Plaintext
Share, Reuse, Remix —
Legally.
N E W S L E T T E
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7 R
http://creativecommons.org Issue No. 7 June 20081
2
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
Message
Creative Commons, as an organization, mission remains the same, and we hope that
has undergone a significant transition since you will continue to support CC as we work
the last ccNewsletter — on April 1st, 2008, hard to continue providing you all with the tools
Lawrence Lessig stepped down as CEO and necessary to actualize this common goal.
Joi Ito, previously the Chairman of the Board,
took his place. James Boyle, a founding board This month’s newsletter spotlights Science
member of Creative Commons, will take over Commons, a project of Creative Commons
as Chairman. It is an exciting time here at CC dedicated to bringing the sharing and reuse
and this transition marks the growth of CC from principles CC brought to the world of culture,
just an idea to becoming a fixture in the digital to scientific research. Their work focuses on “Melissa Reeder,” Alex Roberts.
landscape — and we can honestly attribute this identifying unnecessary barriers to research, CC BY 3.0
growth to the acceptance and evangelism of our and developing strategies and tools for faster,
active community, of which you all are a part. more efficient scientific research. The goal: to
Thank you for sharing and supporting CC and speed the translation of data into discovery.
helping us build this global creative commons,
which is so vital to the future of participatory No one can explain Science Commons Melissa Reeder
culture. Even though CC as an organization better than the VP, John Wilbanks, so without Development Coordinator
has changed, CC as a philosophy and as a further adieu... Creative Commons
Contents
Inside Scoop
3 Science Commons 22 Grant Competition to Support CC Licensing Adoption in the
South Caucasus
Upcoming Events
4 ESOF 2008: Collaborating for the Future of Open Science Mayer and Bettle: the Animation Sequel about CC
Science Commons News CC Points of Interest
5 Introducing the Health Commons 23 Flickr Video
6 Towards Research in a Box
Custom CC Search
7 How to Free Your Facts
24 Magnatune does good via the Amarok media player
8 Science Commons & SPARC Release Guide for Creating Open
Access Policies at Institutions Another Nine Inch Nails album out under a Creative
Commons license
9 Nguyen on Keeping Data Open & Free
25 The (potential) U.S. copyright czar and you
CC News
10 Creative Common Statement of Intent for Attribution- 26 Steal This Footage
ShareAlike Licenses
27 VIA Releases OpenBook, Opens CAD Designs under
13 CC0 beta/discussion draft 2 CC BY-SA 3.0
14 search.creativecommons.org screencast and i18n ccLearn
Backgrounds are derivatives of duckmackay’s “Bubbles14”
http://flickr.com/photos/23230806@N05/2316697574/ CC BY 2.0
28 ccLearn Monthly Update - April 15th
15 ccMixter to the max: Request For Proposals
29 “Attribution Only” as Default Policy - Otago Polytechnic on
CCi News the How and Why of CC BY
16 *CC Licensing Guidebook for Government Agencies and
NGOs 32 LearnHub Integrates CC Licensing
*Transition at Creative Commons Switzerland 33 eIFL.net on Open Access, Open Education, and Creative
Commons
17 2nd Blender Peach Open Source Movie Premiere and
Economies of the Commons in Amsterdam 37 ccLearn Monthly Update 21 May 2008
18 Ecuador encourages learning, research, and creativity with
localized CC licenses
20 Scripta: CC Latin America
Malaysian Artistes for Unity
21 CC Guatemala enters public discussion
Building an Australasian Commons
“Creative Commons reception thingy” http://flickr.
com/photos/quinn/110941963/ quinnums /
The Inside Scoop
Science Commons
A word from the VP of Science Commons: John Wilbanks
quinn norton CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I’m going to take full advantage of the opportunity to address
the broader Creative Commons audience on the topic of
Science Commons. Many of the CC community don’t know
a lot about us — who we are, what we do, and why we
think science is such a remarkable place for the commons.
Hopefully we can address some of that knowledge gap with
this issue of the CC newsletter.
There are clear parallels between the advance of the make microprocessors look like children’s toys in terms of
control philosophy in culture and science. As in culture, complexity. And those bodies exist in a constantly changing
an interlocking set of science-related judicial, legislative, set of environmental factors.
and social was eroding ancient traditions of information
distribution and reuse. Costs were rising, not dropping, One of the reasons I believe so deeply in the commons
with the advent of more efficient network technologies for approach (by which i mean: contractually constructed
publishing. The Web we built for culture and commerce was regimes that tilt the field towards sharing and reuse,
not robust enough to handle the demands of high-throughput technological enablements that make public knowledge
research. And in general, the kinds of innovation explosions easy to find and use, and default policy rules that create
we associate with user-driven culture and commerce were incentives to share and reuse) is that I think it is one of the
nowhere to be found in the scientific web. only non-miraculous ways to defeat complexity. If we can
get more people working on individual issues — which
Something has to give. We need cures for diseases, are each alone not so complex — and the outputs of
understanding of global problems like climate change, and research snap together, and smart people can work on the
better government science policy. But the question was how compiled output as well — then it stands to reason that the
we got there — and how a commons fit into the picture. odds of meaningful discoveries increase in spite of overall
systemic complexity.
We’re a project of Creative Commons — that is, we work for
CC just like the culture folks, and we have our email addresses This is not easy as far as solutions go. It requires open access
@creativecommons.org. We have five full-time employees to content, journals and databases both. It requires that
and four part-time employees, and we’re hosted at the MIT database creators think about their products as existing in a
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in network, and provide hooks for the network, not just query
Cambridge, MA, USA. We raise our own dedicated project access. It requires that funders pay for biobanks to store
funds, and we work on taking the ideas at the heart of research tools. It requires that pharmaceutical companies
Creative Commons — standard licenses that create sharing take a hard look at their private assets and build some trust in
regimes, implemented in good technology, and commons- entities that make sharing possible. It requires that scientists
based policy — into the sciences. Specifically, we work on share their stuff (this is the elephant in the lab, frankly). It
making the “research cycle” go as fast as it can go. requires that universities track sharing as a metric of scientific
and societal impact.
By the research cycle, we mean the constant generation,
distribution, and reuse of knowledge that forms the heart If we’re going to attack the cost of drug creation and
of the scientific method. In a network world, the research marketing, we have to attack the failures at the source —
cycle depends on digital technologies at every step, from the knowledge gap created by complexity. Creating a
the scholarly literature (search and access stages) to the robust public domain and knowledge commons — with the
petabytes of data (again, search and access stages) to the attendant increase in scientists who have the freedom and
digital descriptions of non-digital research tools like cell tools to practice collaborative science, all over the world -is
lines and recombinant DNA. At each of these stages we one of the only clear methods we have at our disposal.
can apply theories of the commons to remove barriers to
research and accelerate the pace of science. And if we can actually get the price point down to $100M,
or $50M, the game is changed forever. Venture capitalists
I’ve written previously about the commons as a key weapon can fund a drug, as can foundations, at that price point.
against complexity, which I think is the key problem of our Prize models suddenly become very, very workable. And big
time in the sciences. pharma finally would see meaningful competition.
It’s the abject complexity of the human system and the reality Complexity is the enemy. Distributed innovation, built on a
of the knowledge gap about the system. Human bodies commons, is a strong tonic against that enemy.
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
3
4
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
Upcoming Events
ESOF 2008: Collaborating for the Future of Open Science
by Donna Wentworth
We’re reaching an inflection point in the global movement known conferences in Europe on science and technology.
to implement “open” approaches to scientific research — The workshop will take place July 16 -17, 2008, at the
approaches with tremendous potential for accelerating the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Our co-sponsors are the Scholarly
translation of basic research to useful discoveries like new Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the
drugs and therapies. These approaches are often referred Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University
to collectively as “open science,” yet both the term and its (CSPD) and the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC).
underlying principles have yet to be defined. This hamstrings
efforts to connect the important initiatives that are working In preparation for the workshop, we have been working
to further the development of open science in nations across with a distinguished steering committee that includes
the globe. representatives from the European Commission, CERN, the
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and Creative
We now have the tools to bring together open research and Commons International (CCi), as well as leading open access
data from around the world, embedded with the freedoms advocates, text-mining experts and academics engaged in
necessary to make use of it. What we need are shared these discussions in Europe.
principles for developing systems that can work together, so
we can harness network effects and increase the value of We hope to bring together thought leaders, policymakers
each contribution to the open knowledge commons. and representatives from the major research foundations
for a discussion that will significantly further shared goals.
This July, Science Commons is convening a free and open If you would like to attend, please visit the registration page
workshop in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss and define the http://sciencecommons.org/events/esof-satellite-event/
basic principles of open science, including identifying the registration/. The event is open to the public and free,
key tenets for a system to be recognized as an open science but seating is limited. For more information, visit http://
system. Our aim is to conclude the workshop with a set of sciencecommons.org/events/esof-satellite-event.
principles for open science that can effectively guide the
development of a global, collaborative infrastructure for
knowledge sharing that speeds discovery and saves lives.
