1. Free Software and the Creative Commons
Lawrence Lessing created Creative Commons 2001 (licenses became available in 2002) because he was tired of major organisations telling the public (including him) what to do and how to do it ie the control they had over users. Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting reasonable copyright.. this means that creators make their work available to others on more flexible terms that is "some rights reserved" rather than "all rights reserved". All content such as images, audio-visual etc is more freely available with the public good strongly in mind. He was in support of a 'shared culture'.
According to Levinson (2009) the future of copyright will have to evolve to something closer to that of Creative Commons "i.e. the right to copy but not commercialise".
The idea of relaxing our copyrights in the interest of sharing, came from the Free Software Movement. This was the common way of thinking of software developers in the early days - shen software was shared around freely and developed upon. The main ideas in Free culture were - Community, Collaboration and Choice.
Reference:
Levinson, Paul (2009). New New Media, Penguin Academics, Pearson Higher Education. p. 79.
2. Why doesn't strict copyright make sense for some things
Creative people, groups, organisations who are not yet well-known or still developing their reputations find no or flexible copyright very helpful whilst establishng themselves. It has proven to be beneficial in many cases eg YouTube - musicians, audio-visual producers, photographers.
3. What are the benefits of proprietary software versus free software?
Proprietary software often has free Help available; is easier and prettier to use for non-technical users.
Free Softwware is all about sharing and collaboration
4. Where does free software come from?
Contributions come from software writers and developers who still believe in Free culture. They put their work on-line and make it Public Domain.
5. It is not illegal to share food or clothes or recipes,why should it be illegal to share software?
It shouldn't be illegal to share software but there should be degrees of recognition for the development and creative aspects of a piece of work, in the very least attribution to the creator. It's creator should be able to have the flexibility of deciding on the degree of availability, remix or commercial use of their work.
6. What is the difference between free and open software?
It's the same.
7. Why ifs free software important for all computer users?
It helps to moderate the market.
8. Try some open source software and report back.
I tried to go into OpenClipArt Library: http://www.openclipart.org/about
This is a site where Clip Art is shared. The work is all in the Public Domain (through the Creative Commons Public Domain Certification Page) and its contributors must be willing to allow people to use their images with no strings attached. There are no requirements to include attribution of the clipartist.
There are so many open software sites, I found general browsing very time consuming and confusing. I think, for me, it would be most beneficial if I am actually creating something and need to access these sites.
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