Ease of Attribution, Ease of Licensing, and Integration of Creative Works

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Integration is the most fruitful phase of the creative process. Integration occurs when an individual synthesizes some or all components of other individuals' creative works into a new whole which is distinct from the original creative works. Because an integrative creative product uses previously produced works, legal and intellectual property aspects of integrative outcome impact an individual's tendency to engage in the integration process. Concerns over attribution and licensing of creative works can hinder the creative integration process. Intellectual property protection frameworks such as Creative Commons (CC) and technological features such as attribution tree eliminate part of attribution and licensing concerns and thus foster creative integration. In this paper we present a theoretical model and research design for examining impacts of ease of attribution and licensing on creative integration. To inform empirical design, we perform and report an explorative data analysis of creative integration activities in ccMixter which is a CC-based music community.