I’ve used Creative Commons photos from flickr a handful of times but never thought to contribute my own. Perhaps it’s because I have limited time and choose to spend it writing than uploading photos; but upon thinking about it further I realize I also don’t fully understand what it means to share creative and intellectual work.
Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture offers insight on how the Internet changed how culture is created and shared. He argues that content and culture is increasingly “owned” with minimal questioning. Also, the access to use “culture” perpetuates hierarchies:
To build upon or critique the culture around us one must ask, Oliver Twist-like, for permission first. Permission is, of course, often granted – but it is not often granted to the critical or the independent. We have built a kind of cultural nobility; those within the noble class live easily; those outside it don’t.
I’m curious to know more about the relationships between the Internet, copyrights, permissions, and Creative Commons. As a future scholar and hopeful writer, I want to know how these laws impact my work, ability to publish, and how I protect (to varying degrees) what I put out there.
Yuka Polovina 