Creative Commons (Thing #9)

Okay, so my head is spinning but I’m not sure that’s good. I get Creative Commons in theory and now I am trying to understand it in a practical way. For years, we teachers have done our best, pulling together resources and “borrowing” from whomever and wherever we can. But now I find out that  I can legally  find and use lots of educational learning material????? For free????? I looked at some of the sites that were listed on the instructions for Thing #9, but I found it difficult to navigate these sites (remember, this is new for me!!!)

So here are my questions for you:  How do you easily locate these “free” materials? How do you properly give credit? If you have been “borrowing” for years, how do you find out if that material is in fact free to use (this could lower my guilty conscience immediately!)

But let’s go further. If I want to write a book or poetry and I want to make lots of money selling that book, why would I want to put it on Creative Commons? What would be the incentive? Would it be free exposure? Or if I want to sell that book, should I just keep it to myself and not share it?