The event, “Policy and Technology for e-Science,” is one
of three satellite events preceding the Euroscience Open
Forum (ESOF), which is among the largest and most well-
Cover: “Slides.” © 2008. Berne Guerrero. Some Rights Reserved. Except when otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ph/ This remixed image
includes images from xmatt/Matthew Hine : http://flickr.com/photos/hine/162772082/; duckmackay:
http://flickr.com/photos/23230806@N05/2316697574/, http://flickr.com/photos/23230806@
N05/2315888701/, http://flickr.com/photos/23230806@N05/2315889059/, http://flickr.com/
photos/23230806@N05/2315888537/, http://flickr.com/photos/23230806@N05/2316698336/,
http://flickr.com/photos/23230806@N05/2316697894/; kevinzim / Kevin Walsh: http://flickr.com/
photos/86624586@N00/10175738/, http://flickr.com/photos/86624586@N00/10178578/;
absolutwade / Beau Wade: http://flickr.com/photos/absolutwade/86353287/; FreaksAnon: http://
flickr.com/photos/benbengraves/164677535/; burge5000 / Peter Burgess: http://flickr.com/
photos/burge5000/22608723/; ComputerHotline / Thomas Bresson: http://flickr.com/photos/
computerhotline/2367979507/, http://flickr.com/photos/computerhotline/2367980339/, http://flickr.com/
photos/computerhotline/1570945226/; CULTIVARTE / Andres Felipe Quiroga Striedinger: http://flickr.
com/photos/cultivarte/2293001035/; mdxdt: http://flickr.com/photos/dxdt22/254030610/, http://flickr.
com/photos/dxdt22/315745462/; jim 5 / Jim Rudnicki: http://flickr.com/photos/hangar5/514358295/,
http://flickr.com/photos/hangar5/514400319/; chromalux / michael: http://flickr.com/photos/
impossible/1211227322/; kaeau / Ka Lodger: http://flickr.com/photos/kaeau/31336163/; kaibara87:
http://flickr.com/photos/kaibara/2234750993/, http://flickr.com/photos/kaibara/2520908714/;
This newsletter is licensed mattcyp88 / Matthew: http://flickr.com/photos/mattcyp88/503262705/; Rosa Menkman: http://flickr.
http://creativecommons. com/photos/r00s/1465180742/, http://flickr.com/photos/r00s/1465182196/, http://flickr.com/photos/
org/licenses/by/3.0/ r00s/1465181138/, http://flickr.com/photos/r00s/1464325997/; snickclunk: http://flickr.com/photos/
— please share and remix! snickclunk/202909801/; NatureFreak07 / Tonio H.: http://flickr.com/photos/tonios-pics/387510817/.
All under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licenses.
Science Commons News
Introducing the Health Commons
A Project Of Science Commons, Collabrx, Public Library Of Science, And Commercenet
The following is an excerpt from the whitepaper -”Health wrangling and technical incompatibilities that frustrate
Commons: Therapy Development in a Networked World - an scientific collaboration today.
Introduction and Overview” co-authored by John Wilbanks
and Marty Tenenbaum. To read the paper in its entirety, visit We envision a Commons where a researcher will be able to
<http://sciencecommons.org/resources/readingroom/> order everything needed to replicate a published experiment
as easily as ordering DVDs from Amazon. A Commons
The Health Commons: Solving the Health where one can create a workflow to exploit replicated results
Research Puzzle on an industrial scale — searching the world’s biological
repositories for relevant materials; routing them to the best
The pharmaceutical industry is at a crossroads. Despite labs for molecular profiling; forwarding the data to a team of
revolutionary advances in molecular biology that have bioinfomaticians for collaborative analysis of potential drug
made genetic decoding routine, the time from gene to cure targets; and finally hiring top service providers to run drug
still stands at 17 years. High-throughput screening methods screens against those targets; with everything — knowledge,
allow us to test the efficacy of millions of compounds against data, and materials — moving smoothly from one provider
a molecular target in a single week; but the odds of one to the next, monitored and tracked with Fed-Ex precision;
of those compounds making it through the development where the workflow scripts themselves can become part of the
pipeline and becoming a drug are less than 1/1,000,000. A Commons, for others to reuse and improve. Health Commons’
well-funded group starting today, using the traditional model marketplace will slash the time, cost, and risk of developing
of drug development, has a very slim chance at getting a treatments for diseases. Individual researchers, institutions,
drug to market by 2025. and companies will be able to publish information about
their expertise and resources so that others in the community
The time has come to change the way we cure disease. We can readily discover and use them. Core competencies, from
are no longer asking whether a gene or a molecule is critical clinical trial design to molecular profiling, will be packaged
to a particular biological process; rather, we are discovering as turnkey services and made available over the Net. The
whole networks of molecular and cellular interactions Commons will serve as the public-domain, non-profit hub, with
that contribute to disease. And soon, we will have such third-parties providing value added services that facilitate
information about individuals, rather than the population as information access, communication, and collaboration.
a whole. Biomedical knowledge is exploding, and yet the
system to capture that knowledge and translate it into saving What is Health Commons?
human lives still relies on an antiquated and risky strategy
of focusing the vast resources of a few pharmaceutical Health Commons is a coalition of parties interested in
companies on just a handful of disease targets. changing the way basic science is translated into the
understanding and improvement of human health. Coalition
The Health Commons Vision members agree to share data, knowledge, and services
under standardized terms and conditions by committing to
Imagine a virtual marketplace or ecosystem where participants a set of common technologies, digital information standards,
share data, knowledge, materials and services to accelerate research materials, contracts, workflows, and software.
research. The components might include databases on the These commitments ensure that knowledge, data, materials
results of chemical assays, toxicity screens, and clinical trials; and tools can move seamlessly from partner to partner across
libraries of drugs and chemical compounds; repositories of the entire drug discovery chain. They enable participants to
biological materials (tissue samples, cell lines, molecules), offer standardized services, ranging from simple molecular
computational models predicting drug efficacies or side assays to complex drug synthesis solutions, that others can
effects, and contract services for high-throughput genomics discover in directories and integrate into their own processes
and proteomics, combinatorial drug screening, animal to expedite development — or assemble like LEGO blocks to
testing, biostatistics, and more. The resources offered through create new services.
the Commons might not necessarily be free, though many
could be. However, all would be available under standard The Health Commons is too complex for any one organization
pre-negotiated terms and conditions and with standardized or company to create. It requires a coalition of partners across
data formats that eliminate the debilitating delays, legal
Introducing the Health Commons > 36
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
5
6
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
Science Commons News
Towards Research in a Box
by Donna Wentworth
13 May 2008
http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/05/13/towards-research-in-a-box/
At Science Commons, we want to bring the same efficiency entire system rests on biobanks for fulfillment. Scientists don’t
to scientific research that the Web brought to commerce. Our get grants for fulfilling orders for cells.”
Materials Transfer Agreement project[1] isn’t just about contracts
— it’s about bringing together all the resources on the Web You can read the entire piece at http://www.bio-itworld.com/
for finding and ordering materials and getting towards one- issues/2008/may/biobanking-personalized-medicine.html.
click access, with the goal of accelerating discovery.
Update (May 14): Plausible Accuracy responds:[4] “It’s
Chris Kronenthal of the Coriell Institute for Medical Research[2] amazing to me that it’s taken this long to sort of start
has an article[3] this week in Bio-IT World that explores the role generating significant interest in validated, standardized,
of “biobanks” in scientific innovation, including a description open repositories. The clones, cell lines, mice, etc that
of our MTA project that puts it in a broader context: we generate in great quantities need a better method of
sharing and distribution than some antiquated version of
In [fostering growth], biorepositories will have two primary quid pro quo.”
contributions. The first, likely industry changing, will be
that of providing “research in a box.” Modern, matured
Endnotes
biorepositories have come a long way in streamlining the 1 http://sciencecommons.org/projects/licensing/
many processes involved in R&D (materials processing,
2 http://www.coriell.org/
storage and management, consent management),
3 http://www.bio-itworld.com/issues/2008/may/biobanking-
allowing researchers to focus on tracking their own results.
personalized-medicine.html
With solid platforms for distribution, like Coriell’s first-of-
4 http://www.plausibleaccuracy.com/2008/05/13/my-
a-kind Google (”Mini”) driven eCommerce catalogue of
personal-experience-with-biological-repositories/
specimens and data, researchers can quickly identify
which subjects they are interested in, procure said
samples, and download phenotypic, genotypic, and any
other relevant knowledge pool data.
In an effort to spur progress by reducing the barriers
on the distribution of materials for research, too often
locked away in various biobanks, organizations such
as Science Commons have recognized the need to
standardize current hurdles such as locating specimens
across various biobanks and the authorizing of material
transfer agreements (or MTAs), thus providing a level
of accessibility and fluidity to the normally snag-prone
process. [...]
[Science Commons VP] Wilbanks is clear on the pivotal
role that biorepositories will play in furthering research and
personalized medicine: “Right now, we’re stuck in a pre-
industrial culture of tool making and transfer, where scientists
have to beg labs to stop doing research and start making
tools… It’s absurd that tool making is slowing down even
a single experiment if there’s a way to avoid it. We have
the tools, the technologies and the legal systems to bring
all the benefits of eCommerce to biological tool making - it
just takes the willpower of [donors] and universities - but the
Science Commons News
How to Free Your Facts
by Donna Wentworth
12 May 2008
http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/05/12/how-to-free-your-facts/
With the open access[1] movement surging — and the concepts in order to have any kind of meaningful discourse.
discussion surrounding open data[2] gaining velocity — So copyright is supposed to protect creative expression–the
we’re getting more emails with questions about how best to unique and individual ways we express ourselves–but not
share collections of factual data. One of the most common the invariant concepts and ideas that we need to think and
questions: How do I mark my data explicitly as “open access” carry on a conversation.
and free for anyone to use?
