Creative Commons

There are many situations in which the production of multimedia content could be improved with addition of resources the author or authors are simply unable to create themselves. Perhaps the needed resource is an image and the author has no way to take a picture and is not capable of creating a drawing. Perhaps the a slideshow might be improved with some "mood music" playing in the background and the authors have neither the talent or the time to create original music.

One solution in such situations may be to take advantage of material offered under a Creative Commons license. In some situations, the individuals responsible for digital content are willing to allow others to use their material as long as the the content is used under carefully designated guidelines.

Flickr, an online photo repository and sharing site, offers users the opportunity to attach specific Creative Commons expectations to public images. You are allowed to incorporate the image into your own public work as long as you abide by the expectations set by the individual who owns the rights to the image.

The owner can attach any of several expectations to an image. These attributions include:

• Attribution - you can use a copyrighted image as long as you clearly indicate who is responsible for the original image
• Noncommercial - you are allowed to use the image for noncommercial purposes only
• No derivative words - you will present the original image as is without modification or inclusion a composite
• Share alike - you will others to use your image as long as any product created is also shared under the same agreement.

If you see the use of Creative Commons resources as an opportunity, it is important to carefully examine resources to assure that the resources are offered under a Creative Commons license and to note the specific privileges that are granted. Flickr represents a great site for exploring these issues. For example, images you can view on Flickr are "public" images. This designation does allow you to use the images in projects of your own. A public image is simply an image that can be viewed by the public. Unless a statement to the contrary is included, all rights associated with public images are reserved. If available, Creative Commons rights will be listed under the Additional Information heading that appears when displaying individual images.

If you would like to investigate an image collection, you are welcome to view my public image collection. For some of these images, I have added Creative Commons opportunities (e.g., http://flickr.com/photos/grabe/417773825/).

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