Creative Commons: A Brief Overview of the Future of Copyright Licensing.

Creative Commons licenses have their origins in the free software movement (GNU GPL license)[1] and were born as an initiative of science and computer science academics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was consolidated through a private non-profit structure, to which authors may freely adhere[2].

This international non-profit project, which Colombia joined on August 22, 2006, was founded on the need for free access to information as the basis of research, education, and culture, hand in hand with new technologies, for the creation of licenses, which bring with them a new way of exercising rights over licenses through a more flexible practice[3].

Creative Commons licenses do not intend to modify the rights that the law grants to authors regarding the economic-patrimonial nature of their works, nor those relating to the bond generated between the author and the work. On the contrary, what this type of license intends is the possibility of setting the terms under which third parties may use their work, but only in relation to economic rights (rights of reproduction, distribution, public communication, and transformation), because those considered moral rights can in no case be affected by this type of license, since it should be recalled that these are inalienable, unseizable, non-transferable, and irrevocable[4].

Creative Commons licenses bring with them the obligation to respect the recognition of authorship as an irrevocable moral right by the creator of the work, also establishing three other clauses with various combinations that result in the six types of existing licenses, which adapt to the interests of authors.

Creative Commons licenses basically consist of: i) allowing or not the use of the work for commercial purposes, ii) permission to alter, transform, or create a derivative work from the original, and finally iii) that when granting third parties the possibility to alter or transform the work, or create a derivative work, they may or may not distribute it under a license identical to the one chosen by its author.

Once one of the 3 licenses described above is chosen, they can be presented in 3 different forms; a) the legal code (contract with the corresponding legal clauses according to the regulations of each jurisdiction), b) the easily readable summary called Commons deed (readable summary for any person that condenses the meaning of the license and establishes a link with the legal system, along with available translations of the licenses; it is not a license but a practical reference to understand the Legal Code, i.e., the full license) and c) the digital code (description of the license that can be understood by computer programs)[5].

These licenses are a civil law tool and should be understood as "a legal instrument with which the copyright holder regulates the use and distribution of their work"[6], which aim to enable access to information within the legal framework, respecting the author's will and the rights granted to them for holding such status, also serving as a tool that clarifies who has access to different works and under what conditions they may use them.[7]

Additionally, it is pertinent to clarify that when the author of the work effectively uses these licenses, they must maintain exclusive ownership of those economic-patrimonial prerogatives granted by law, because otherwise, they would be granting permissions over rights that they can no longer dispose of, much less enjoy. The only exception to this rule is the assignment of the right of transformation with a Creative Commons license that does not allow derivative works[8].