Licensing facts can cause legal uncertainty and
In general, we encourage you to choose waivers, like the confusion
Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License
(ODC-PDDL)[3] or the Creative Commons CC0 waiver,[4] rather So why is it that increasingly, especially online, there is
than licenses, such as CC-BY,[5] FDL[6] or other licenses. talk about licensing factual data–assertions of rights and
obligations over assertions of facts? Part of the answer is that
The issues surrounding how to treat factual data are complex. as facts get represented in formats that look more like computer
To help bring more clarity for those of you exploring your code, the impulse is to treat it like any other computer code.
options, here’s a short overview of the reasons why we And that means putting a license on it. Part of the answer is that
generally advise using waivers, prepared by Science the law is still struggling with how to treat databases, and in
Commons Counsel Thinh Nguyen.[7] some countries, database rights have expanded (particularly
in Europe under the database directive).[9] Other countries
Facts are (and should be) free have loosened copyright standards to allow purely factual
databases to be protected. (For a more detailed discussion
There is long tradition in science and law of recognizing of these issues, see the Science Commons paper, Freedom
basic facts and ideas as existing in the public domain of to Research: Keeping Scientific Data Open, Accessible, and
open discourse. At Science Commons we summarize that by Interoperable [PDF].)[10]
saying “facts are free.”
But even if you could find a legal angle from which to impose
Of course you can patent some ideas, but you can’t stop licensing or contractual controls over factual data, why would
people from talking about or referring to them. In fact, the you want to? Doesn’t this just create the very absurdity that
patent system was established to encourage public disclosure Congress and the scientific tradition have been able to avoid
of facts and ideas, so that we can discuss them in the open. for many years?
When Congress wrote the Copyright Act, it made sure to
spell out that facts cannot be subject to copyright. “In no case Attribution for facts can add complexity and
does copyright protection for an original work of authorship hamper reuse
extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method
of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless Many people cite the desire to receive attribution. In
of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, scientific papers, we have a tradition of citing sources for
or embodied in such work.” (Section 102(b)[8] of the United facts and ideas. But those traditions evolved over hundreds
States Copyright Act) of years. There’s a lot of discretion and judgment that goes
into deciding whom to cite and when. At some point, you
And there are good reasons for this. Imagine if you couldn’t don’t need to cite Isaac Newton any more for the formula for
reference physical constants — like the height of Mount gravity, or Darwin for the idea of evolution. Sometimes you
Everest — without permission. Imagine you couldn’t use the do, and sometimes you don’t need to, but that’s a matter of
laws of gravity to calculate without attributing Isaac Newton common sense. But what happens to common sense when
each time. Or if you had to get a license from the heirs you convert that requirement into a legal requirement? Can
of Charles Darwin to talk or write about evolution. Such
a world would be absurd, and we can easily understand
why. We all need access to a basic pool of ideas and How to free your facts > 36
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
7
8
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
Science Commons News
Science Commons & SPARC Release Guide
for Creating Open Access Policies at Institutions
by Donna Wentworth
28 April 2008
http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/04/28/
science-commons-and-sparc-release-guide-for-creating/
Science Commons and SPARC[1] today released a new guide Endnotes
for faculty who want to ensure open access to their work 1 http://www.arl.org/sparc
through their institution. 2 http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/guides/opendoors_
v1.shtml
The how-to guide, Open Doors and Open Minds,[2] is aimed 3 http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/08-0428.shtml
at helping institutions adopt policies to increase the practical 4 http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/guides/opendoors_
exposure to the scholarly works being produced, such as v1.shtml
that adopted by the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences 5 http://sciencecommons.org/resources/readingroom/
in February. It provides information on copyright law, offers
specific suggestions for licensing options and provides a ten-
point list of actions people can take to craft and implement a
policy that maximizes the impact of research.
From the SPARC media release:[3]
“The Harvard policy is a recognition that the Internet
creates opportunities to radically accelerate distribution
and impact for scholarly works,” said John Wilbanks,
Vice President of Science at Creative Commons. “As more
universities move to increase the reach of their faculty’s
work, it’s important that faculty members have a clear
understanding of the key issues involved and the steps
along the path that Harvard has trail-blazed. This paper
is a foundational document for universities and faculty
to use as they move into the new world of Open Access
scholarly works.”
“Everyone - faculty, librarians, administrators, and other
advocates - has the power to initiate change at their
institution,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of
SPARC. “By championing an open access policy, helping
to inform your colleagues about the benefits of a policy
change, and identifying the best license and most effective
path to adoption, it can be done.”
The guide is available both at the SPARC site[4] and in the
Science Commons Reading Room.[5]
Science Commons News
Nguyen on Keeping Data Open & Free
by Donna Wentworth
23 April 2008
http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/04/23/
nguyen-on-keeping-data-open-and-free/
In the wake of Creative Commons’ announcement[1] last Of course, there are many existing initiatives to return data to
week that the beta CC0 waiver/discussion draft 2[2] has the public domain. What the Protocol aims to do, however, is
now been released, Science Commons Counsel Thinh bring all of these initiatives together. Explains Nguyen:
Nguyen[3] has written a short paper to help explain why
we need legal tools like the waiver to facilitate scientific What we seek is to map out and enlarge this commons of
research. Writes Nguyen: data by seeking out, certifying, and promoting existing
data initiatives as well as new ones that embrace and
Any researcher who needs to draw from many databases implement these common principles, so that within this
to conduct research is painfully aware of the difficulty clearly marked domain, scientists everywhere can know
of dealing with a myriad of differing and overlapping that it is safe to conduct research.
data sharing policies, agreements, and laws, as well
as parsing incomprehensible fine print that often carries You can read the entire paper, Freedom to Research:
conflicting obligations, limitations, and restrictions. These Keeping Scientific Data Open, Accessible, and
licenses and agreements can not only impede research, Interoperable [PDF],[8] in the Science Commons
they can also enable data providers to exercise “remote Reading Room.[9]
control” over downstream users of data, dictating not
only what research can be done, and by whom, but also
Endnotes
what data can be published or disclosed, what data can 1 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8211
be combined and how, and what data can be re-used
2 http://labs.creativecommons.org/license/zero/
and for what purposes.
3 http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/nguyen/
4 http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-
Imposing that kind of control, Nguyen asserts, “threatens the
data-protocol/
very foundations of science, which is grounded in freedom
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
of inquiry and freedom to publish.” The situation is further
complicated by the fact that different countries have different 6 http://www.opendatacommons.org/
laws for protecting data and databases, making it difficult 7 http://www.opendatacommons.org/odc-public-domain-
to legally integrate data created or gathered under multiple dedication-and-licence/
jurisdictions. Using a “copyleft” license doesn’t mitigate the 8 http://sciencecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/freedom-to-
difficulty, since any license is premised on underlying rights, research.pdf
and those rights can be highly variable and unpredictable. 9 http://sciencecommons.org/resources/readingroom/
Finding a solution to these problems was the impetus behind
the Science Commons Open Data Protocol,[4] which Nguyen
describes as “a set of principles designed to ensure that
scientific data remains open, accessible, and interoperable.”
In a nutshell, the idea is to return data to the public domain,[5]
“relinquishing all rights, of whatever origin or scope, that
would otherwise restrict the ability to do research (i.e., the
ability to extract, re-use, and distribute data).” The CC0
waiver and the Open Data Commons[6] Public Domain
Dedication and License (PDDL)[7] are tools to help people
and organizations do that, implemented under the terms of
the Protocol.
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
9
10
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CC News
Creative Common Statement of Intent
for Attribution-ShareAlike Licenses
by Mike Linksvayer
17 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8213
After lots of positive feedback, today we’re removing the The entire statement follows.
“draft” notice from our Statement of Intent for Attribution-
ShareAlike Licenses.[1] Not much has changed since the Creative Commons Statement of Intent for
draft announcement,[2] so most of the explanation below Attribution-ShareAlike Licenses
is cribbed from that. Of course just because this statement
is no longer a draft does not mean CC could not improve 2008-04-17
its stewardship of BY-SA licenses — feedback is always
welcome. And although this statement only applies to our Creative Commons[9] is a not-for-profit organization that has
stewardship of BY-SA licenses, we are committed to being created and serves as a steward for a suite of copyright
excellent stewards of all of our licenses, and welcome licenses that enable creators to legally grant certain freedoms
suggestions across the board. to the public and to clearly signal those freedoms to humans
and machines.
The statement we’re releasing today is part of a series[3]
addressing a suggested Wikipedia CC BY-SA migration Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike[10] licenses play
checklist.[4] It attempts describe 1) what CC does as a license a particularly important role in the Free or Libre Culture
developer and steward, 2) why CC Attribution-ShareAlike movement. This document lays out Creative Commons’
licenses play a special role in the movement for free cultural intention as steward for this class of licenses.
works — clearly inspired by the free software movement,
and 3) CC’s intentions as steward of Attribution-ShareAlike First, it is important to understand the activities Creative
licenses, in the context of (1) and (2). Commons undertakes as a steward of licenses:
Note that while (1) provides a reasonable explanation of the • Create new versions[11] of each class of licenses when
role CC plays for all of the licenses it develops, (2) and (3) warranted by community feedback and suggestions for
apply only to Attribution-ShareAlike licenses. Anyone who improvements. As of this writing most license classes have
wants a thorough understanding of the contours of content versioned from 1.0 (released December, 2002) to 2.0
in this age should take the time to understand the movement (released May, 2004), 2.5 (released June, 2005), and
this statement addresses. However, other communities 3.0[12] (released March, 2007).
have different requirements. It is conceivable that at some • Port each license to account for the nuances of copyright
point CC will need to address the requirements of other law in jurisdictions worldwide. As of this writing ports have
communities in relation to other particular CC licenses and been completed in 44 jurisdictions[13] in conjunction with
tools that help those communities. One example of this — local legal experts in each of these jurisdictions.
which takes a different form because all existing CC licenses
• For each specific license, maintain at a stable, canonical
are too restrictive for the community in question (but public
URL such as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
domain and the in-development CC0 waiver[5] are just
sa/3.0/ the following:
right) — is the Science Commons Protocol for Implementing
Open Access Data.[6] Still other communities rely on more • A license deed intended to convey the properties of
restrictive CC licenses. the license in a manner useful to non-lawyer humans,
including short textual descriptions and readily
This particular statement has been reviewed by many people recognizable icons.
within CC, CC’s international project teams, Wikipedians, • Translations of the aforementioned textual descriptions,
and free software advocates. However, I take responsibility so that the license may be useful to speakers of as many
for its unwieldy verbosity and any minor or fundamental human languages as possible.
flaws it may have. Comments and criticism are strongly • Metadata[14] intended to convey the properties of the
encouraged. Leave a comment on the post,[7] or on the wiki license in a manner useful to computers — but for the
(requires registration).[8]
purpose of making licensed content more discoverable Free Software movement is that Freedom is a public good,
and usable, not for turning computers against their owners and the dominant Free license should not only grant essential
with DRM. freedoms, but protect those freedoms for all users. This is
• A copy of the license itself. accomplished by copyleft,[22] which adds a requirement that
• Develop, maintain, and encourage software and services anyone distributing a copy of a Free work or an adaptation
that make Creative Commons licenses available at the point (also known as a derivative) of that work grant to other users
of creation and publishing, for example our web-based the same freedoms they received. The GNU General Public
license chooser,[15] widget,[16] web services API,[17] and License[23] is the dominant copyleft software license, indeed
OpenOffice.org plugin.[18] the dominant Free Software license (Creative Commons uses
and recommends[23] the GNU GPL for software).
