7.4.5 Creative Commons Licenses

Location: http://creativecommons.org/license/
Excerpts:
"Until 1976, creative works were not protected by U.S. copyright law unless their authors took the trouble to publish a copyright notice along with them. Works not affixed with a notice passed into the public domain. Following legislative changes in 1976 and 1988, creative works are now automatically copyrighted. We believe that many people would not choose this "copyright by default" if they had an easy mechanism for turning their work over to the public or exercising some but not all of their legal rights. It is Creative Commons' goal to help create such a mechanism.''
"An idea is not diminished when more people use it. Creative Commons aspires to cultivate a commons in which people can feel free to reuse not only ideas, but also words, images, and music without asking permission - because permission has already been granted to everyone...''
"The free software and open source software communities have inspired what is sometimes called "open content." Some copyright holders have made books, music, and other creative works available under licenses that give anyone permission to copy and make other uses of the works without specific permission or a royalty payment. Creative Commons hopes to build on the work of these pioneers by creating a menu of license provisions that people can combine to make their work available for copying and creative reuses...''
"With a Creative Commons license, people can copy and distribute your work, but only on the conditions you specify here. Do you want to:
Require attribution?..
Allow commercial uses of your work?..
Allow modifications of your work?..''
"Or Choose:
Public Domain
Sampling
Founders' Copyright
CC-GNU GPL [Brazil]
CC-GNU LGPL [Brazil]''...
Comments:
As we can see, Creative Commons offers many different licenses to choose from. Those who intend to use a CC-tagged work should truly learn which exact license is under the tag. CC developers put freedom of choice for a copyright holder above all. We just have to realize and remember what this freedom means: it is the freedom to invent and enforce, or relinquish all kinds of restrictions. Thus a CC license may barely differ from copyright on one end of a license spectrum and offer ultimate, public domain like, freedom of use on another.
Advantages of the licenses:

• Some freedom of use, depending on specific license. It looks like the only common feature of all exclusively CC licenses is free non-commercial use of a work of art, but this is never directly stated, so it is in question.
  
• It is not limited to specific cultural area.
  
• It looks like (but is never expressed directly) that CC licenses themselves are CC licensed, thus, presumably, can be used to build other licenses upon them. However, it is not said what kind of CC license is applied to the CC license texts.
  

1. (Can, but) Does not necessarily require attribution to an author.
   
2. (In case a publisher buys out rights for a work, can but) Does not necessarily require attribution to a publisher.
   
3. (Can, but) Does not necessarily allow creative use of a work, such as modifying, building upon, sampling, performing, etc.
   
4. Based on a Copyright law only.
   
5. Does not prevent sale of rights.