Codifying a Commons: Copyright, Copyleft, and the Creative Commons Project

Abstract

"Domestic copyright law as we know it is under fire. Many argue that copyright has gone too far, protecting commercial culture at the cost of noncommercial, benefiting private rights holders to the detriment of the public domain, and inhibiting streams of inputs necessary for continued artistic and intellectual development. Part IV reviews other regulatory proposals and poses a solution that examination of the Creative Commons project suggests: a simpler statutory mechanism allowing a copyright owner to choose a more limited copyright and, for example, easily dedicate a work to the public domain, or choose to allow all noncommercial or educational use of their work. A creator no longer needs to expressly claim a right, thus implementing Congress's goal that the outright omission of a copyright notice does not automatically forfeit protection and throw the work into the public domain. You may seek permission from the supposed copyright owner."