• Develop, maintain, and encourage software and services
that make Creative Commons licensed works available at
For its content licenses, Creative Commons calls the copyleft
the point of discovery and consumption, for example a web
requirement ShareAlike. This requirement protects the
search interface and browser plugins.
freedoms of all users by requiring that adaptations of works
• Participate in standards efforts that facilitate the licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike to also be distributed
software and services above, for example the World under an Attribution-ShareAlike license, or a license deemed
Wide Web Consortium. [19] by Creative Commons to grant and protect the same essential
• Maintain close contact with the communities that use freedoms for all users in a compatible fashion. Thus, the
Creative Commons licenses to ensure the licenses and second commitment of Creative Commons as steward of
associated tools are serving the communities well. Attribution-ShareAlike licenses:
• Educate the public about the licenses and associated tools.
2. All versions and ports of Creative Commons
Millions of creators and users expect Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licenses MUST protect
to undertake these stewardship activities, and we the freedom of all users by requiring that when
recognize and attempt to follow through with this great an adaptation of a work distributed under an
responsibility. The responsibility to communities using Attribution-ShareAlike license is distributed, the
Attribution-ShareAlike licenses is even greater, as many in adaptation must be distributed under the same
those communities rely on Creative Commons to serve as a license, or a license deemed by Creative Commons
reliable steward not just in a practical legal and technical to grant and protect the same essential freedoms
sense, but in an ideological sense. for all users in a compatible fashion (to be clear,
such a compatible license must also satisfy the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licenses are definition of a Free Cultural License set out in the
informed and inspired by the principles and lessons of the Free Definition of Free Cultural Works).
Software movement. Although certain Creative Commons
licenses allow granting of relatively narrow freedoms, in this As described above, the ShareAlike requirement becomes
document we use Free and Libre in the sense used by the active when an adaptation of a licensed work is distributed.
Free Software[20] movement. As applied to content, these Creative Commons may choose to add language to future
principles require a license to grant the following essential versions of its licenses specifying that particular uses
freedoms to ALL users of licensed works: constitute adaptations from the perspective of the license,
where such may not be clear. For example, since version
• the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it 2.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licenses have
• the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge included language similar to the following:
acquired from it
For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical
• the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or
composition or sound recording, the synchronization of the
in part, of the information or expression
Work in timed-relation with a moving image (”synching”)
• the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to will be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of
distribute derivative works this License.
These freedoms are taken directly from the Definition of Free It would abuse the trust of licensors to add a clarification
Cultural Works,[21] and more thoroughly explained there. that narrowed the scope of what is considered an
Thus, the first commitment of Creative Commons as steward adaptation, for this would introduce a loophole by which
of Attribution-ShareAlike licenses: the freedom of all users would not be protected. As such,
the third commitment of Creative Commons as steward of
1. All versions and ports of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licenses:
Attribution-ShareAlike licenses MUST satisfy the
definition of a Free Cultural License set out in the
Definition of Free Cultural Works.
However, a license without the ShareAlike requirement could
satisfy this definition. The crucial lesson learned from the
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
11
12
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
3. Any clarification of whether a use constitutes 6. Maintain close contact with Free and Libre content
an adaptation for the purposes of Attribution- communities to ensure Attribution-ShareAlike
ShareAlike licenses may only broaden the licenses and associated tools are serving these
scope of uses considered adaptations rather communities well.
than collections.
If you are a member of one of these communities, take this
When a copyleft license is widely used, it not only protects as an invitation to help us meet these commitments to you.
essential freedoms for all users, it fosters the spread of those Friendly suggestions for improvement and criticism if we
freedoms.[25] This occurs when people who may not know seem to go astray are equally valuable.
or care about Freedom as understood by the Free Software
movement, but merely wish to use works that happen to be
Endnotes
Free, release adaptations under a Free license in order to 1 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Attribution-ShareAlike_
fulfill the requirements of the license. By the same token, Intent
if there are pools of Free content that may not be mixed 2 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8186
because their copyleft style licenses are legally incompatible,
3 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8051
the spread of essential freedoms is constricted. The fourth
4 http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-
commitment of Creative Commons as steward of Attribution-
December/035677.html
ShareAlike licenses could be seen as implicit in the second
5 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8211
commitment, but it is important to call out separately here:
6 http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-
data-protocol/
4. Creative Commons will strive to enable
7 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8213#comment
compatibility between Attribution-ShareAlike
licenses and other copyleft content licenses that 8 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Talk:CC_Attribution-
ShareAlike_Intent
grant and protect the same essential freedoms
for all users (to be clear, any candidate for 9 http://creativecommons.org/
compatibility must also satisfy the definition of a 10 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Free Cultural License set out in the Definition of 11 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/License_versions
Free Cultural Works). 12 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_3
13 http://creativecommons.org/international
While every work that expands the universe of Free or 14 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcREL
Libre content is important, Free licenses play an especially 15 http://creativecommons.org/license/
crucial role for works with many collaborators. Unless each 16 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/JsWidget
collaborator agrees to contribute under the terms of a Free
17 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services
license, the work rapidly becomes unusable by anyone,
18 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OpenOfficeOrg_Addin
as past contributors must either be tracked down, or their
19 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-rdfa-primer/
contributions excised, before the work may be distributed or
built upon (except as permitted by fair use and other limitations 20 http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
on copyright). But Free licenses are not enough for massively 21 http://freedomdefined.org/
collaborative projects. In addition to social and technical 22 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
affordances thankfully beyond the scope of copyright, such 23 http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
projects need particular licensing affordances, particularly 24 http://creativecommons.org/software
around attribution requirements. Creative Commons took 25 http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/pragmatic.html
a step toward addressing these needs in version 2.5 of its
licenses, but there may be more to do in this regard. Thus,
the fifth commitment of Creative Commons as steward of
Attribution-ShareAlike licenses.
5. Creative Commons will strive to ensure that
Attribution-ShareAlike licenses meet the needs of
massively collaborative works, while remaining
useful for works with one or a few creators.
Our final commitment is a simple restatement of one
of the stewardship activities described above, with
emphasis on Free and Libre content communities and
Attribution-ShareAlike.
CC News
CC0 beta/discussion draft 2
by Mike Linksvayer
16 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8211
Back in December we announced[1] the CC0[2] project, which a jurisdiction-centric U.S. version of CC0, the tool will be
encompassed two tools. First, a waiver of all copyright and “Universal” from the beginning. You can access the beta at
neighboring rights in a work, to the extent permitted by law. ccLabs.[6] Your feedback and criticism is most welcome. The
Second, an assertion that a work is not under copyright primary venue for discussion is the cc-licenses mailing list[7]
or neighboring rights. We were (and are) basically taking (low volume and moderated; do not fear jumping in).
our existing public domain dedication and certification[3]
and everything we’ve learned over the past five years (in Speaking of organizational growth,[8] one addition directly
particular from working with a large network of international impacts this work on CC0. Diane Peters, our incoming
legal experts and experience with deploying rights metadata) General Counsel, will be leading this project going forward.
and rolling them into a much improved toolset for enabling Diane comes to CC from Mozilla,was previously GC of Open
the “no rights reserved” portion of the commons. Source Development Labs, and also serves on the board of
the Software Freedom Law Center. We’re very happy to
We launched[4] the first beta of these tools in January. One have Diane coming on board and are very confident she
thing feedback from this beta helped us realize is that bundling will lead CC0 to fruitful implementation and beyond.
the waiver and assertion in one tool could be confusing.
While both tell an end user that there are no strings attached In addition to contributions from many of you (Jordan
to using a work, they’re actually very different. A waiver must Hatcher[9] especially, leading by example with the PDDL),
be used by the copyright holder of a work; an assertion is special thanks goes to CC lawyers Virginia Rutledge (who
made by someone with knowledge that there is no copyright is stepping into a new role as Vice President and Special
holder of a work. Counsel) and Thinh Nguyen (Science Commons Counsel),
who have pushed us to the point we’re at now — a precipice
In February we announced[5] that the next beta would take of greatness! :)
pains to make these two use cases distinct. We also said that
we hoped to have the next beta ready for public review and Science Commons VP John Wilbanks, ccLearn ED Ahrash
discussion by March 31. We’ve missed that date by a couple Bissell, and CTO Nathan Yergler made key policy and
weeks, but for the good — some exciting organizational technology contributions.
growth (more below) and incorporation of further lessons.
