Creative Commons

I visited the Creative Commons website (http://creativecommons.org) and read the case study dealing with the University of Michigan's library. (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Case_Studies/University_of_Michigan_Library)

This particular case study explains how U-M's library is in the process of digitizing their library and how they're teaching their college students to give credit for work. By using CC, authors still get credit for their work, even if it's in the public domain. This has been very successful for U-M in the field of academic research for both undergraduates and professional academics.

The answer to two questions:
a. How does the Creative Commons project alter they way we understand ownership and copyright?

The Creative Commons project allows the original owner to "own" the rights to their product (image, song, text, etc.) and still allows other to use it for the purposes of research. The original author gets credit for the work, they are acknowledged, but others can use it in certain ways. The author may not get the royalties (especially if the product is in the public domain), but they are acknowledged as the original. As opposed to copyrighting and ownership (where only one person/company) is allowed to use a particular song, image, trademark, etc., CC allows others to modify products to their desire. This site gives new "rights" to the new creations, but credit is always given to the original creator for their work.

b. How does this project affect the subject(s) of a work?

The subject of the product doesn't really change, but the image/song/text/etc. can be changed through Creative Commons. People can alter images to their own use, can re-write or expand text, etc., which creates a new product, with new content, but is based on the same original subject.