IMO you're putting far too much faith in the general Internet community to not only WANT to be educated, but to find the resources to actually be educated. It's rarely something that happens passively. Furthermore, I think the general acumen of the vast majority of Internet users is synonymous with anything BUT education heh. Five minutes on YouTube kinda proves that.

But don't consider me a crotchety person stuck in my ways on this, because I'm not. I'm young and open to finding plenty of ways to sharing as much as I can of myself, but CC is not the right way to do it. Just one guys opinion.

What information, statistics, or studies have you seen that would back up this claim? It is the basis for your article, but I cannot find any information on a study, or research that would show this to be an accepted conclusion.

It sounds plausible, to a point. I would have to first assume, or at least accept that people 'want' to be educated in relationship to rights of artists. I am really having some problems with that conclusion.

"Those who charge fees for uses of their images are a very small segment of the Internet community. As such, this group has always had a difficult time getting their message of “compensation for use” accepted by the community at large."

Well, that may be true, but it certainly doesn't mean that we let the 'I want it for free so give it to me and shut up" crowd. Like this guy... who seems to be a prominent person...
http://filmutopia.posterous.com/movie-blog-copyright-and-ip-are-deader-than-e

I would love to think that feeling good about this CC thing would make a difference, but I do not think it will work out that well for those who create images. And digging a little into who is behind it, and why... well.

Good luck and all. I just want to own my own stuff. Kinda old fashioned about that.

What you are saying here is that the pro industry has failed to come up with a proper license language and thus the CC had to jump in.

problem is : the pro never had to find a language to license images for free. It's not their business.

Now, you say, freeloaders are easily going from free to paying thanks to the CC ?

Do you have numbers to back what you are saying ?

Have you figured out how links are going to pay your bills ?

because CC is not teaching people there is limits to a free license, they are teaching people that images are free and you don't even have to ask.

Have you really investigated who is behind CC and what their motivations are ?

First and foremost the language used to describe what I'm signing up to, is in simple human English rather than arcane lawyer speak.

I currently use a license that's in keeping with what I'd aways thought reasonable at http:/jonathanworth.com . Use my images on your fan-site or as a screensaver, just attribute (AT) them to me, don't use them commercially (NC) and don't make derivative versions (ND).

That last point I'm now thinking I'll change as I kind of want kids to mash up my stuff when I photograph their heros (so long as I'm linked, attributed and they're using the same license or Sharing Alike [SA]).

jw