Creative Commons for Religious Professionals: Creative Commons Overview

Creative Commons is both an organization and a movement dedicated to applying tradition of communal sharing of natural resources to sharing creative and academic resources. As an organization, the Creative Commons, "provide[s] Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools that give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works."

Adapted from About Us by Creative commons. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Creative Commons licenses allow individual creators and institutions an easy way to give public permission for other creators to share, use, adapt, and remix creative material. Using Creative Commons contributes to a healthy copyright ecosystem by proving clear guidelines for use that are easier to understand and far more expansive than what Fair Use would allow.

For anyone that creates and shares what they creates, s Creative Commons license a powerful tool. When sharing, it allows you distribute your creative works in a way that maximizes their distribution while also keep control of how it is used. When creating, it allows you to reuse and, often, remix other people's works that has Creative Commons licensed.