Via ReadWriteWeb, the Creative Commons Foundation announced the creation of a new tool called CC Zero.

CC Zero isn’t another legal license from the group, instead it’s a legal tool that lets content creators give up the rights claims they are given by default and instead send their work into the public domain.

CC Zero has three components to it. The first is legal code, developed as all of CC’s work is to be applicable with laws in every country around the world. The second component is a “human readable” text explaining how CC Zero works. You can read the CC Zero FAQ on this page. The final component is machine readable code, making CC Zeroed content easily discoverable around the web. The Foundation says this should be particularly valuable in scientific work, but machine readable markup is interesting in all kinds of contexts.

It is 70 years after the death of an author or 120 years after the year of publication if the death of an author is unknown, before creative work becomes a public domain. It looks like via CC Zero, authors might be able to make their creative work part of public domain immediately at the author’s wish.

Any thoughts anyone?