What is a Creative Commons License?

If you scroll to the very bottom of this page, you will notice a copyright tag that I've put on the content of this page. Thanks to the people at Creative Commons, I can post on my site how I want my content used.

The Creative Commons license is not a full copyright. It's not in the public domain either. A quote from their website:

Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. Our licenses help you keep your copyright while inviting certain uses of your work — a "some rights reserved" copyright.

Why is this important? I don't really know completely. Partially, I feel that it gives me control over my content. That's an empowering feeling. And somehow, it fits into the altruistic nature of the internet.

The process is super-easy. You simply answer a few questions as to how you want your work used, and it automatically generates a license with instructions on how to use it. It took all of five minutes. I chose the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike copyright.

Learn More about Creative Commons here.