Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses for free to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.
A creative commons license is a voluntary copyright law with a set of copyright options that say how others can use a work.
These options include:
*Attribution
*Share Alike
*Noncommercial
*No Derivative Works
Three reasons why PR people should use a creative commons license for content they distribute are:
1. PR practitioners can create publicity by allowing others use their work. PR practitioners never know when someone can pick their organization’s message and use it in a new creative way that could end up profiting the organization. Creative Commons licenses are used to serve as a simple, free way to avoid lawsuits and other legal issues when creating documents using copyrighted material.
2. PR practitioners can create strong client relations. It’s beneficial to treat customers are PR practitioners would like to be treated.. Proper use of these copyright laws would help support a good client-agent relationship. With a strong relationship with a client, PR practitioners would be able to promote themselves better.
3. PR practitioners will be contributing to the public’s need for information. Our Society has constant access to information, and allowing work to be used openly allows PR practitioners to share content quickly, where as copyright does not allow other people to use the content until the copyright expires.