Endnotes
We’ve also come to believe that we’re really close on the 1 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7920
CC0 waiver, while the assertion tool is going to require
2 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC0
significant work before it provides a big step up from our
3 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/
existing public domain certification. For example, we want to
4 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7978
facilitate publishing of facts about a work that would help one
determine the work’s copyright status, and separately, rules 5 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8045
about copyright status in various jurisdicitons — people who 6 http://labs.creativecommons.org/license/zero/
know lots about a particular work aren’t likely to be global 7 http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses
copyright experts, and if there were a single person expert in 8 http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8175
copyright law in every jurisdiction, that person would have no 9 http://www.opencontentlawyer.com/
room in their brains for knowledge of any creative works! There
are various groups working on different pieces of this who we
look forward to collaborating with. Expect news concerning
public domain assertion tools in the coming months.
So the new beta we’re announcing today is focused
exclusively on the CC0 waiver. The big change in this beta
(as planned in February) is that rather than starting with
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
13
14
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CC News
search.creativecommons.org screencast and i18n
by Mike Linksvayer
12 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8291
We’ve rolled out a few small changes to Endnotes
search.creativecommons.org: 1 http://support.creativecommons.org/videos#ccsearch-firefox
2 http://code.creativecommons.org/svnroot/ccsearch/trunk/
• The part of the interface we control is now translatable, 3 http://code.creativecommons.org/
and has five languages enabled now — Afrikaans, 4 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcSearch_integration
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, and 5 http://creativecommons.org/policies
Japanese. You can suggest translations at http://translate.
creativecommons.org/projects/ccsearch/.
• A screencast on using ccSearch with Firefox,[1] including
how to change your default search engine, and change
it back.
• Run a default search when the user switches search tabs
with no query entered.
You can browse and checkout the code[2] (GPL licensed) from
our source repository.[3]
Further improvements we’re thinking about (patches welcome;
see source info above):
• Conditionally show search engine tabs based on language.
This requires us to learn of more CC-enabled search sites
that allow filtering on license terms by changing the query
URL. Look at (and add to) our wiki page on ccSearch
integration[4] for details.
• Conditionally show search engine tabs based on
user preference.
• Provide some contextual help when user switches tabs without
entering a query rather than running a default search.
A complete re-thinking of the interface, including the possibility
of a unified metasearch instead of search engine tabs.
Remember, the code is available and GPL’d, so you can run
your own version (modulo our trademark policy)[5] in addition
to helping us improve ours.
CC News
ccMixter to the max: Request For Proposals
by Mike Linksvayer
29 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8323
Late last year we started a process for moving ccMixter. 4. Capability to run and further develop a best of breed major
org[1], the remix community we launched November 2004, music website, including resources and demonstrated
to an entity or person(s) that could take the community to the expertise in the following:
next (several) levels. 1. Web technology;
2. Music industry;
eMXR describes ccMixter[2]:
3. Legal;
trend setting web destination … which has become the 4. Community management; and
premier on-line artist’s village for music makers from 5. Finance.
around the world, who sample, cut-up, share and remix 5. Understanding of and sensitivity to the needs of open
each other’s music legally, creatively and joyfully. sharing communities.
6. Understanding of and compatibility with Creative Commons’
This description is corroborated by the quality of artists mission.
drawn to collaborate with the ccMixter community[3] and the
receptivity of that community, which has remixed nearly 80% We’re eager to see what the ccMixter can become —
of uploaded a cappellas[4]. The software that runs the site is and confident it will be amazing. If the above sounds like
also award winning[5]. your company or organization, please read the RFP and
respond[8].
The process of finding a new home for ccMixter included a
survey of the ccMixter community. Results of the survey are
Endnotes
presented at the end of this post. 1 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7833
2 http://blog.emxr.com/2008/05/fourstones-of-magnatune-and-
Today we’re announcing a Request For Proposals from entities ccmixter.html
interested in taking over the site. Please read the entire RFP[6].
3 http://ccmixter.org/view/media/samples
Proposals are due within 60 days (July 29) to ccmixter-
4 http://ccmixter.org/stats
rfp@creativecommons.org. Inquiries before submitting a
5 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/6026
proposal are most welcome, to the same address. Please
use this address for all inquiries rather than contacting CC or 6 http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/pdfs/ccmixter-
rfp-20080529.pdf
ccMixter personnel directly.
7 http://lessig.org/blog/2007/11/ccmixter_thinking_about_
where.html
The Creative Commons board will make the final
determination, but here are some guidelines for what we’re 8 https://mail.google.com/a/creativecommons.org/?view=cm&tf
=0&ui=1&to=ccmixter-rfp@creativecommons.org
looking for in an acquirer (from the RFP):
1. Commitment and ability to conform to principles described
in guidelines[7] .
2. Plan and vision for ccMix ter af ter completion of
the transaction:
1. Concreteness of plan;
2. Viability of Participant and Participant’s proposal for
ccMixter– long and short term; and
3. Scale and impact of success (taking into account
web site growth plans and other marketing and
promotional plans).
3. Amount and terms of financial compensation to CC.
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
15
16
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CCI News
CC Licensing Guidebook for Government Agencies and NGOs
by Michelle Thorne
10 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8200
CC Taiwan[1] has produced a lovely and informative 36-page
guidebook to CC licensing for government agencies
and NGOs. The document is available to download[2] in
Taiwanese Mandarin.
In other publication news, a translation of Lawrence Lessig’s
book Free Culture is now available in Taiwanese Mandarin.
The translator, Ching-Yi Liu, is a professor at the National
Taiwan University and a former student of Lessig. A short Cover image by CC Taiwan. CC BY SA http://creativecommons.
introductory preface for the translated book was written by org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/tw
CC Taiwan Project Lead Tyng-Ruey Chuang.
Endnotes
1 http://creativecommons.org.tw/
To read more about CC-related activities in Taiwan, such
2 http://creativecommons.org.tw/gallery/Material/cchandbook_
their lively panel session at the National Digital Archives
gov_2008.pdf
Program 2008 Annual International Conference, [3]check out
3 http://www.ndap.org.tw/96AnnualExhibition/
the CC Taiwan newsletter archives.[4]
InternationalConference/tuesday.php
4 http://creativecommons.org.tw/static/about/maillist/archive
Transition at Creative Commons Switzerland
by Michelle Thorne
15 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8209
From CC Switzerland:[1] Creative Commons Switzerland will be supported through
Dr. Urs Gasser, Attorney, Professor at the University of
The organization Openlaw,[2] platform for law and Free St. Gallen. Within the framework of an extended support
Software, has filled the role of Legal Lead for Creative network, previous CC CH members Urs Gehrig, lic.iur
Commons Switzerland for several years. The tasks (Basel) and Dr. Christian Laux, Attorney LLM (Zürich) will
entailed, among others, the adaptation of Creative be readily available.
Commons in Switzerland and providing a point-of-contact
for inquiries about the licenses.
Endnotes
1 http://creativecommons.org/international/ch/
Creative Commons in Switzerland will now be coordinated
2 http://www.openlaw.ch/
by Digitale Allmend,[3] while Openlaw will be stepping
3 http://www.allmend.ch/
down from its role at Legal Lead.
Personnel will be set along the following lines: Martin
Feuz (Community); Philippe Perreaux (Legal Consultation);
Simon Schlauri (Development of the CC Licenses)
CCI News
2nd Blender Peach Open Source Movie Premiere and Economies
of the Commons in Amsterdam
by Jon Phillips
11 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8203
opportunities for creative reuse of these resources are the
particular focus of this conference and this web dossier.
My panel and fellow panelists are described below:[9]
After the lunch we continue with the second session
about Commons-based Peer Production. How do new
developments of creative reuse hold out against market-
based production? With Felix Stalder (Open Flows),[10]
Jamie King (Steal This Film),[11] Jon Phillips (Creative
Commons)[12] and Sebastian Lütgert (oil21.org).[13]
The panel came down to Ton Rosendaal from Blender
Foundation[14] describing his model for sustainability for Open
If you haven’t been to Amsterdam[1] or checked out what film projects (something you will hear me describe in more
great work Paul Keller[2] and CC Netherlands[3] is doing, then depth coming soon) and Jamie King’s promise for creating
I highly recommend you A.) get here when you can by jet, a better voluntary donation system. I took the position as
or B.) tap into their great projects on the net. In particular, the realist on the panel to reel in the gradient between what
I’m referring to the big premiere 2nd Annual Blender Peach commercial entities are presently doing to sustain content
Open Movie[4] in Amsterdam last night. I had the great honor distribution (and production in some instances) with the
of speaking before the premiere which actually felt more like approaches outlined to provide a path of realidad. ;)
a warm-up gig — I took it on myself to get people pumped
up for the film (laughing, chanting, etc). You can also see
Endnotes
my slides[5] which debut a new style using the CC Sharing
1 http://wikitravel.org/en/Amsterdam
Creative Works Comics[6] (which you may download now[7]
2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulk/
and translate, just as CC Netherlands has done and made
3 http://www.creativecommons.nl/
availabe in a booklet here).
