The title may not be the most appropriate, because it doesn’t seem to be a tragedy at all that the work is shared. I did just learn this term in regards to environmental degradation so now when I hear the word commons I immediately turn to this phrase.

Creative Commons is a non-profit out of California that has created a forum and way of sharing creative work that others can build upon… legally.

Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical
infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and
innovation.

So, the CC has six different types of licenses you can use, free of charge, on your creative works. They have all combinations of permissions to…

• editing
• commercial/non-commercial use
• accreditation
• license continuance

You can search the Creative Commons database and see results immediately of CC licensed photographs that you can use.

CC receives donations and support from from Google, Mozilla, Red Hat, Best Buy, Duke, eBay, Microsoft, Nike, and more. Wikipedia uses the CC license for information on their site, and Al Jazeera has used the CC license on some broadcasts.

For licensing and honor code purposes, I used the Creative Commons website directly and Wikipedia.