From Wired News:
Making Copy Right for All. A new nonprofit group will provide an alternative to traditional copyrights by making it easier for artists, musicians and programmers to share their works with the public.
I haven’t had a lot of time yet to explore the Creative Commons, but the idea looks interesting — extend some of the ideas from the Open Source programming philosphy into the world of more conventional intellectual property. Copyright law, as it now exists, locks down all rights at the instant of creation; Creative Commons seems to be designing a mechanism that would allow a creator to cede some of those rights in a controlled manner.