CC -- The Creative Commons

Creative Comments is a nonprofit organization that allows artists to build upon the work of others. The aim of this is to help increase the amount of work being created, allowing artists to share their work publicly with the copyright protection that works best for them. Creative Commons also provides a "no copyright" option, which permits art to be used by anyone, anywhere, without any legal repercussions. The following is a video better explaining the nature of the Creative Commons:

Copyright law no longer requires the "c in a circle" icon; due to changes in law, any creative work is automatically copyrighted as soon as it is made. A goal of Creative Commons is to help people know whether or not something is copyrighted, since the "c in a circle's" absence may not necessarily mean that it is not protected under copyright.

Creative Commons can be used by anyone, but some big names utilize it to publish material--Google, Wikipedia, Nine Inch Nails, and the Obama Administration (whitehouse.gov) just to name a few.

As an artist, Creative Commons allows for the posting and utilization of works, with varying degrees of copyright protection--all of which are clearly posted on the Creative Commons website.

Dancers in WAC (or elsewhere) who want to use a song for their piece can find music that is not protected with an "all rights reserved" clause. DJs or musicians who want to sample material can also find creative comments useful, as the techno beats in a song that they hear on the radio will likely be off-limits for them to use publicly. If you're making a poster to be displayed in the middle of a college campus, you can't just go online and use whatever pictures you want off of Google Images--but Creative Commons shows you, as an artist, what images you can use, without having to worry about getting sued by the illustrator who created the image.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you want take a photograph and want anyone to be able to use it for activist purposes, Creative Commons helps those activists in showing them that your work is open for public use for that purpose.

Here's the website:

http://creativecommons.org/