What is What is Intellectual Property, really? pt. 2

I've been thinking a lot about the whole idea of intellectual property since I first released part 1 of this blog post. I was reminded that when anything is published that it immediately has full copyright. Which then reminded me about Creative Commons.

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." When I read "Some Rights Reserved" I perked up. That's it! That best articulates how I feel it should be. Many times a full "All Rights Reserved" is too restrictive.

In light of the recent news of Facebook's terms of service that trying to cling to their own intellectual property and that of their users. It seams to be a far cry of the Creative Commons.

Facebook and the limits of free speech
Facebook Thinks You're Stupid
Facebook backtracks on terms of use after protests
Facebook terms of service compared with MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter

Creative Commons makes it very easy to generate a license that clearly defines what you allow to be done with your work. Everyone deserved credit for the work that they've done. And no one wants to be left high and dry if someone else profits on their creation. The old school model was to horde everything to yourself. The new school model is to loosing your fist and allow others to build upon what you have done. This way everyone wins! It's about being more "friendly" or playing nice with others. That's the way I want to be.

Webtoast Media has recently decided to start giving some things away. We are doing it with a Creative Commons License. We feel that art is supposed to inspire others to inspire others. By letting go a little bit of our intellectual property we make an environment that can do just that and still keep us in business at the same time.