Copyleft

To be totally honest, a fair amount of my ideas don’t come from my own brain.

To be even more honest, the vast majority of them don’t. I pick up on others’ ideas, and try to add in my own spin or opinion, and sometimes tell the world why I’m right and they’re wrong. But, in reality, most of the stuff I write about doesn’t originate in my head.

We’re all that way, and it’s a wonderful consequence of the world of information we find ourselves in thanks to the Web. We’ve got countless sources of information available, countless opinions and thoughts to capitalize on and use in our own lives. There aren’t really any new thoughts, just new ways of thinking about the same things.

I get a lot of emails and messages asking me for permission to reprint or re-use an article I’ve written. I’ve never said no yet, and I’ve loved seeing my ideas and opinions get spread through other media.

I’m going to take it one step further now, and officially release all copyright from the content of The 2.0 Life.

Why?

My hope, my goal, my crazy audacious dream for this site is that it becomes a place for people to come and learn about how to use this crazy thing we call the Web. I hope to assume no prerequisites, or any a priori knowledge – I aim to explain everything as simply and succinctly as possible, in a way that everyone can understand. There’s too much good, useful and fun stuff on the Web for entrance barriers to exist.

I want the content of this site to prove that there’s a place for things like grammar and sentence structure in every industry, and that technology writing is no exception. If my posts get reprinted, fantastic! That means that someone is getting value out of what I write, enough even to share it with others. The Web should be easy to access, easy to read, and fun to experiment with – let’s spread that!

Since the applications and ideas are only partly mine, and since spreading what I believe in is much more important than the money that comes from it, how can I claim some sort of overlord-esque responsibility over what I create? And why would I?

If you want to use the content on this site, go for it! You don’t need to give me any credit or even notice (though I’d appreciate both – I love knowing people like and use my stuff!), and don’t need my permission.

Why am I doing this? Sure, it might cost me some revenue, or create some controversy when someone reprints my content and tries to pass it off as their own. But that’s okay, because it’s going to be outweighed by the good reasons – my ideas get spread further, my opinions are wider-spread, and I get the chance for my thoughts to interact with more people.

How?

There are several different ways to remove the copyright from a publication; Creative Commons and the public domain are arguably the biggest two. If something is created under a CC license, it essentially allows for use, with credit, of the content. It’s free to use, as long as you attribute it to the creator (most of the images I use, for instance, come from CC-licensed Flickr photos).

Under the public domain, which is the path I’m choosing for this site, there’s no restriction whatsoever. You are free to use or change the content here without any attribution, credit, or notification to me (though it’s always appreciated).

So steal this blog. If you want to use one article or all of them, go for it. It’d be great if you’d let me know or give me credit somewhere, but you’re in no way obligated to do so.

This idea didn’t even come from me – I saw it done initially on Leo Babauta’s site, Zen Habits, which is stolen from much more often than my own. I almost copied his post word-for-word without attribution, just to prove a point, but figured I should avoid it. Instead, I’ll direct you toward his great post, "Open Source Blogging: Feel Free to Steal My Content". He talks about why releasing copyright is good for him and good for everyone, and even admits to stealing the idea himself.

We stand to gain much more from a free sharing and flowing of ideas and information than any of us does from hanging on to ideas that, for the most part, are unique only in our perspective on them. Let’s embrace the fact that we can all improve on each other’s work, and that less control and more freedom is better for everyone.

So, if you want to reprint, edit, or re-use something on this site – go for it! It’s yours to do with as you please.