BRISTOL, RI_Creative Commons allows users to find original works posted on the Creative Commons site for free. The catch is that corporations cannot use the work to earn money, and all works must be attributed correctly to the creator. Each creator chooses which license they prefer to use for their works and those copyright must be followed by Creative Commons users. This allows the users of Creative Commons to get their work out their in the public view and allows them to search for similar work for free. Nobody can take control of their work and make adaptations to it if they choose that particular license.
Creative Commons provides a medium for users to publish their own work for free. Unlike other sites their work cannot be taken and modified without the correct attribution. This means big companies cannot take the work and claim it as their own, making money off of someone else’s work.
Publishing your work on Creative Commons puts your work into the public eye. If anyone searches for something similar to your post on the site, your work will pop up. This allows users to have the opportunity for their work to be discovered by potential employers, or purchased for use by companies. An image taken by a Creative Commons user could be used on a larger platform and the original photographer will be credited with their name under the photo wherever it is used.
Sites like Google are great for searches, but the creator of the image is not given credit for the work. The work is just taken and used as if the user had taken the image by themselves. Creative Commons allows everyone to get a copyright license for their work, allowing their name to be attached to the work for the entirety of the works existence. The image is owned by the user, unlike on Google where the image is into the public domain and can be used by anyone.
Creative Commons is changing the way people use other peoples work on the internet. Your name is tied to the work forever, whoever uses the work is required to put your name under the work. A copyright license has never been so easy to obtain through Creative Commons.
Jake Scarafone 