This week I learned about EULAs for the first time, which are End-User License Agreements. This is a contract between the licensor and the purchaser of a software, and it establishes the purchaser’s right to use it. It can define the ways it can be used. These contracts are mostly digital, in the form of clicking a button which either ‘accepts’ or ‘rejects’ the installation of software onto a computer.
After talking a lot about copyright and intellectual property in the symposium, I decided to teach myself a little more about creative commons and attributions in order to substantiate what little I already know.
Creative Commons (CC) explains itself as “a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools”. CC licenses are not an alternative to copyright, but instead work alongside them. What I didn’t know is that “copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).”
What I would like to understand further is how copyright and CC licenses extend internationally and across jurisdictions. I also need to learn what the icons for CC licenses represent. This will be a good resource for me in the future. I think CC is wonderful asset to the internet, and a lot of creativity and content would not be possible without them.
UPDATE 26/8/14: I’ve finally learned more about CC licenses, which you can read about here.