How does Creative Commons affect an individual's copyright protection?

Stanford law professor, Lawrence Lessing, understood that in some instances copyright laws were too restrictive and prevented the use of intellectual property unless a person gained specific permission from the copyright holder. However, if a person decides to license their intellectual work with a creative commons copyright license, they have more control of specifying how users may utilize their intellectual work. For example, a person may choose not to allow someone to use their work for commercial purposes. Or someone may stipulate that the work such as a photograph may be utilized for noncommercial purposes or for commercial purposes as long as credit is given to the creator. The creative commons website allows a person to select from six different licenses. The person that holds the copyright license then has the authority to choose the license that best fits their needs. Therefore holding a creative commons copyright protects the individual’s intellectual work, but also gives the creator of the work options of how others may utilize their work without necessarily having to contact the copyright holder to ask for permission. And if an individual is interested in using the copyrighted material for commercial purposes, then an agreement can be established between the two parties.