The Creative Commons Toque

Last week Leslie Ellen Harris correctly pointed out in her Slaw post Using Flickr Photos that we should not assume content available on the web is freely available without copyright. She gave photos on Flickr as the example.

One thing I love about Flickr, however, is that it allows those of us who upload photos to designate Creative Commons licensing as an alternative. When I am looking for images for blog posts or presentations, I will often use the advanced search on Flickr to look for images available under Creative Commons (especially for commercial use)–scroll down on the advanced search page to see the options to search for images under Creative Commons. I like that the CC licensing asks those using content to give attribution.

I’m an advocate for opening up content whenever possible, especially if not created for business/proprietary use. Ryan Deschamps, e-Learning Manager at the Halifax Public Libraries, is also a Creative Commons advocate, and recently shared one of his knitting projects as proof. I’m presuming he is willing to let me share the video with you. As an aside, he makes note on his accompanying blog post that the Creative Commons logo itself is not available under Creative Commons. In the new tradition of our “the law of winter” Slaw posts, enjoy:

NB: For those visiting this post unfamiliar with the term “toque”, this is a Canadian term for a knitted winter hat. Audio pronunciations of the word toque are available here.