Abstract: Creative Commons responds to the problem that inhibits the realization of the full communicative potential of digital networks: copyright law. Under the default rules, nearly all uses of a copyrighted work require a license from the copyright owner unless the use falls within a legal privilege, such as fair use. As digital networks expand, the variety of activities governed by copyright law also expands. Uncertainty about which uses of new technologies require a copyright license limits the utility of these technologies. This talk will focus on reasons for the rapid growth of Creative Commons and then address other efforts to solve the problems that copyright law poses for a networked society; in particular, the ways in which current copyright practices inhibit use of digital networks as media for education and scholarly communication.

Creative Commons, a non-profit corporation (www.creativecommons.org), offers a suite of humanreadable and machine-readable copyright licenses that can be attached to objects on digital networks. A Creative Commons license communicates to users that the copyright owner permits certain types of use subject to certain minimal conditions, such as giving the author credit.

Bio: Michael W. Carroll is an Associate Professor at the Villanova University School of Law and serves on the Board of Directors of Creative Commons, Inc. Prior to joining the Villanova faculty, he practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and served as law clerk at the federal Court of Appeals and District Court in Washington, D.C. Professor Carroll is a graduate of the University of Chicago (A.B.) and Georgetown University (J.D.).