Check out these two fine examples of what Creative Commons has wrought (and it's not that far out of the starting gate):

The Staccato podcast: "Welcome to Staccato, where we feature music that probably won't get you sued. All tracks are available under a Creative Commons license. So is the show, of course." Via the Chris Pirillo Show on 1/27 (hour 3), which features an inteview with Staccato's founder Matt May and includes Matt's take on both the strengths and fallibilities of Creative Commons. Regarding the latter, Matt discusses how other rights considerations (i.e. ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI) might not go away simply because someone has tried to issue a work under a CC license. Matt selects his tuneage from the new releases feed at Archive.org/Open Source Audio.

Science Commons: "The mission of Science Commons is to encourage scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities, and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others." (Via Cory Doctorow on The Gadget Show.) To the blawgers out there: do me a favor and read the Science Commons description in full with these questions in mind: doesn't the realm of legal knowledge confront these same sort of obstacles, and wouldn't this kind of approach help overcome them in our arena as well?