What Is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization which allows people to share their information, pictures, and knowledge using free legal tools and clear copyright licenses. As an individual using CC, you can select what the conditions of the copyright is for each of your documents. This ultimately allows you as the author or artist to ensure that your work is not being claimed or used by someone else or businesses (for profit) without credit, depending on the terms of your copyright. As a teacher, I would recommend this to my students- particularly those who produce music, artwork, or any type of document for publishing online, to ensure that they have ownership over their work. It is also a great resource as it offers free and legal songs, videos and academic works that the public can use. Thus, students can utilize these resources in their classes without having to do additional research the copyright laws on the material, such as the Public Library of Science journals.