Plaintext
Share, Reuse, Remix —
Legally
N E W S L E T T E R
http://creativecommons.org Issue No. 13 June 2009
A lex R ob er t s. “M elis sa
Reeder.” CC-BY 3.0
Dear Creative Commoner,
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
In an ongoing effort to improve communication efforts with our community,
we’ll be making some changes to the ccNewsletter. Starting in July and at
the beginning of each month thereafter, we’ll send out brief e-news updates
of the latest and most exciting CC news. On a quarterly basis, starting
in September, we’ll produce a more comprehensive newsletter including
a CEO update from Joi Ito, which will also be available in beautifully-
designed PDF format. With so much going on in the world of CC, we hope
this new newsletter format will better serve its purpose of bringing important
CC developments and milestones to you, our valued supporters and users,
in a more timely and efficient way. As a reminder, you can always subscribe
to our weblog at http://creativecommons.org/weblog to stay on top of the
latest news.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit our recently-launched
2 website, now sporting a much slicker and cleaner design. We’ll be rolling
out more changes in the near future, so please check back and explore all
the ways that our site can help you learn more about CC and get involved
in the effort to build a participatory culture.
Many thanks to our CC Philippines team for designing the PDF version of
this newsletter, available at:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CCNewsletter
Best,
Melissa Reeder
Development Manager
Creative Commons
This newsletter is licensed
under http://creativecom-
mons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
— please share and remix!
Breaking News
CC Case Studies: Share Your Story! to the cause of free culture has been
an inspiration to us all. Assuring the
Creative Commons Case Studies 2009 interoperability of free culture is a critical
has officially kicked off – and we want to step towards making this freedom work.
hear your story! We’re collecting cases The Wikipedia community is to be
big and small on our re-launched Case congratulated for its decision, and the
Studies wiki, an online portal to upload Free Software Foundation thanked for
and discover documentation about CC- its help. I am enormously happy about
licensed projects. We want to capture this decision.” The addition of the CC
the diversity of CC creators and content BY-SA license to Wikimedia sites should
by building a resource that inspires occur over the next month, so keep an
new works and informs free culture. eye out for this monumental change.
The top community-curated stories will
be featured on the Creative Commons Read the full press release here:
3
website and in the next printed volume http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/
of Creative Commons Case Studies. You Press _releases/Dual_license_vote_
may also have the chance to collaborate May_2009
with our CEO, Joi Ito, whose doctoral
work focuses on select case studies Yahoo! Brings CC Filters to
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
about CC and the sharing economy. Image Search
Head over to the Case Studies wiki and
add, edit, or check out a case study Yahoo! announced last week the addition
today: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/ of CC license image filtering options for
Case_Studies their image search, so you can now filter
images from Flickr that can be used
commercially or that can be modified
according to the restrictions set down
by the image’s creator. Yahoo’s ongoing
support of Creative Commons is vital and
greatly appreciated, and we are certain
that this search filter will be extremely
beneficial for educators, students, artists,
and anyone looking to find legally
shareable images on the web.
Wikimedia Foundation Board
Votes to Approve License Migration
The Wikimedia Foundation board has
approved the licensing changes voted
on by the community of Wikipedia
and its sister sites. The accompanying
press release includes this quote from
Creative Commons founder Lawrence
Lessig: “Richard Stallman’s commitment
CC News — Arts & Culture
One of Creative Commons’ Free Music Archive Launches the BBC is also releasing all of the
core goals is to expand content left on the cutting room floor in
the body of open and free In early April, WFMU celebrated the their “Asset Bundles.” This is a fantastic
cultural works available launch of its new website, The Free effort for the commons, so hats off to
to the public. This is
Music Archive, with free downloads the BBC!
accomplished through
available under Creative Commons and
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
outreach, advisement,
and specific project-based other licenses. The FMA has already “RiP: A Remix Manifesto” Released;
initiatives with individuals become a fantastic resource for curated Online Remixing through Kaltura
and communities that CC-licensed music and is a database
promote a similar emphasis that looks to continue to grow in quality RiP: A Remix Manifesto, a community-
on community, sharing, and quantity over time. Since there is driven documentary that focuses on
and innovation. This effort so much content on the site, the FMA copyright and remix culture is just
is headed by Creative is featuring particular curators such as beginning to creep out into theaters,
Director Eric Steuer.
