Q: What is the difference between explicitly using Creative Commons licenses and just not addressing the issue?
A: Under one of the copyright extension acts, copyright is automatically applied to every work that you create as opposed to 'I need to explicitly say that this is copyrighted for it to be copyrighted'.
Anything you create is copyrighted. So if you doodle in your notebook its copyrighted, it doesn't go into the public domain automatically. So if you don't add anything at all to a work then it's copyrighted.
But just explicitly saying it's a Creative Commons license is like saying 'I allow you to share it with anyone or to change it and make it better or fix any mistakes or add your opinion in the middle of it'. I think that's very important because it shows a culture of 'Yes, we recognize that you have something to add, that this is a cultural atmosphere of learning and not just here are my notes, that's what I'm gonna teach you and that's all there is to it.'
Q: How are the majority of Creative Commons licenses being used?
Q: What are some more high-profile uses of Creative Commons licenses?
Q: How are Creative Commons licenses being used by academics?
Q: Do you put your pictures online under a Creative Commons license?
Q: What might some adverse effects of Creative Commons licenses be?