Lawrence Lessig: Someone might want to make a film and they might take images they have found of their native country and mix it with songs from their native land, and put it together on a web page or a blog to make it available to other people.



The point is, technically under the law, to do that requires permission of the copyright owner and our system doesn’t really have an easy way to find out who the copyright owner is.

So there is a choice; you either have to break the law or you have to not be creative.



We thought that was not a fair choice. We wanted to create an easy way for people to mark their content with the freedoms they want other people to have.



When you come across Creative Commons content you have a simple way of understanding what you are allowed to do with it and what you are not allowed to do with it.



What exactly is the Creative Commons being launched in Britain?



The Creative Commons is a non-profit system that gives away free licences and technology to mark content.



More here.