Creative Commons Licence is a concept originating from the work of a non-profit corporation with the intent to create a legal foundation for making the claiming of copyrights more flexible. Creative Commons was founded in 2001 and is based at the Stanford Law School.

In publishing, there are many reasons to object to too rigid models for protecting intellectual property. For many writers the distribution of their ideas and thoughts is more important than claiming rights, or feel that free distribution is better for business anyway. This is particularly true with academic and critical work. Many of these ideas arise from discussion and debate anyway, and can not be claimed to originate completely in the mind of the person putting the words on paper.

It can still be in the interest of authors to pursue some legal protection for their works. CC Licences allow authors to specify what types of uses they consent to and what they do not. For example, one might allow free copying and distribution from a book as long as the author is credited and the materials are not sold for profit. Creative Commons provides deeds with these specifications and the legal code to back it up.

Immedium Press supports the ideas of the Creative Commons project and hopes to implement the licences in publishing. This will happen in an understanding with the author, and the use of CC licence is not required to submit works to Immedium.

To further explore the CC concept, visit the Creative Commons website.