I have a bit of a fetish for productivity blogs. One of my favorites, Zen Habits, is written by Leo Babauta. His story is truly inspirational. I generally read his blog via RSS feeds but decided to visit the site one day. I was impressed to read his “UnCopyright” notice.
This caused me to pause. Here is Leo, a blogger, giving away his content to all takers. Leo has now released a new book, but I am guessing that he derives a significant amount of income from his blog. He generates income by having original ideas and writing about them on his blog. By giving up his copyright to this information, he allows anyone, even without crediting him, to use and distribute his copyright.
Now, I don’t have anywhere close to the number of subscribers, but this caused me to think: “If it’s good enough for him, why can’t I do the same thing?” I have no advertising on this site and don’t have any income from blogging, so I have very little to lose.
I am also a supporter of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and truly believe in the concept. I thought it was hypocritical to support programmers who choose to distribute their work free and not do the same with my own work.
To that end, I have created a copyright notice on my blog that describes in detail the fair use of my writing. While not as liberal as Leo’s uncopyright, it allows for the distribution and reuse of my content.
