♫ Inspirational music - throughout the video♫

When you share your creativity,

you are enabling people anywhere, to use it, learn from it and be inspired by it

Take the teacher,

who shapes young minds with work and wisdom from around the globe,

and the artist who builds beauty out of bits and pieces she finds online.

and the writer, whose stories use ideas and images crafted by people he's never even met.

These people know when you share your creative wealth, you can accomplish great things.

They and millions of other people all around the planet,

are working together to build a richer, better, a more vibrant culture,

using Creative Commons.

To understand Creative Commons, you need to know a little bit about how Copyright works.

Did you know that when you create something – anything, from a photograph, a song, to a drawing, to a film, to a story,

you automatically own an 'All Rights Reserved' copyright to that creativity. It's true!

Copyright protects your creativity against uses you dont consent to. (*except fair use)

But sometimes full Copyright is too restrictive.

What about when you want all those millions of millions of people out there to use your work?

without the hasstle of coming to you for permission?

what if you want your work to be freely shared, reused and built upon by the rest of the world?

Luckily there is an answer: Creative Commons.

We provide free copyright licenses, you can use to tell people exactly which parts of your copyright

you are happy to give to the public.

It's easy, it only takes a minute, and its totally free.

Just come to our website and answer a few quick questions like:

'Would you allow commercial uses of your work?'

and 'Would you allow your work to be modified?'

Based on your answers, we'll give you a license that clearly communicates

what people can and can't do with your creativity.

You don't give up your Copyright, you refine it so it works better for you.

Welcome to a new world where collaboration rules.

It didn't even exist just a few years ago.

But now there are millions of millions of songs, pictures, videos, and written works

available to share, reuse and remix – all for free.

You wanna work together?

then join the Commons – Creative Commons.

The End

Animation and Design by Ryan Junell junell.net

Music and Sound Design Lesser LSR1.com

Narrator Sara Kraft kraftpurver.com

Script Eric Steuer creativecommons.org

Very Special Thanks The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation macfound.org

Very Special Thanks The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation hewlett.org

Very Special Thanks Red Hat redhat.com

Very Special Thanks Omidyar Network omidyar.net

Very Special Thanks Stanford Law School law.stanford.edu

Very Special Thanks Center for the Study of the Public Domain law.duke.edu/cfpd

And all Creative Commons supporters, large and small