4 http://peach.blender.org/index.php/premiere-big-buck-bunny-
today/
And finally, I spoke on a panel today called “Commons-
based Peer Production” at the Economies of the Commons 5 http://www.scribd.com/doc/2520449/Blender-Open-Movie-
Premiere-and-Making-Open-Sustainable
conference[8] put on by CC Netherlands and others:
6 http://creativecommons.org/projects/sharing_creative_works
Strategies for Sustainable Access and Creative Reuse of 7 http://www.scribd.com/doc/2227656/
Images and Sounds Online creativecommonssharingcreativeworkseng
8 http://ecommons.eu/
International Working Conference 9 http://research.imagesforthefuture.org/live-stream-and-blogs-
economies-of-the-commons/
Amsterdam & Hilversum 10, 11 & 12 April 2008 10 http://www.openflows.org/
11 http://www.stealthisfilm.com/Part2/
This dossier documents and brings together background 12 http://www.creativecommons.nl/
materials for the international conference Economies of 13 http://www.oil21.org/
the Commons. This public working conference and its side 14 http://blender.org/
programs address the remarkable cultural, educational
and societal significance of the new types of audiovisual
commons resources that are currently being created on
the internet. Sustainable public access and enhanced
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
17
18
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CCI News
Ecuador encourages learning, research,
and creativity with localized CC licenses
by Patricia Escalera
21 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8216
http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8215
Open education and Creative Commons projects very often The Creative Commons Ecuador
go hand-in-hand, just as the talented folks at ccLearn[1] are team has coordinated the porting
demonstrating with the Universal education search,[2] Cape process and public discussion
Town Open Education Declaration,[3] and ODEPO Project.[4] with local and international legal
experts under the leadership of
A Creative Commons jurisdiction that has really taken to Project Leads Dr. Juan José Puertas
pursuing the goals of open education and related learning Ortega and Carlos Correa
initiatives is CC Ecuador,[5] the forty-fifth jurisdiction Loyola, with team members Dra.
worldwide[6] to port the Creative Commons licensing suite. Patricia Pacheco Montoya, Abg. Below: Flyer by CC Ecuador. CC
Verónica Granda González, and BY-NC-SA 3.0
CC Ecuador will celebrate its involvement in the license Abg. Gabriela Armijos Maurad.
porting process on Tuesday at 6:00pm at the Universidad
Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL)[7] as one of the highlights The launch event will be held at University Convention
of the annual Congress for Quality Assurance and Main Center at 6:00pm, together with the opening ceremony
Challenges in Distance Learning,[8] a 3-day conference of university’s open courseware initiative, “Open UTPL.”
focusing on issues in education within Latin America. Creative Open UTPL will offer entire courses, books, study guides,
Commons Board Member Michael Carroll will join the event and multimedia content under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
as a keynote speaker. Ecuador license, as part of UPTL’s initiatives dedicated to
educational resources. Creative Commons Board Member
CC Ecuador will also be unveiling the university’s open Michael Carroll will join the CC Ecuador’s launch event as
courseware initiative, “Open UTPL,” a project that will offer a keynote speaker.
entire courses, books, study guides, and multimedia content
under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Ecuador license. The CC Ecuador team explains, “The UTPL is interested
in promoting cultural production and research, so we
Our warmest congratulations to the CC Ecuador team, Dr. have taken the initiative to launch the Creative Commons
Juan José Puertas Ortega and Carlos Correa Loyola, with licenses as an alternative to ‘all-rights-reserved’ copyright.
team members Dra. Patricia Pacheco Montoya, Abg. Verónica To achieve this, we have been going through a process
Granda González, and Abg. Gabriela Armijos Maurad. of adapting the international license to our legislation, in
discussions both public and private, and we have worked
The localized Ecuadorian licenses will be the second CC together with our community stakeholders and notable
licensing suite to be released at Version 3.0 in Spanish, representatives in the field of copyright to reach a public
following[9] CC Puerto Rico’s[10] launch[11] this past February. presentation of its launch.”
Also, for the first time, we will be publishing our press
release[12] in two languages. The localized Ecuadorian Creative Commons licenses, soon
available online, will be an important part of the annual
Ecuador encourages learning, research, and Congress for Quality Assurance and Main Challenges in
creativity with localized CC licenses Distance Learning, a 3-day conference focusing on issues in
education within Latin America.
Loja, Ecuador and San Francisco, CA, USA
April 22, 2008 About Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja
Ecuador, the forty-fifth jurisdiction worldwide to port the The Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja was founded
Creative Commons licensing suite, will celebrate its launch by the Ecuadorian Marist Association (AME) on May
today at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL). 3rd, 1971. UTPL was officially recognized by the State
of Ecuador under Executive Decree 646, in which it was
constituted as an autonomous legal entity on the basis of
the “Modus Vivendi” Agreement between the Holy See and Acerca de la Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja
the State of Ecuador, following the Church’s regulations in
its organization and government. La Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL) fue fundada
el 3 de Mayo de 1971 por la Comunidad Marista Ecuatoriana
The UTPL educational model is centered on “Productive (AME). La UTPL fue reconocida oficialmente por el Estado
Entrepreneurship” in which the students and the professors del Ecuador bajo el Decreto Ejecutivo 646, en el que se
take part in real projects in the Centers for Research, constituyó como una entidad jurídica autónoma creada bajo
Technology Transfer, Extension and Service (CITTES). The el “Convenio de Modus Vivendi” firmado entre la Santa
academic life of UTPL combines all the dimensions of the Sede y el Estado Ecuatoriano, siguiendo las regulaciones de
university: the CITTES, the Schools, their programs in the la Iglesia en su organización y gobierno.
Traditional and Distance Modalities, and service to society,
with a strong humanist perspective. For more information, El modelo educativo de la UTPL se centra en el “Desarrollo
please visit: http://www.utpl.edu.ec/. Empresarial”, según el cual los estudiantes y los profesores
participan en proyectos reales que se llevan a cabo en
Ecuador estimula el aprendizaje, la investigación, los Centros de Investigación, Transferencia de Tecnología,
y la creatividad con las licencias de CC Extensión y Servicio (CITTES). La vida académica de la UTPL
conjuga todas las dimensiones de la universidad con una
Loja, Ecuador y San Francisco, CA, USA filosofía humanista: los CITTES, las escuelas y sus programas
22 de Abril del 2008 en las modalidades a distancia o tradicional, y el servicio a
la sociedad. Para más información, por favor visite: http://
Ecuador, la cuadragésima quinta jurisdicción a nivel mundial www.utpl.edu.ec/.
en adaptar el conjunto de licencias de Creative Commons,
celebrará el día de hoy el lanzamiento de dichas licencias
Endnotes
en la Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL).
1 http://learn.creativecommons.org/
2 http://learn.creativecommons.org/projects/oesearch
El equipo de Creative Commons Ecuador ha coordinado el
3 http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/
proceso de adaptación y discusión pública con las entidades
locales y expertos en derecho internacional, bajo la dirección 4 http://learn.creativecommons.org/projects/network
de líderes del proyecto Dr. Juan José Puertas Ortega y Carlos 5 http://creativecommons.ec/
Correa Loyola, acompañados con los miembros del equipo, 6 http://creativecommons.org/international/ec/
Dra. Patricia Pacheco Montoya, Lic. Verónica González 7 http://www.utpl.edu.ec/
Granda, y Lic. Gabriela Armijos Maurad. 8 http://www.utpl.edu.ec/calidaded2/index.php?option=com_
frontpage&Itemid=1
El evento del lanzamiento se llevará a cabo en el Centro 9 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8053
de Convención de la UTPL a las 6:00 p.m., junto con la 10 http://creativecommons.org/international/pr/
apertura ceremonial de los cursos “Open UTPL.” Los cursos 11 http://www.creativecommons.pr/?p=50
“Open UTPL” ofrecerán clases, libros, guías de estudio, y 12 http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8215
contenido de multimedia bajo la licencia CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
de Ecuador como muestra de dedicación de la UTPL hacia
la investigación educativa. Michael Carroll, miembro de la
mesa directiva de Creative Commons, se unirá al evento
como ponente principal.
El equipo de CC Ecuador explica, „El interés de la UTPL
es difundir la producción cultural y de investigación. Por
lo tanto, hemos tomado la iniciativa de poner en marcha
las Licencias Creative Commons como una alternativa a
‘Todos los derechos reservados.’ Para lograrlo se ha tenido
que pasar por un proceso de adaptación de la licencia
internacional a nuestra legislación, con discusiones tanto
públicas como privadas, en donde han colaborado para
ello actores de la sociedad con notoria representación en
el campo de los Derechos de Autor, dando origen a este
lanzamiento público del proyecto.”
La finalización de las licencias de Creative Commons en
Ecuador, disponibles virtualmente dentro de poco, será un tema
muy importante durante el congreso anual Los Nuevos Retos de
la Educación a Distancia en Iberoamérica y el Aseguramiento
de la Calidad. Se trata de una reunión de tres días para revisar
algunas cuestiones de educación en Latinoamérica.
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
19
20
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CCI News
Scripta: CC Latin America
by Jane Park
25 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8246
If you haven’t already, check out Scripta, CC Latin America’s new publication
available online (CC BY). The editorial committee for Scripta comes from all
over Latin America with contributors from Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and
Ecuador. One of our own, intern Grace Armstrong, partakes in this issue with
an in depth Q&A introduction to ccLearn and open education. Even if you don’t
speak Spanish, the graphics alone — that brilliant turtle on the cover — are
worth visiting.
Endnotes
1 http://creativecommons.ec/revista-scripta
2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Malaysian Artistes for Unity
by Michelle Thorne
20 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8297
by Pete Teo from CC Malaysia’s board of directors. The text
is in four languages and speaks to the diversity and vibrancy
of Malaysia’s cultural communities.
pete was juggling tomatoes. bored. so he telephoned The video and audio files are available to download[4] under
a few friends instead. “how about getting together to CC BY-NC-ND and CC BY-NC-SA. Furthermore, Unleash
make an anti-racism song and music video?” all said yes Creativity for UNITY,[5] a spin-off project by Muid Latif and
without hesitation. not because pete threatened them with Digital Malaya, has been developed to encourage CC-
a rusty knife. only because they love malaysia. licensed remixes of the video and other works to share and
spread art in Malaysia.
