In 2007, Lawrence Liang, a Bangalore-based lawyer and Shishir Jha, Associate Professor, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT-B launched creative commons ( CC ) to popularise the open licensing system. They started copy-left  movement, as opposed to copy-right  law which is restrictive. CC has been founded as NP organisation in the US in 2001. It has six kinds of licenses but all these insist on a need to attribute the work to the creator and seeking permission to share. Some licenses allow remix and commercial use, whereas some do not.

In many fields such as music and films, the copyrights have been assigned to the recording company, or the producer or the publisher. The creator remains out of picture. The creator is given one time payment or meagre royalties. Copyrights laws give  false sense of security to the creative people. The most important thing is the ability of the owner to exercise his right. This could be done through free licencing too. Even the present copyright law mentions that a copyright without monetary consideration  is acceptable, with a necessary attribution to creator. That endorses the open licensing in spirit. However, the amended copyright law with monetary considerations specified would not be conductive to free licensing.

In the IT domain, the concept of CC is very much in use. Free licensing is about the flow of ideas.