Creative Common What?

Because we live in a digital age where information is readily accessible, there has to be certain laws that protect information. There is a ton of information out in cyber space including social security numbers, passwords, banks records, and loads of other things considered sensitive. But what about other forms of information that people don't necessarily what other to have access to? In this context, I am referring to art-ranging from music, to books, to paintings. Because we live in a digital age, artists constantly have to deal with their copyrighted artwork put online (sometimes leaked against their will) without them having a say.
Fortunately however, Creative Commons, a United States non profit,developed a system of copyright licenses that allow these work to be distributed legally.


Currently, there are 4 types of creative commons licenses:


1. Attribution: the author or artists allows you to use their work and derivatives to distribute, display, and perform their work as long as you give them credit. 

This picture taken from Flickr is an example of an attribution creative
common license. Notice the credit is given to the artist Domino and
it is stamped directly on to the picture. 

2. Noncommercial: the author or artist allows you to use their work and derivatives as stated above as long as you are not seeking some sort of gain for commercial purposes, hence the term "noncommercial"

3. No derivatives works: the author or artist allows you to use their work as stated above but you are not allowed to use any 
derivatives associated with the work. 


4. Share alike:the author or artist allows derivates to be distributed only under a license that is identical to their work. 


(In these cases, the term derivative simply refers to any transformation, adaptation, or reproduction done to a previous piece of work). 


Although this isn't the end all be all to protecting copyrighted material online, it definitely helps the artist out and can be an even bigger help in the future!