I'm a big supporter of the public domain, Creative Commons, and any release other than all rights reserved. I always have been. Sure, people need to be compensated for what they do, but most of the time the license that is associated with something is far more restrictive than just 'give me props and a few pennies for my trouble'. I'm a big supporter... or am I? Sure my default publishing license on Flickr is (CC) BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons, must give attribution, non-commercial derivatives allowed, all derivatives must be shared under the same terms) but other than that I guess I really just give lip service to the whole thing.
I realized that tonight while listening to a lecture about copyright, free culture, and the movement back to 'the way things used to be'. It's not enough to be for something to just say you support it. Support is in the doing, not the saying. Some people give time and money to organizations which seek to further the cause of a free common culture or just defend those that are being legislated out of existence for doing what should be legal in the first place. Not having the time, or the money doesn't mean you can't help. If you're reading this then you probably also create some kind of content. Maybe you're a coder or a writer of fiction. Perhaps you paint or sculpt, or maybe you blog about what your cat is doing (with your cat's permission of course). But unless you're using content which you don't have the right to let others redistribute then I ask that you consider applying a license to it that is far less restrictive than 'all rights reserved'.
This wacky world of thoughts and ideas was built on sharing, and will only survive with sharing. It's not enough to just put it out there, let people know what they can, and can't use. Let them know what they can, and can't do. Everything I do, unless stated otherwise, is in my mind (CC) BY-NC-SA... only difference is now I'm going to make sure that's clear to the world.
Be the change you want to see in the world or something like that.
