‘Alternative to copyright’ promises no lawyers required for safe distribution
News | 09/17/2004 4:00 am EDT
The Creative Commons rights licence, touted as an alternative to copyright, will be launched at the end of this month. Developed in large part by the students and faculty of the law and technology program at the University of Ottawa, the licence is a modification of the American version that has been used on more than three million digital works since being introduced in late 2002. The licence, which is a do-it-yourself approach to putting works into the public sphere while retaining copyright rights for later exploitation, offers legally binding language to protect creator rights without the need to hire a lawyer.