Yes, sharing can go horribly, horribly wrong

Unsurprisingly, rogues have already abused these communistic practices. In the highest profile case, Virgin Mobile took 100 images off Flickr for an ad campaign. Young Alison Chang of Texas unwittingly – and without pay – starred in one of the promotions. Humiliatingly, she became known as the "dump your pen friend girl". Her family's suing Virgin Mobile, but also CC for a breach of duty, "by failing, among other things, to adequately educate and warn [the uploader]... of the meaning of commercial use and the ramifications and effects of entering into a license allowing such use."

CC nutshells its side of the story here. What's most fascinating is the lawyer's tactic, which revolves around the girl's right of privacy, not the licensing brouhaha.

Powerblog Boing Boing also stumbled, publishing a 500-word piece by sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin with an erroneous CC license. Ironically, the poster was Cory Doctorow, a former professor who once lectured on copyright at the University of Southern California. As this rant noted: "If even the most dedicated, foaming-at-the-mouth Commons evangelists can't use it properly – what hope do us mortals have?"

It's certainly tricky: basically we're building the airplane in mid-flight, as user-generated content booms. But don't despair. We'll explore more tips for being a good cyber-citizen and protecting your own work in the last week.