Is Creative Commons even necessary?

Maybe not, Kent Anderson writes writes on the Scholarly Kitchen. Anderson argues that Creative Commons licenses, at least as currently used, are just a confusing and ineffective layer on top of existing copyright law: "Unfortunately, Creative Commons licenses are relatively opaque and difficult to differentiate for the average user. Ask a researcher their initial reaction to a CC BY vs. a CC BY-SA vs. a CC BY-NC-SA license, and you're going to be met with blank stares."