Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 4.14
A portion of the human-readable summary of a Creative Commons license as
it appears to a Web site visitor.
(Screenshot from Creative Commons. Copyright © 2011 by Creative
Commons. Reprinted with permission.)
The computer-readable versions of the licenses are designed to make it easier for
search engines to identify content based upon the particular criteria. For example, a
history professor might use a search engine hoping to find an image of the Coliseum
in Rome that he could include on his Web site. His purpose is noncommercial, and he
is happy to credit the photographer, but he does not want to have to pay to display the
image or write a letter asking for the photographer's permission. A search engine could
return only those images that meet these criteria.
By 2008 about 130 million different pieces of intellectual property had been dis-
tributed using Creative Commons licenses. In 2009 the Creative Commons Attribution-
Share Alike license became the principal content license for Wikipedia.
John Buckman has used Creative Commons licenses to create an online record label
called Magnatune [137]. Members who pay $15 a month can stream music from the site
and make unlimited downloads, with half of the proceeds going to the artists [138].