WFMU, KEXP, and dublab. So go register after its U.S. premier at SXSW in March.
an account and start downloading some While the film mainly focuses on the story
of the 5,000 tracks already posted, or of Greg Gillis of Girl Talk, it includes
search by license type and help one of interviews with a wide variety of figures,
the world’s greatest independent stations including Lawrence Lessig and Cory
thrive on the net! http://freemusicarchive. Doctorow. Perhaps most interesting is
org/ that the filmmakers have teamed up
4 with open source video platform Kaltura,
Lawrence Lessig’s Book, REMIX, enabling anyone with a computer to remix
Now Available for Free Download the film, only at opensourcecinema.org.
All the footage of the film is released
CC founder Lawrence Lessig’s latest under an Attribution Noncommercial
book, REMIX: Making Art and Commerce (CC BY-NC) license.
Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, is now
available for free download under a
CC BY-NC license from Bloomsbury
Academic’s website. We are incredibly
excited that a text devoted to the art
and value of remixing is being released
under a license that allows free and open
sharing and reuse. Download today:
http://www.bloomsburyacademic.com/
remix.htm
BBC releases R&DTV under CC
The BBC recently interviewed Digg’s
Kevin Rose for their R&DTV series, a
monthly program consisting of interviews
with BBC developers and technology
leaders. In conjunction to licensing
the shows under our Attribution-
NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license,
CC News — International
German Film Museum Integrates Norwegian Minister Publishes Creative Commons
CCPL in Documentation Project Book under CC BY-SA works internationally to
“port” the core Creative
Commons licenses to
The German Film Museum “Deutsche Norway’s Minister of Government different copyright
Kinemathek” is running a project called Administration and Reform, Heidi legislations around
“Wir waren so frei” (literally “we were so Grande Røys, launched a new book the world. The process
free” but meaning “we took the liberty”) titled “Delte meninger” (in Norwegian involves both linguistically
to collect material documenting the this has the dual meaning of “shared translating the licenses
peaceful revolution in Eastern Germany opinions” and “conflicting opinions”), and legally adapting them
in 1989 and the reunification in 1990. It about sharing and the social side of to particular jurisdictions.
calls on the general public to contribute computer networks. There is also a This work is lead by
International Director
private photos and films of the era, and website dedicated to open, public debate
Catharina Maracke and
to do so under a CC license. To learn about the issues raised in the book. Both volunteer teams in each
more, visit https://www.wir-waren-so- the website and the print edition will jurisdiction who are 5
frei.de/. carry a ported Norwegian CC BY-SA committed to introducing
3.0 license. The print edition of the book CC to their country.
In Malaysia, Creative Commons will be published by Universitetsforlaget
Movement Growing Fast and is the first instance of a major
book in Norway that carries a Creative
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
CC Malaysia (CC MY) was recently Commons license.
covered by The Star, the largest
newspaper in circulation in Malaysia, 250,000 Images Donated to the
in an extensive article titled “Creative Commons
Commons movement steps up.” It
features, among other things, the 250,000 images were recently donated
team’s proud achievement “Here in to Wikimedia Commons, a sister project
my home,” a CC-licensed video with of Wikipedia. The images, part of the
a powerful message of unity, shot last German Photo Collection at Saxony’s
year in Kuala Lampur with Malaysian State and University Library (SLUB) and
Artistes For Unity. To learn more or view available under Germany’s ported CC
the video, visit: http://creativecommons. BY-SA 3.0 license or in the public domain,
org/weblog/entry/13906 are being uploaded with corresponding
captions and metadata. Volunteers have
Launched! Creative Commons been linking the photos, which depict
Czech Republic scenes from German history and daily
life, to personal identification data and
On April 16, at the Multiplace Festival relevant Wikipedia articles.
in Prague, the Czech Republic officially
became the fifty-second jurisdiction
worldwide to offer localized Creative
Commons licenses. Creators in the
Czech Republic can now publish and
share their creative works using free
Creative Commons tools adapted to
Czech language and law.
