The first thing I did to research Creative Commons was simply google it. This immediately led me to creativecommons.org. Creative commons is a non-profit organization that allows you to share your creative works using free, legal licenses.  On their about page I watched a video  entitled Wanna Work Together? that really helped put creative commons in perspective for me. From this video I realized how much other people’s work influences others in everyday  life and how creative commons can help you share your work and still have a copyright on it.

Through creativecommons.org you can easily receive a personalized copyright license in a matter of minutes (It took me less than 5 minutes to get a personalized license and it was incredibly easy.) They allow you to choose exactly what is or isn’t allowed when it comes to your personal material. Creative commons turns “all rights reserved” into “some rights reserved.” Creative commons gives you the ability to allow others to share, use and add to the work you have created (If that is what you want.)

On the “Choose a license” page I answered the questions that were asked and they matched me to the Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license. I said that I did not want to allow modifications to my work and that I would allow my work for commercial use because I don’t mind people sharing what I do as long as they give me credit for it but I am not alright with people changing my work (ESPECIALLY if my name is attached to something I did not actually fully create.)  I do not see anything wrong with sharing someone else’s work as long as you  give them credit for it and do not use it as your own.

When researching creative commons I found their official site to be the most helpful and I figured it would provide me with the most useful information. Also, I found it really easy to find exactly what I  was looking for because of the way their site is organized.

Change can be good, just not when there is a copyright involved. Always remember to give credit where credit is due!