Portable, http://portableapps.com/apps/games/assaultcube_portable these apps downloaded in a couple of minutes and open instantly by opening the .exe file on your USB. Assauly cube was like an old school 'DUKE NUKEM' game, it may offer a place to take out some frustration during essay writing! hahaha


References:

http://www29.griffith.edu.au/imersd/draper/publications/research/draper_whos_really_doing_the_stealing.pdf

http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences

http://creativecommons.org.au/

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

www.copyright.org.au/pdf/acc/infosheets_pdf/g094.pdf

http://portableapps.com/