The Right Creative Commons License for Ministry Blogs
One of the things that we need to do better as bloggers is actively encourage others to take licensing seriously. CreativeCommons.org should be well known, studied, and understood by us.
The simple fact is that it isn’t.
Typically I tell a lot of people who have questions to go to the site and “learn.” Well, apparently not a lot of those people go and do just that. So, let me tell you what I use for my content that I publish online.
I use this: The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 for the United States. You can find the exact description right here.
I’d recommend that you use the same, and here’s why:
- It let’s people share your content that you create. That’s a good thing.
- They can “mix” the content up, meaning they can take chunks without the pressure of taking the whole and re-use and re-purpose it for their needs.
- It requests “attribution,” which means that the author gets the respect that they deserve for being the author and creator of the content. Give respect when respect is due!
- It means that others can’t earn anything or make a profit off your work.
- It means that if someone else uses your content they have to abide by the rules set out by the license that you use. No abuse or “grey” lines here!
- It highly suggests linking back to the original work. This is good for link-building, SEO, and helps provide the new audience historical context on the original work. Link love is good stuff.
- It forces a “ask permission” type mentality for everything. It’s simply good practice to “ask for permission” to use stuff. It gives the author the ability to “waive” any of their above aforementioned rights on a case-by-case basis.
- It doesn’t “impair nor restrict the author’s moral rights.” A little ambiguous here, but good anyways.
I think this license is the best license that we, as technoevangelists can use, without limiting the opportunity to learn and use our content. It protects the author and the readers from abuse and misuse. I think it maintains a level of “control” in an open source world without cramping the open source “mentality.”
For myself, I use Feedburner to distribute this license. See the screenshot below for my settings:
I have now included the image of the license on my blog here (see footer) and my other blogs as well.
Want one? Go here to get your copy of the license. Do it, for yourself and for the people that you serve!
Buzz it!
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27 Responses to “The Right Creative Commons License for Ministry Blogs”
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Boy in the Bands » Blog Archive » More on which Creative Commons license
[...] writer was thinking about what Creative Commons license to use with the site’s content. The choice? Same as this blog and The Liberal Christian, the new [...]
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A Preview of Wordpress Standard Theme Version 2
Very informative!
Thanks!
Sure thing man. pass it on!
I was wondering about that very thing today, but more for the Photos I used – that were covered by that license. Never actually considered using it for my blog, hmmm
but now I have and I have done it, along with what I saw as good options for feedburner in your screen grab
thanks man
Phill(synapticlight)
So I tried installing this on blogger, but it has all this extra text around the cc icon. Any idea how to get rid of that so that it just has the main icon?
You can get rid of the last section of it which is just text in the code.
sure thing!
Great post! I really appreciate your note to "abide by the rules". I think as Christian bloggers it's really important to check the licensing of the images we use, repurpose or unfortunately steal (even unintentionally). When you grab an image of Flicker – check the license. When you copy off a website – find the original and check the license. Take the time to do due diligence. Walk the talk.
For myself – I find I'm using royalty-free sites like iStockphoto.com quite a bit. I pay a dollar – and I know I have the freedom to use the image as I want. It's worth a dollar for me to know I'm doing the right thing, plus I'm paying for someone's hard work.
As for my photo's on Flckr or on my blog – I try and pick the appropriate license and embed the license with the photo. I want people to freely know they can use my work with just some minor appropriate restrictions.
I don't display the CC license on my site – and I probably should. So thanks for the reminder.
Forgot something – can you add to your Churchcrunch wishlist? I'd love for you to review the other Feedburner options, explain why you use or don't use them, and maybe point to examples. Thanks.
Great post idea. I'll do it!
Theoretically speaking. An informative post, though.
I guess the fact remains that copyright protections are only as good
as those that choose to honor them.
that's for sure. sheesh. but, we should be “evangelists” of it~!
I get what you're saying… but I'll stick with the “its all mine all
the time” copyright protection approach.
puaha. right on.
And, for backup, I married into a family of lawyers to protect my
intellectual property.
P.S.
I expect a video to explain how you pronounce “puaha.”
dude. you win
I heard you the first time
puaha.
This is great! thanks for that!