Creative Commons question

I wasn't sure where else to post this so I'll just ask here. Has anyone used creativecommons.org to copyright any of their material? If so, which version of their license did you use? And most importantly, does a creative commons license interfere with you selling your work to a publisher or making it available as an eBook? And do they take a percentage of the money you earn if you do sell your work?

Thanks for your fast reply and for the link! They seem to be pretty legitimate, I'm just weary of anything that's free and I was wondering if anyone else had any experience with them.

My experience with creative commons is that it is largely used to distribute Open Source software. I have not used it myself for anything, but I assume that the copyright holds up in court although you would have to Google it to see if any one has tested it or not.

The problem that I see with it, is that you are saying 'this is mine, but you can share it for free'. This may not be an option you want with a book.

Standard copyright law should protect you without any particular registration for anything.

What people do with scripts, is mail themselves a copy of the original script because the date on the stamp proves a timeline for ownership.

It's funny you said that, because that's what I've been doing with every story I write hahaha. Before I post or publish them, I print copies and then use my email accounts to send myself copies of the stories. It has the exact time and date the email was sent so I can prove exactly when I finished it.

RB816 said:

It's funny you said that, because that's what I've been doing with every story I write hahaha. Before I post or publish them, I print copies and then use my email accounts to send myself copies of the stories. It has the exact time and date the email was sent so I can prove exactly when I finished it.

Click to expand...

If I am remembering correctly there is a problem with that as it can be altered. Post is better.

Open Source Software is usually distributed under software specific licenses, such as GPL, LGPL, BSD, Apache License, etc. Creative Commons is more of a license for art than a license for software.

There are also various versions of the Creative Commons. You can specify that you don't want your work redistributed for a profit, or modified, for example. First determine what do you want to accomplish with your license, then chose a license.

TRADITIONAL COPYRIGHT POLICIES STILL APPLY.

In order to enforce a Creative Commons license, you need to be the copyright holder and be able to prove you own the rights over the work. Mailing stuff to yourself as a mean to prove that is lame. You'd better register the work by your local Intellectual Property office or by Safe Creative (a popular private Intellectual Property Office).

I also recommend to sign the digital copies you send to the registries with a GPG key you own, which adds a powerful proving weapon to your arsenal, but that may be too hardcore for some.

Thank you both for your help. I have taken a few of your suggestions to insure my work is protected. Thanks again for all the good advice.

Pleasure.