Creative Commons licenses for the internet

As HLR continues to monitor the copyright infringement situation with Nicola Kirkbride and Tesco in the UK, it occurs to us that not everyone wants to prevent others from using their products.  Enter the Creative Commons License, as explained by Dave Johnson in Computerworld.  If you make it known that your works are available for sharing through a CCL, it gives others confidence that they can use your unaltered images without fear of a copyright infringement suit.  The other interesting thing the CCL does is cause any derivative works (alterations to your original) created by someone who accessed your work through the CCL to be committed to the public according to the same terms of the license.  This prevents someone downstream from profiting exclusively from something you let them use for free, and prevents them from suing you for infringement (crazy as it might sound, it does happen.  Read those contracts!)

This kind of license helps disseminate your work product without the downside of someone later claiming it's theirs.  Some artists find it beneficial to share some works without remuneration to generate interest and goodwill.