[This is part of a weekly series written by Lawrence Lessig and others about the history and future of Creative Commons. If you know others who might find these interesting, please recommend they sign up at http://creativecommons.org/about/lessigletter]

About two months ago, a friend asked:

I don't get what Creative Commons is, beyond a bunch of servers serving up licenses to people around the world. Why would you need support?

The question was completely understandable. Most who see us just see us through our licenses. Yet there's a great deal more to what we're doing. And my aim over the next few weeks is to describe that great deal more.