Newspaper chain rolls out Creative Commons licenses

Under the “Absolutely Welcome” category, this terrific surprise: Nearly all 121 daily and weekly Massachusetts newspapers owned by GateHouse Media are getting Creative Commons licenses. This is the biggest step I’ve ever heard a newspaper chain take toward opening its content for non-commercial use. From PressThink: Mia Garlick, chief council of the Creative Commons Foundation, concurs: she’s not aware of any newspaper chains or major papers that are releasing content under CC. “For a major publisher with significant numbers of people reading to be doing this is great.” Check out TownOnline, a portal for several of the company’s Massachusetts papers and a search called, of course, Wicked Local. (Via Poynter)