Microsoft Office gets Creative Commons

Microsoft announced that it is teaming up with Creative Commons to integrate a copyright licensing tool in their Office suite. So what is Creative Commons? Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works -- you can see Flash movie tutorials on their site that explain this better.

Redmongmag.com reports that the copyright licensing tool, which is free, will let Word, Excel and PowerPoint users choose among a selection of copyright licenses to address particular documents from within the Office applications, according to a joint statement by Microsoft and Creative Commons.

ZDNet was a little more euphoric when they gave kudos to Microsoft for making it possible for users of their Office suite (now numbering 400 million) to easily apply a Creative Commons license to the work they author using the applications in that productivity suite. ZDNet also adds that there is no word on whether this capability will be built into 2007 Microsoft Office system.

If these were the bouquets, then there are brickbats too. Tectonic says that Microsoft downplayed the links between Creative Commons and open source in its announcement, and everyone suddenly seems to be on friendly terms.

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