Does Creative Commons free your content?
By Tom Merritt
Executive editor, CNET.com
October 13, 2005
Creative Commons is an organization that allows people to issue creative works under a license that allows more flexibility than the default "all rights reserved" of copyright law.
Recently, John Dvorak wrote a column asking what good Creative Commons serves. I got to talking to my fellow CNET columnist Molly Wood, and she said she didn't really understand what the licenses were good for, either.
Meanwhile, 53 million works on the Internet link back to a Creative Commons license. A lot of people are buying into the concept. But is it dangerous? Is it revolutionary? Is it pointless? Here's an attempt to deal with what this insanely popular license is and whether it's good for anything.