Through Larry Lessig, I came to this good piece, written by Andy Oram about Creative Commons.
It focuses mainly on the fact that people could support Creative Commons financially (which is important), so I will not write more on that, except that on my very blog, in the top right corner you can click and go to the page with all different support options.
I think that the main, and for me most, important part of Creative Commons, is in its name. If you think about the difference in the models of © Copyright and (CC) Creative Commons, what strikes right from the beginning, is indeed the difference in the names.
One is about right and copy. The other one is about creativity and commons.
I am someone who writes a lot, and publish a lot. And I want my essays, and short stories, and articles to be as accessible as nothing else – free, for the good of the people.
I believe that by sharing ideas and views in writing, or talking, I may be able to encourage other people, who have not tried so far, to do the same.
I want people to spend time imagining, creating, trying, and – most importantly – not get disappointed if they don’t succeed from their first attempt.
I published my first short story when I was 5 (five). I learned how to write on a type-writer machine (Erika), before I learned how to write with my hand. And for 9 years my Grandfather, a poet, kept on telling me that everything I wrote was good. Until I turned 14, and wrote a one page essay, “Something like an autobiography“. Then he asked me for a walk, and explained me why this essay was different, was actually the first really good piece. I found out he was right two years later, when I published it in the Bulgarian teen-age magazine, “Rodna rech”. It brought me tens of letters of fans from all over the country. All of them teenage girls, they kept on telling me, that I wrote it, but it sounded as if they would have written it. And it was describing them. What is the moral here – that without the 9 years of writing, I wouldn’t have been able to reach to the breaking point. Since that moment, I have had a lot of opportunities to write and publish. I like putting the words in order, and seeing them on paper (sorry, geeks:-).
I see the Creative Commons as my Grandfather – it should inspire us to try, to create, to do new things (and as Esther Dyson says, “always make new errors”), to let our imagination speak, and not be afraid that someone will look at what we do, and say, “oh, what the hell is THIS?”.
Don’t let yourself down – if you are an artist, writer, poet, musician, actor…, you can’t be wrong in your creativity, if you believe that what you do is good, just, fair, and right.
Just what Creative Commons is.