On The Licensing System Of Creative Commons

According to current Copyright Law, the copyright owner shall enjoy copyright upon the completion of a work and the work is fully and completely protected. While as far as any person who exploits the work is concerned, once he uses any type of copyright without permission, if such use excludes the limitations to copyright which are provided by Copyright Law, such as "fare use", then he may commit copyright infringement. Seeing separately from the standpoint of the copyright owner and any person who exploits the works, the copyright owner surely wishes his work can be protected as completely as possible under Copyright Law to gain the most benefit; and as to the person who exploits, he may be apt to use the work for free so as to avoid the obstacle to new creation and the dissemination of information. Thus, how to design a work-exploit mechanism, which can take account of the interests of the copyright owner and any person who exploits the works, has become a problem which needs urgent solution. Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University, made a try by proposing the concept of Creative Commons and founding Creative Commons Licenses. Creative Commons advocates "Some Rights Reserved". Recurring to Creative Commons Licenses, the copyright owner voluntarily shares his copyrighted work with non-specified users by marking his work with simple symbols to indicate whether the work can be shared in whole or in parts. Creative Commons has made great progress in other countries and areas. In China, considering to the difference between the strict copyright system and the participation to knowledge in our traditional culture, the idea and method of Creative Commons Licenses give us a rational and operable moderate way. So, carrying on research to this system should be of profound theoretical and practical significance.By introducing and interpreting Creative Commons, this study tries to solve the problems (such as unclear license) in copyright license contract and the problems that in some circumstances achieving license is impossible, accordingly construct a more abundant and rich circumstance for work-creation so as to make the cultural diffusion and identity more easily. Because of this, the thesis divides into three parts altogether.The first part is "The Naissance and Development of Creative Commons". In this part, the thesis points out that the backgrounds of Creative Commons are the puzzles that traditional Copyright Licensing has met and the influence that the free software movement has made; probes the reasons for CC's naissance and development from five aspects--the over strong protection of Copyright, the progress of technology, the methods of creating and using works, the attitudes of copyright owners to works and the diversity of knowledge; introduces CC Licenses and their exertion on all sorts of works in detail; pays attention to the new development of Creative Commons.The second part is "The Theoretical and Systematic Analysis of Creative Commons". The Theoretical Analysis: From the perspective of economics, using CC Licenses may take immediate reward or delayed reward, may reduce the cost of creating work, may lower the cost of using work; In the eyes of philosophy of law, CC helps to construct a equitable and desirable culture. The Systematic Analysis: CC is based on Copyright Law, CC is "fare use"-plus, and CC can make up for the shortages of Copyright Law; CC is dependent on Contract Law and is Contract Law's regulations effective use in work.The third part is "Creative Commons in China: From Ideality to Reality". In this part, the thesis analyses the necessity of introducing the Creative Commons Licences into China from the aspects of Constitution, ethnics of law and culture innovation; construes the possibility of China's copyright owners' adopting CC licences in their works; gives some advice on how to popularize CC Licences in Chinese Mainland.