I’m still amazed at the number of people who don’t really know about CC. Many have heard of it, perhaps in an in-flight mag or something, but they don’t realize the implications of deliberately making something sharable.

I get occasional emails from folks asking if they can use photos on my Flickr stream. I appreciate the notice, and love hearing about how the images are used, but the whole point of CC is that you don’t have to ask. That whole concept is completely alien to most people, who are constantly hammered with MPAA/RIAA “Don’t steal this [fill in the blank]” messages and threats. News reports of 3 year olds and grammas being sued for [random infringement of monopolistic hegemony].

Creative Commons has been out there for years, yet when I ask in workshops or listen to colleagues, it’s like you suggest- a moderate number of people nod in recognition, but dont really seem to “get it” or use it, especially as a means to “find stuff they can use”.

It’s a slow moving revolution….

As an aside, while you and I and pretty well everyone we know seems to be up to our eyeballs in the Creative Commons, almost daily I am blown away at how many people I meet, in our field of education/educational technology/learning support/etc, who have NEVER heard of it. I mean people who are running whole support units and have power to create change. It’s been a real shock for me. I guess I just thought we were over that hurdle. So maybe’s that’s the meme to focus on for now….CC….say it again…Creative! Commons! Or maybe “Creative Commons (now with added Linktribute™)”