Creative Commons Hong Kong
Making Progress after Launch
Six months after the official launch of
Creative Commons Hong Kong last
October, there is an estimated 221,788
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
online works released under the newly
ported Hong Kong CC licenses. A number
of visible local projects are adopting CC.
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)
offers contributors the option of licensing
their work under CC online in the “Hong
Kong Illustrators” special event – “Let’s
Draw Together!” RTHK is also conducting
a consultation on releasing part of the
archive under CC.
Wiki Loves Art/NL
Creative Commons Netherlands and
6 Wikimedia Netherlands have teamed
up to organize Wiki Loves Art /NL, a
month long photo contest inspired by
the Wikipedia Loves Art event that took
place in the US and the UK in February.
Throughout the month of June, the
public is invited to take photos of artwork
in more than 30 museums throughout
the Netherlands and upload them to
the Wiki Loves Art flickr group under a
Creative Commons Attribution Share-
alike (CC By-SA) license. All uploaded
pictures will be screened by a jury. Those
with sufficient quality will be transferred
to the Wikimedia commons for use in
Wikipedia articles, and the authors of
the 10 best pictures will be awarded
with prizes. If you are in the Netherlands
in June, join us for Wiki Loves Art /NL!
For more information including a list
of participating museums, visit www.
wikilovesart.nl
CC News in Science
Open Source Drug Discovery, information available for download Creative Commons works
Research and the Public Domain under a CC-BY-NC-SA license. to advance CC in the field
of science by designing
The Tropical Disease Initiative recently Have you made your information strategies and tools for
faster, more efficient web-
released a “kernel” for open source available using CC0? We’d love to hear
enabled scientific research
drug discovery, made available in about it. Drop us a note at science@ in the hope of speeding
the public domain under the Science creativecommons.org. the translation of data
Commons Data Protocol. The kernel into discovery. The wing
(ht tp://tropicaldisease.org/kernel/ ) My name is NP_001119589.1 — A of Creative Commons
includes 297 potential drug targets Look at the Recent Shared Names dedicated to making the
against 10 selected genomes for Workshop web work for science is
organisms that cause tropical diseases called Science Commons
and is freely and publicly accessible. As the volume of online scientific and is led by Vice President
John Wilbanks.
You can read more about this in Nature information increases, and as info-
7
Biotechnology (subscription required: rmation sources become increasingly
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/ cross-linked, inconsistent nomenclature
v27/n4/full/nbt0409-320.html) or for for these links becomes a significant
free in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases annoyance for computational
(h t t p://w w w.p l o s n t d s .o rg /ar t i cl e/ applications that would recognize
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal. and exploit such links. Lack of
pntd.0000418). common notation ultimately means an
infrastructure that does not scale and
Over at EMBL — the European Molecular that doesn’t lend itself to experiment-
Biology Laboratory, they have also ation and creativity. Thus nomenclature
made some key data related to drug for cross-references is an area that’s ripe
testing and side effects available in the for standardization.
public domain (http://sideeffects.embl.
