During a campaign a lot of material is produced. From artwork, to videos, to research papers and publications, intellectual property is everywhere online and in every day life. Copyleft activists have advocated for less (or zero) regulations on this property. One way to ensure that the fruit of your labour is used only how you intend is to obtain a creative commons license.

Creative commons was founded in 2001 and has been issuing free, customizable licenses for intellectual property since 2002. The descriptions of the different licenses are simple and you can decide which rights you would like to reserve and which you want to waive in favour of contributing to the public domain. You can choose how you would like your work to be used, if you would like to be credited, who can redistribute it and whether or not people can add or remix it.

Though now governed by a board of directors, creative commons is the brainchild of anti-copyright scholars/activists Larry Lessig, Hal Abelson and Eric Eldred. They secured funding from the Centre for the Public Domain after they got fed up with the “all rights reserved” copyright system. They argued that by protecting work so heavily, it stifled creativity and furthered monopolies on cultural and intellectual products.

In 2009 there were an estimated 350 million creative commons licensed works.

Choosing a licence is simple. Just head to the website, click licenses, and from the drop down menu select choose a license. The page has a few simple questions about how you want your work used and in a snap you’ve got a copyleft agreement for your intellectual property.