Yahoo links to free digital content

Yahoo is helping nonprofit Creative Commons bring new exposure to the digital content being shared via its services, which are aimed at allowing individuals to distribute their work via non-traditional copyright methods. Creative Commons said on its Web site that the new search engine should help generate more attention for the work being shared on its pages.

Larry Lessig, the Stanford law professor who serves as Creative Commons' chairman, recently filed a blog on Yahoo's pages about the work the group is doing in Southeast Asia. According to Lessig, Yahoo's search engine launch will help Creative Commons deliver on its promise to offer new content sharing opportunities to people around the globe.

"Yahoo has defined itself as the thin layer of the net that will make the net's community come alive," Lessig wrote. "Its first life made the net findable. Its second life made the net useable. Now Yahoo will give the net tools to make its community come alive."