Has anyone ever considered releasing their work under a creative commons license rather than the typical copyright? Why or why not?

I plan to release all my non-fiction at this point under Creative commons. At the moment my plans include compilations of blog posts. The entire point of compiling an ebook is to get more people to read it, and so restricting the copying and spreading around of those books would be counter to my purpose... which is simply get as many people as possible to read it.

Is there anything in particular I should know when crafting a copyright notice for a book licensed under creative commons? Usually there's a whole paragraph of legalese about how many different ways you're not allowed to copy a book. Is any of that necessary or will most people be able to figure out what "creative commons" means on their own?

I don't think I'll be releasing any of my fiction, poetry, or essays under a Creative Commons license anytime soon, though I can't really articulate why. I expect I'll probably release much of the software I'm developing under the GPL (GNU General Public License), eventually.

The Creative Commons website probably has "legalese" license notices (and icons!) for you to use. Note that there are several related Creative Commons licenses, and you need to decide which you want to use.