And so began Malaysian Artistes For Unity,[1] a collaboration
which has since swelled to over 150 active members working Endnotes
with creative, non-partisan projects to build awareness and 1 http://www.malaysianartistesforunity.info/
tolerance in Malaysia. 2 http://creativecommons.org.my/
3 http://www.malaysianartistesforunity.info/?page_id=20
The group, in close partnership with Creative Commons
4 http://www.malaysianartistesforunity.info/?page_id=19
Malaysia,[2] has released a lovely video[3] to share their cause.
Shot in Kuala Lumpur and co-directed by Yasmin Ahmad, the 5 http://www.digitalmalaya.com/unity/
video features a colorful cast of well-known Malaysian artists
singing “Here In My Home,” a song written and co-produced
CCI News
CC Guatemala
enters public discussion
by Michelle Thorne
2 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8254
Today CC Guatemala’s localized license draft enters the
public discussion. The CC Guatemala[1] team, lead by Renata
Avila and hosted at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin’s Endnotes
New Media Center,[2] has been working through the license 1 http://creativecommons.org/international/gt/
porting process[3] to produce a draft of CC BY-NC-SA adapted 2 http://newmedia.ufm.edu.gt/
to Guatemalan law.[4] As part of the public discussion, we 3 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Worldwide_Overview
invite the international community to join the discussion[5] and 4 http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/international/gt/
share their comments on the draft, its English re-translation,[6] translated-license.pdf
and an explanation of substantive legal changes.[7] 5 http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-gt
6 http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/international/gt/english-
Thank you and congratulations to Legal Lead Renata Avila retranslation.pdf
and her colleagues at CC Guatemala! 7 http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/international/gt/english-
changes.pdf
Building an Australasian Commons
by Michelle Thorne
9 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8280
CC Australia[1] announces: Attendance is free and open to all. To register, please
download the form[6] and return via email to CC Australia.
Registration is now officially open for the Creative The conference will be followed on the day at 6pm by the
Commons ‘Building an Australasian Commons’ second CCau ccSalon,[7] a showcase of Creative Commons
Conference.[2] The conference will be held on Tuesday music, art, film and text from Australia and the region.
24th June 2008 from 8.30am – 5pm at the State Library
of Queensland, South Brisbane, and is proudly supported
Endnotes
by Creative Commons Australia,[3] the ARC Centre of 1 http://www.creativecommons.org.au/
Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation,[4] and
2 http://creativecommons.org.au/australasiancommons
the State Library of Queensland.[5]
3 http://creativecommons.org.au/
4 http://www.cci.edu.au/
It provides an opportunity for those interested in the free
internet to come together to exchange ideas, information 5 http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/
and inspiration. It brings together experts from Australasia 6 http://creativecommons.org.au/materials/ccauconf08/
to discuss the latest developments and implementations of australasian_commons_conference_registration.pdf
Creative Commons in the region. It aims to be an open 7 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon
forum where anyone can voice their thoughts on issues
relating to furthering the commons worldwide.
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
21
22
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CCI News
Grant Competition to Support CC Licensing Adoption in the
South Caucasus
by Michelle Thorne
16 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8294
We are very honored to announce that our close implementing a consistent, robust and internationally
collaborators, the Eurasia Partnership Foundation,[1] has accepted framework for intellectual property rights for
opened a grant competition to support the adoption of the web-based materials in the South Caucasus, adapting
Creative Commons licensing framework in the countries of Creative Commons framework to conditions in the
the South Caucasus. South Caucasus, and ensuring extensive stakeholder
involvement and broad public awareness of the CC
Proposals may be submitted for Georgia,[2] Armenia,[3] framework in the South Caucasus.
and Azerbaijan,[4]
The deadline for applications in Georgia is May 29, 17:00,
From their website: and a general pre-bid consultation seminar will be held at
the EPF offices in Yerevan, Armenia on May 19, 17:00.
The initiative seeks to enable and popularize the legal
sharing and reuse of cultural, educational, and scientific
Endnotes
works in the countries of the South Caucasus through 1 http://www.eurasiapartnership.org/
offering free and easy-to-use Creative Commons
2 http://www.epfound.ge/index.php?article_id=83&clang=0
(CC) licensing framework to creators, artists, and
3 http://www.epfound.am/index.php?article_id=76&clang=0
educators, as well as other internet-based communities
4 http://www.epfound.az/index.php?article_id=68&clang=0
in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. These goals
will be achieved through exploring possibilities for
Mayer and Bettle: the Animation Sequel about CC
by Michelle Thorne
23 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8231
From CC Australia:[1] The animation is available under a Creative Commons
Attribution 2.5 Australia[3] license, and the full video can
Following [Mayer and Bettle’s] fabulously successful be dowloaded in high resolution flash format at http://
cinematic debut,[2] in which they introduced us all to w w w.engageme dia.org /M emb er s/elliot tb/vide os/
Creative Commons, the new film provides a bit of an CC_0408_512x288_lo_PAL.flv.
update as to what has been happening in Creative
Commons over the last two years, and gives us a bit more
Endnotes
information on using the Creative Commons licences. To 1 http://creativecommons.org.au/mayerandbettle2
do this, they travel into Creative Commons world, and run
2 http://creativecommons.org.au/animation_train
into one of Bettle’s fans and collaborators, Flik.
3 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au
CC Points of Interest
Flickr Video
by Cameron Parkins
15 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8205
Wondering what those moving images popping up in your You can read more about Flickr Video at the FAQ page[6]
friends’ Flickr photostream are? Last week Flickr introduced and check it out in practice at the Video! Video! Video![7]
the ability for users to upload videos as well as photos,[1] Flickr group. Also, be sure to take note of the CC-shout out[8]
adding new functionality to one of the web’s leading media- in reference to flexibly licensed music — see more on our
sharing sites. legal music for videos[9] page.
Flickr has long[2] been exemplary of a well executed, CC-
Endnotes
enabled[3] content community. By utilizing the same simple, 1 http://blog.flickr.net/en/2008/04/09/video-on-flickr-2/
clean, and straightforward interface to CC licensing that
2 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7028
they have employed for photo uploads, Flickr Video poses
3 http://flickr.com/creativecommons
itself to be a huge resource for those in the CC community
4 http://flickr.com/help/video/#1899
who create and reuse video.
5 http://www.flickr.com/help/video/#2214
Anyone can see videos, but only users with pro accounts can 6 http://flickr.com/help/video/
upload videos.[4] The maximum time length for any video is 7 http://flickr.com/groups/video/
90 seconds, though this is a limitation that has less to with 8 http://flickr.com/help/video/#2191
technology and more to do with aesthetics.[5] 9 http://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos
Custom CC Search
by Nathan Yergler
30 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8258
Google has supported searching for Creative Commons Endnotes
licensed content through the usage rights[1] portion of the 1 http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.
advanced search interface[2] for some time. Last week they took py?answer=29508
the next logical step by announcing[3] on the Custom Search 2 http://www.google.com/advanced_search
blog[4] that you can now use the indexed license information to 3 http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/2008/04/searching-
filter results in your own custom search engine. [5] for-creative-commons-licensed.html
4 http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/
Custom search engines allow you to create a search for a set 5 http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
of sites and host it on your site. This improvement allows you 6 http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/2008/04/searching-
to further restrict your results to resources marked as under for-creative-commons-licensed.html
a Creative Commons license. The announcement[6] also 7 http://creativecommons.org/license
enumerates how Google looks for CC licenses, although
content creators needn’t worry about that aspect — the
HTML generated by the license engine[7] contains all the bits
you need; just copy and paste!
Thanks, Google!
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
23
24
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CC Points of Interest
Magnatune does good via the Amarok media player
by Mike Linksvayer
29 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8256
Last July we mentioned that Magnatune, a record label known Both media players enable a user to listen to music from
for pioneering open business models,[1] had hired a developer Magnatune for free, and make it easy to buy — just like the
to work on Amarok,[2] a free software media player. Magnatune web site.[6]
Today Magnatune founder John Buckman announced Congratulations to Magnatune, Amarok, and Rhythmbox
$11,570 in sales via Amarok,[3] of which 10% is donated for making a logical collaboration (open source and open
to support Amarok. This number could get much bigger as content) a practical win-win for users (ready access to DRM-
Amarok goes cross-platform, notes the Amarok blog:[4] free, CC-licensed music), developers, artists, and the whole
movement — it has been too long since last mentioning that
With the greatly improved Magnatune integration in the it’s about discovery now.[7]
upcoming Amarok 2, and the eventual release of Amarok
2 on Windows and Mac, it will be really interesting to
Endnotes
see how far we can take this in the future. For now, I hope 1 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8237
that the Amarok users will continue to buy music through
2 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7590
Amarok, as it is a great way of supporting Amarok
3 http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2008/04/giving-
development, at the same time as supporting independent
money-to.html
artists, who get a full 50% of the purchase price.
4 http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/643-Amarok-recieves-
first-Magnatune-sales-commision.html
Buckman also announced that Magnatune would donate
5 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7389
10% of sales made through Rythmbox[5] to support that free
6 http://magnatune.com/
software media player.
7 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7543
Another Nine Inch Nails album out
under a Creative Commons license
by Eric Steuer we encourage you to
5 May 2008 remix it
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8267 share it with your friends,
post it on your blog,
play it on your podcast,
give it to strangers,
etc.
More very exciting news from Nine Inch Nails:[1] Just two We’ll have more to say about this great news soon.
months after the Creative Commons-licensed release[2] of
NIN’s Ghosts I-IV,[3] the band has released another album, Endnotes
entitled The Slip,[4] also under CC terms. NIN has this to say 1 http://www.nin.com/
about The Slip, which, like its predecessor, is available under 2 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8095
a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share
3 http://ghosts.nin.com/
Alike[5] license.
