Strange Horizons, a speculative-fiction webzine that publishes short fiction, poetry, reviews and articles on a weekly basis, have recently added an option allowing authors to publish their works under a CC license. Many authors have taken them up on the offer, including Ben Rosenbaum, whose desire to release his Hugo-nominated “The House Beyond Your Sky” under a CC-licence spearheaded the entire process.

Strange Horizon’s adoption of CC-licenses allows, very simply, for greater flexibility in terms of how an author’s work is distributed online. Jed Hartmen, co-editor of SH, puts it well:

“Some authors would be happy to allow anyone who wants to do so to translate their work into another language or another medium. (“Want to make a music video out of my story? Go ahead!”) Some authors would be fine with letting other people make copies of their work as long as nobody is making any money from the copying. And so on; there are a variety of license options.”

It is great to see this sort of adoption taking place, especially from a publication that Cory Doctorow calls “one of the best short fiction publishers in the world”. Be sure to check out these two blog posts for the various CC-licensed works SH now offers. Oh, and they’re running a fundraising drive as well.

(via Boing Boing)