Lose your MASL spring 08 handout? Get another here.
Couldn't hear the videos @ NEKLS Tech Day 2008? Here's the CC overview and Larry Lessig's TED talk.
Here's Seven Things You Should Know About Creative Commons from Educause
BIG NEWS! (8/2008) Use of CC was upheld in the Federal Circuit's Court of Appeals! Read all about it.
New curriculum available online (5/2009): Teaching Copyright

Creative Commons is an alternative to traditional copyright. You might call it "copyleft," or a remixed version of traditional copyright.

Under the various licenses that Creative Commons offers, you can retain all original rights as a creator but also explicitly allow others to use your works -where you define the terms. Here's the page on choosing the right license for your needs.

For example, this is the license I chose to use on the original content that I create in my blog, Schooling.us. People can share my content, but they must attribute it back to me. They may not use it for commercial purposes, and they cannot alter it in any way... it needs to stay just as it is. I can change this license at any time if I so choose, or remove the license and smack a big "all rights reserved" on my site instead. It's up to me!

So where can I find and share CC licensed work?

• You can search in Flickr for photos with specific licenses that suit your purposes.
• You can also use the CC platform for searching Google, Yahoo!, Flickr, Blip.tv, and more for images, text, music, videos and anything else licensed under CC.
• One example of an external site using CC is Jamendo, a music platform for artists to upload and share.
• Also try this wiki: CopyrightFriendly has a number of resources to access and use online.
• The Wikimedia Commons has some 2.5 MILLION files for use!
• The education community lives here on Creative Commons' website.
• Freesound is a collection of CC-licensed sound effects, perfect for student podcasts or videos.
  

Creative Commons enables you and your students to have a conversation about attribution. Not only can they find material to use in their schoolwork and presentations, they can license their own content and feel a sense of ownership in the process.

• Try using a pre- or post-test to measure the effectiveness of any teaching unit that incorporates Creative Commons and copyright.
• Here are some possible outcomes for students building their understanding of CC and copyright.
• Show your fellow educators the standards supported by CC-oriented lessons.
  

Educators clearly need to keep incorporating copyright into student work: this article from Ars Technica explains a survey where teens who knew more about copyright were less likely to use media indiscriminately.

Darren Draper blogs about how he would encourage use of Creative Commons in the classroom - both in his teaching practice but also for pedagogy.

More Resources:

• If you use Firefox, download this Greasemonkey script that will generate attribution codes for Flickr photos!
  
• Wes Fryer's wiki TeachDigital has a great section on copyright.
• Andy Carvin of PBS' Learning.now wrote a column on CC for educators.
  
• Mahalo Daily has a nice video overview of CC, particularly music use. If you only have two minutes, try Justin Cone's video overview.
• Michael Stephens has posted a presentation to his site with links to all the Flickr CC photos he used for slides.
• Copyright.gov has information on the US notion of "fair use."
• Stanford University explains fair use and public domain on their site, fairuse.stanford.edu.
• Fair use and online videos: from American University
• The ALA has a new resource from the Office for Information Technology Policy: Library Copyright
• Feel inspired to collect CC-licensed works in your own library? You can! The Nebraska Library Commission is blazing trails and makes a good case for your library's participation in the movement.