We don’t spend nearly enough time venerating the computer programmers that taught us peer-production is good. However, once in a while they teach us a lesson so monumental that we have to stop and take notes. Computer server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said Monday that it had begun to make its Java technology source code - used in 3.8 billion cell phones, supercomputers, medical devices and other gadgets - available under the GNU General Public License. Wow Wow Wee Waa!

Our friends at the Canadian Co-operative Learning Object Exchange (CLOE) have released an important statement on protecting rights and sharing learning objects, aptly titled: Sharing, Intellectual Property (IP), Copyright & Creative Commons. CLOE is a collaboration between Ontario universities and colleges for the development, sharing, and reuse of multimedia-rich learning resources via the CLOE Learning Object Repository.

Many academics and educators today spend their time creating learning objects to help their students learn more effectively. These learning objects are inherently valuable to the larger learning community, yet their creators may be reluctant to share them without legal counsel on how this would effect their intellectual property rights.

Choosing to share a learning object under Creative Commons copyright licence is a free and easy way to tell others that they may make use of your work under certain terms, while respecting your copyright. CLOE recommends using the most recent Canadian version of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence, as the default copyright licence for the CLOE repository.

Learn more about learning objects and copyright by reading our Learning Object FAQ.

Lawrence Lessig writes: Creative Commons is the first nonprofit organization to raise money through online video sharing. We’ve uploaded our short videos to Revver, a video-sharing platform that uses Creative Commons licenses to help creators make money from their work.

Revver attaches a short ad at the end of each video on its network. When a viewer clicks on the ad, Revver splits the resulting ad revenue with the video’s creator. Usually, it’s a 50/50 split, but Revver is generously giving Creative Commons 100% of the money our videos make through the end of our fundraising campaign on December 31, 2006.

As part of this launch, we’re premiering our latest video — Wanna Work Together? — which pays tribute to the people around the world using CC licenses and CC-licensed content to build a better, more vibrant creative culture.

So now we’re in a big push to get as many people as we can to watch our Revverized videos (or help us spread them by embedding them on your blog, MySpace page, or Web site). Please check out the ads, and help Creative Commons get paid!