by Flemming Funch
I consider what I write here in my weblog to be in the public domain. I.e. anybody can copy it and reproduce it anyway they see fit. Doc Searls mentions that he wants his blog to be in the public domain. See a Public Domain Dedication from Creative Commons. The problem is that it is not as easy as one might think to put one's work into the public domain. It is not just as simple as writing a few words under one's text, or even linking to a declaration like that. CC can take you through some steps that will make it more likely that you actually succeed in putting something into the public domain.
It is pretty silly. In most parts of the world the default choice is not that creative works are shared, but that they're hidden and protected behind legal red tape. So you need to jump through some hoops just to be allowed to give your own work away. I've noticed that with my own writings. It doesn't matter how clearly I write that anybody can copy it and distribute it and use it as much as they feel like. Lots of people still think they need to write and ask for permission to use it. Publishers still send me complicated release forms, just because they want to quote something I wrote.
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