de/download/) via CC Zero (CC0) – a Science Commons has been working
public domain waiver. since 2006 to understand the social
and technical conditions that might
The resource, the SIDER Side Effect bring about such standardization using
Database, contains information widely deployed web standards such
on marketed medicines and their as URIs, HTTP, and RDF. In Fall 2008
recorded adverse side effects and drug we articulated a proposal, strictly
reactions. Included in this dataset is limited in scope to references to well
information on the frequency of these known key resources such as PDB,
drug reactions, other drug and side and circulated it to several key bio-
effect classifications, as well as links informatics projects that would have a
to other relevant resources. To date, significant interest in such a standard,
888 drugs are listed in the database, a were it to be adopted. The proposal was
tremendous resource for research and favorably received, and we organized
drug discovery. a steering committee to develop and
deploy a standard. A workshop was
The mapping of labels and euphoria- convened on April 29 to educate the
related side effects are now public larger community about the plan, hear
domain, with some other side effect about experience with related systems,
and solicit review of requirements. With more open system for the exchange of
about 25 attendees and a focused medical information that cuts across
agenda, the workshop was a success. sectors, medical professionals, cultural
boundaries, etc. to leverage the power of
Although much work remains to be the network and accelerate the pace of
done, we are pleased with the plan’s drug discovery. The segment also takes
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
reception in the community and that a look at the personal reasons behind
the steering committee has chosen to this collaboration and the benefits of
take responsibility for bringing about an “Open Source” approach to sharing
the technical and organizational biomedical knowledge. Featured in this
infrastructure that will be needed to segment are representatives from two
bring the standard to fruition. of Health Commons’ partners: Marty
Tenenbaum, the chairman and chief
For more information, visit http:// scientist for CollabRx; and Gavin Yamey
sharedname.org/ and Peter Jerram from the Public Library
of Science. To listen to the podcast, visit
GreenXchange, Health Commons http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/
in the News and on the Radiowaves details.cfm?id=358
Worldchanging.com has a new piece Materials Transfer Work Presented
8 up on the GreenXchange, a project of at CHDI Meeting in Cannes, France
Nike and Creative Commons, housed at
Science Commons. The article, “Green Representing Science Commons, Thinh
Xchange: Creating a Meta-Map of Nguyen attended CHDI’s Annual HD
Sustainability” details the underlying Therapeutics Conference, held this
concepts for the project, the obstacles, year in Cannes. During the four-day
and includes a look into the future. The conference, Science Commons was
project, announced at last January’s invited to present a poster highlighting
World Economic Forum in Davos, our collaboration with Coriell and
pairs together the Creative Commons CHDI regarding transfer of research
licensing structure (metadata, human materials. The audience included
readable aspect, legalese) with the right leading researchers in Huntington’s
technology to allow companies to share Disease (HD) and neurology working
their patents related to sustainability. on diagnostics, therapeutics, and
The goal – to bring the efficiencies of prevention for HD. The Science
open collaboration and innovation to Commons presentation supported
the problems of sustainability. You can poster presentations presented by CHDI
read the article over at Worldchanging. and Coriell at the conference. As a
org (http://www.worldchanging.com/ result of the presentation, we hope that
archives/009822.html). more researchers will become aware of
the MTA system being made available
In the world of Open Science, the radio through Coriell, not only as users of the
program “A World of Possibilities” has materials but also as potential providers
a fantastic new piece up on “Open themselves in the future. For more
Source science” and Health Commons. information on our Materials Transfer
The podcast explores the Health work, visit http://sciencecommons.org/
Commons approach of creating a projects/licensing/
CC News in Education
Student Journalism 2.0 ccLearn, the education
wing of Creative Commons
Student Journalism 2.0 is a ccLearn led by Executive Director
project and recent winner of the Digital Ahrash Bissell, works with
an international community
Media and Learning Competition,
of open education
which encourages explorations of advocates and supporters
“digital media’s ability to help people to improve open learning
Latest inside OER: CK-12 learn.” (See the full press release on the internet. Truly
Foundation’s Neeru Khosla on at http://www.macfound.org/site/c. open learning happens
Open Textbooks lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5104329/k.87/DML_ when learners (you, me,
Competition_2009.htm.) Sponsored by and everyone else we
We were so excited back in March the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC, know) can not only access
19 international projects received a educational materials
about the new Physics Flexbook aligned
but improve upon them,
to Virginia’s state standards that we total of $2 million in grants for project
adapting the resources to 9
had to catch up with the foundation proposals dealing with Innovation our individual needs and
that helped to make it possible. The in Participatory Learning. Student local contexts, without the
obvious choice was Neeru Khosla, co- Journalism 2.0 will deal more specifically restrictions imposed by
founder of the CK-12 Foundation, “a with the changing media landscape, via standard copyright laws.
