Creative Commons has officially launched a Web tool to aid content creators who want to publish material under the highly permissive CC0 license.
The tool, which has been under development for over a year, has now reached 1.0 status and is accessible from the Creative Commons website.
In December 2007, Creative Commons launched its CC0 license–its most permissive–which effectively enabled content creators to waive all rights associated with a creative work. This is similar to dedicating a work to the public domain, but with stronger legal footing.
The goal behind the CC0 initiative is to establish a vehicle for extending the concept of a public domain dedication into a form that will be recognized internationally as legally sound.
The CC0 Web tool provides a simple form that guides content creators through the process of distributing their work under a CC0 license.
The form has several steps and includes the full text of the license for users to review. It also has information icons that can be clicked to get additional contextual explanations of various aspects of the license and form. Upon completion, the form will generate an XHTML blurb that can be embedded in a Web page to indicate the CC0 status of the work.
The full text of the CC0 license is available from the Creative Commons website.
Photo by Creative Commons.