Was ist Creative Commons? (What is Creative Commons?)

From Google's English:

'Creative Commons (CC) licenses are legal tools to share materials such as research data under copyright. Creative Commons is also a nonprofit organization and a fascinating movement. Researchers who publish their data and documentation under a Creative Commons license enable other researchers to build on their work. The conditions under which the use is permitted are clearly defined and allow more ("some rights reserved") than would be the case under copyright with its "all rights reserved". Researchers continue to receive recognition for their work, but other researchers can take advantage of the Internet by downloading, analyzing and using the data so that further research on the data is possible.'