non-profit organization with a mission the medium of high school students (aka Through openly licensed
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
to reduce the cost of textbook materials our future journalists): educational materials, also
for the K-12 market both in the U.S. known as open educational
“For journalism students, the digital resources (OER), we can
and worldwide.” The Flexbook is their
collaborate across state
web-based platform for open textbooks age requires more than hands-on
lines and country borders,
(openly licensed via CC BY-SA) which reporting, writing, and publication of discovering opportunities
maximizes and enhances collaboration stories. Students must also embrace the for partnerships we never
across district, county, and state lines. capabilities of the Internet for virtual knew existed.
collaboration, viral dissemination, and
Open textbooks are oft termed the feedback loops that inform and deepen
future of higher education, but Neeru original stories. All of these web-based
makes the important point that openness opportunities depend on knowledge
matters even more with younger learners. and proactive application of open
“[The] lack of content availability erodes content licensing, such as with Creative
young students’ ability to learn, as they Commons, and appropriate metatags
are not able to have a strong base of and technical formats. Student Journalism
knowledge to rely on.” This is where 2.0 engages high school students in
the CK-12 Foundation comes in by understanding legal and technical issues
focusing specifically on K-12 education intrinsic to new journalistic practices. The
and working with states to make sure lessons learned during this pilot project
the Flexbooks are not only high quality, will be documented in anticipation of a
but align to state and district standards. national-scale, follow-up project.”
(Read more at http://creativecommons.
org/weblog/entry/14141.) The full project proposal is available
at http://learn.creativecommons.
org/student-journalism-2-0. Also see
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/
entry/14034 for competition details.
creativecommons.org
We rely on our supporters to continue our work
enabling stories like those listed above. Check it out:
Donate:
http://support.creativecommons.org/donate
CC Store:
http://support.creativecommons.org/store
CC Newsletter – Issue No. 13
Events:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Events
Subscribe to the CC Weblog:
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org/weblog/rss
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This newsletter is licensed under
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
— please share and remix!
Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by
10 the generous support of organizations including the
Center for the Public Domain, the Omidyar Network,
The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William
and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of
the public.
Creative Commons newsletters are also posted to the
CC Weblog. For back issues please visit
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CCNewsletter
Cover: “The Beauty of Collaboration” © 2009. Lairaja. Some Rights Reserved. Except when otherwise
noted, this work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ph/ This remixed
image incorporates various screenshots of websites listed under http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Image as
per fair-use/sampling, and also incorporates onkel_wart (away)/Thomas Lieser’s “Woman,” http://
www.flickr.com/photos/onkel_wart/887850338/, Pareeerica/Parée’s “*Witchy woman,’ http://www.flickr.
com/photos/8078381@N03/3485757942/, and Franz Patzig’s “Michelle,” http://www.flickr.com/photos/
franzlife/2023331870/ licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; Bukutgirl/Liz Kasameyer’s “woman in action,”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bukutgirl/421520909/ and Millzero.com/Ali Nishan’s “Women: Kind,
lovely and Smart,” http://www.flickr.com/photos/millzero/413947941/ licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0; and
| spoon |/ Laura Chifiriuc ’s “Whip Woman Trapped ,” http://www.flickr.com/photos/lchifi/248972392/,
thorinside/Neal Sanche’s “Woman in Blue,” http://www.flickr.com/photos/thorinside/410874840/, René
Ehrhardt’s “Woman in red,” http://www.flickr.com/photos/rene_ehrhardt/2487256067/ and oddsock/Ian
Burt’s “woman at rest – minimal streaking the blue sky,” http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddsock/127495954/
licensed under CC BY 2.0.