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Explicitly allow your content to be shared, re-used and/or re-mixed, under certain provisos, by adopting a [http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons] license.

=== What Problem This Solves  ===

*Your users don't know if or how they are able to re-use or share your content.
*Much of your content is unused or underused.

=== When to Use This Pattern  ===

Use this pattern when you have content that you'd like your users to be able to re-use, while still retaining some rights.

=== What's The Solution?  ===

[http://creativecommons.org/choose/ Choose a Creative Commons license] and apply it to your content - for a web page, this is as easy as pasting some HTML into the page, which displays licensing information to the user and includes hidden metadata to make your work available in Creative Commons enabled search engines (e.g. Google). 

You can also choose to license your content under Creative Commons when you upload it to numerous web services, including [http://www.flickr.com/ Flickr] and [http://www.slideshare.net/ Slideshare]. 

By default all Creative Commons licenses allow sharing of work for non-commercial purposes, on the proviso of attribution to the original source (normally the title, author and URL). You may also opt to: 

*Allow commercial sharing 
*Allow derivative works

=== Why Use This Pattern  ===

Even if you opt to allow the additional freedoms of derivative works and commercial use, attribution to the original source remains a requirement, which can have powerful marketing and SEO benefits as your content spreads (with links to your website) across the web. 

Your content will also appear in [http://search.creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons searches], giving it greater exposure.

It could also be argued that your content (if valuable) is likely to be stolen/reproduced anyway, even without permission. An explicitly displayed license might at least prompt some users into properly assigning attribution.

Finally, to quote [http://tim.oreilly.com/pub/a/p2p/2002/12/11/piracy.html Tim O'Reilly], "''Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.''"

=== References  ===

#[http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons]

=== Examples Gallery  ===

[[Image:Creative-commons-flickr.png|thumb|left|Re-usable photographs on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons]][[Image:Creative-commons-slideshare.png|thumb|left|A re-usable presentation on Slideshare, licensed under Creative Commons]]<br> 

=== Categories<br>  ===

[[Category:Lifecycle]] [[Category:SEO_and_Marketing]]
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