4 http://theslip.nin.com/
5 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
CC Points of Interest
The (potential) U.S. copyright czar and you
by Mike Linksvayer
9 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8282
Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed[1] the Creative Commons. There is a TON of freely distributable
“PRO-IP Act”[2] 410 to 11. The bill, if also passed by the U.S. junk out there. However there ARE people out there that
Senate and made law, could create a “copyright czar” office every one of us reading this story would feel comfortable
and greatly expand copyright enforcement in and outside of supporting, and rather than shovel money on a monthly
the U.S. basis into Comcast’s, or Sirius’, or Time Warner’s or
whomever’s bank account for content that isn’t worth
Slashdot is of course running the story. A comment by using as toilet paper, a small fraction of that money could
Slashdot user analog_line[3] lays out (with a brashness to be make a world of difference for one of the people that IS
expected in a Slashdot comment thread) voluntary responses taking a risk and releasing good content under terms that
to increasingly onerous copyright restrictions — responses are reasonable.
which you can participate in:
Where the hell is the Creative Commons Foundation of
Don’t get me wrong, I think this is insane, and I hope the Arts, taking donations and patronizing quality artists
it goes the way of similar bills before it, but the tighter that release work under the Creative Commons like the
the so-called “content cartels” grip on their copyright, the foundations supporting free software? Do you think this
more persuasive the arguments for Creative Commons, stuff grows on trees?
GPL (v2 or v3), and other similar copyright-related social
movements become. The same laws that protect the iron Regarding analog_line’s last paragraph, there are many
grip of Disney on Mickey Mouse for as long as they experiments with “crowd funding” of art, now mostly still
can legislate it, also protect those who participate in small experiments. While those are exciting, and I hope
the Creative Commons (like Nine Inch Nails to take a to see much more innovation in this area, there is a vast
totally non-random example) from the Disneys, the Time infrastructure for patronage of the arts (more private in some
Warners, and the Sonys of the world. They can only be jurisdictions, more state-run in others). Perhaps some of these
the gatekeepers of “the culture” if YOU choose to pay the patrons will encourage funded artists to release work under
entry fee. There’s plenty enough out there that they don’t CC licenses — what is the point of funding creation (where
control, that they CAN’T control anymore. All this sound the funding is publicly spirited) if that creation is not legally
and fury is trying to make people focus on them instead accessible to the public without a copyright czar watching
of looking for alternatives. There’s no such thing as bad over their shoulders?
publicity, and all that.
Endnotes
The onus is on those who claim that art should be for love 1 http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/house-passes-
and not money to put up or shut up. If you’re an artist, go controversial-pro-ip-act
make some art under something like Creative Commons 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRO-IP_Act
that both allows you to make money off it when someone
3 http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.
else is making money off it (and sue the pants off them if pl?sid=540804&cid=23269940
they don’t pay you for it), and allows people who aren’t
making money off it to spend as much money as they
want spreading the word about how awesome you are.
If you’re not an artist, don’t forget that artists need to eat
as much as you do. Actually reach into that wallet and
give money to artists that take a chance and produce
work that you like under a Creative Commons license (or
some other license with terms that aren’t crazy) and be
as generous as you can afford. Every Tom, Dick, and
Sally that releases something under Creative Commons
isn’t worth supporting just because they’re releasing as
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
25
26
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
CC Points of Interest
Steal This Footage
by Michelle Thorne
26 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8318
“Remix, Redistribute, Rejoice” reads the emboldening tag
line from the footage archive[1] of STEAL THIS FILM II[2], a
documentary that explores shifts in technology, distribution,
and creative production. The recently released[3] footage
includes three hours of material from eleven interviews, all of
which are released for your remixing pleasure under a CC
BY-SA license[4].
Not only are the interviews available in high quality format
to users and produsers, but thanks to the help of many
volunteers, it is possible to conduct a full text search of
the base material, which will guide you to the frame and
immediate context of your search term.
STEAL THIS FILM II was released to file-sharing networks last
winer after its premiere[5] in Berlin. Since then, it has been
subtitled in 19 languages and is estimated to have been
viewed by over 4 million people — 150,000 of whom had
downloaded the film in the first three days of its release.
Endnotes
1 http://footage.stealthisfilm.com/
2 http://stealthisfilm.com/Part2/
3 http://knowfuture.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/
httpfootagestealthisfilmcom/
4 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
5 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7789
CC Points of Interest
V I A R e l e a s e s O p e n B o o k , O p e n s C AD D e s i g n s under
CC BY-SA 3.0
by Jon Phillips
27 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8320
Released today, raw CAD files[1] under a Creative Commons Here is my quote from the release:
Attribution ShareaAlike 3.0 license[2], meaning you can get
the raw machine files to make whatever case or version you “VIA is a forward thinking company that has realized
want, as long as you release your modifications under the that sharing enables a healthy ecosystem which helps
same license and give attribution back to VIA. The VIA press them provide an innovative product which supports their
release[3] states: core business,” commented Jon Phillips, Business and
Community Manager for Creative Commons. ”Making the
The VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design introduces actual raw CAD files available under a Creative Commons
a host of new innovations, including the next generation Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license is a brilliant first step
of VIA Ultra Mobile Platform, based on the VIA C7®-M that clearly and legally allows others to emergently build
ULV processor and the new all-in-one VIA VX800 upon VIA’s open innovation.”
digital media IGP chipset. Together, this ultra compact,
power efficient platform delivers richer computing and I’ll add that this is a very interesting project that ups the
multimedia features, including a stunning 8.9” screen and “Open” ante of the ASUS EeePC’s[7] involvement in free and
greater video playback support, in a compact and stylish open culture beyond the software that ships on the platform,
clamshell form factor that weighs just 1kg. it competes strongly against the One Laptop Per Child XO-1[8],
and the Intel Classmate[9], which are the predecessors of
The VIA OpenBook features a flexible internal interface this generation of subnotebook. In fact, it appears that chip
for high-speed broadband wireless connectivity that companies are realizing that in order to sell more chips, it is
provides customers with the ability to select from a good to give away some parts of a product for free, or ship a
choice of WiMAX™, HSDPA and EV-DO/W-CDMA free operating system which further reduces the cost barrier
modules appropriate to their market. In addition, under to selling more silicon. As an aside, this also mirrors what
a unique collaborative approach, the CAD files of the Nine Inch Nails did[10] by releasing part of their product as
external panels of the reference design are offered for an entry into more specific and special packages.
download under a Creative Commons Attribution Share
Alike 3.0 license to give customers such as OEMs, system It should also be noted that this valiant efforts follows up
integrators, and broadband service providers greater the great work that FIC’s Openmoko[11], Open Source
freedom in tailoring the look and feel of their device to Cellphone, did by releasing their CAD designs, which has
meet the diverse needs of their target markets. already led to multiple efforts to create different cases and
a great set of community pages on howto get your designs
And some blogs are praising[4] its coolness[5], like crunchgear manufactured[12]. We also worked with Keith Packard at Intel
had to say (which hints at business strategy of companies to release some specifications[13] of graphics chips by Intel
like VIA)[6]: around the same time, which has helped for more companies
to realize this same level of openness, and more importantly
Do you own a small fabricating plant in Taiwan? Do you has allowed for developers, other companies, and people to
have an engineering team of ten PhDs? Do you want to more easily support and buy more Intel chips.
make small laptops? Has VIA got a deal for you. The VIA
OpenBook reference design is not actually a product — If you have a product similar to the above, or something you
it’s more of an idea. Because it is ostensibly open (the think could benefit from Creative Commons licensing in this
CAD plans are available on the VIAOpenBook site) you way, please do contact us.
simply buy the chips from VIA and use the plans to build
your own cases, keyboards, and I/O systems.
VIA Releases OpenBook > 36
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
27
28
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
ccLearn
ccLearn Monthly Update - April 15th
by Ahrash Bissell
15 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8234
It’s tax day here in the USA, but let’s look to more interesting Endnotes
things. I will endeavor to send out an update, perhaps in 1 http://icommons.org/isummit/
newsletter form, of key ccLearn activities and plans every 2 http://learn.creativecommons.org/
month or so, in addition to any announcements or interviews 3 http://learn.creativecommons.org/resources/
that we post to the site. As we continue to develop our internal 4 http://learn.creativecommons.org/education-search-engines/
capacities to manage communications and projects, I expect 5 http://www.ocwconsortium.org/index.php?option=com_
that these things will become more streamlined. content&task=view&id=77
We are still hard at work considering the challenges of
finding and creating open educational resources, and also
with networking and research around existing OER projects.
Look to this space for future announcements as we test and
then roll out these (hopefully useful) tools.
We are also engaged in planning for a regional meeting
among open education projects and CC jurisdictions in Latin
America. This is just the first of several planned meeting in
different regions of the world to enable greater collaboration
and coherence among OER projects globally. We will
announce further details about this and hoped-for future
meetings as details become available.
We are helping too in planning the education track at this
year’s iSummit.[1] The iSummit promises to be an interesting
opportunity to engage with open education projects in East
Asia and beyond and to consider collective actions that
can help to broaden and deepen the impact of the open
education movement.
If you haven’t checked out the rest of the ccLearn website[2]
lately, you might pay a visit to the Resources[3] page, where
we are continuing to compile resources of interest to educators
and everyone involved in open education. Also, we have
gathered in one place some of the top sites for searching
educational content[4] on the web. This site is intended to help
people find educational resources, but also demonstrates the
challenge we face in making such searches easier.
ccLearn will be present at the upcoming OCWC meeting in
Dalian, China.[5] We’ll report on that meeting afterwards.
ccLearn
“Attribution Only” as Default Policy -
Otago Polytechnic on the How and Why of CC BY
by Jane Park
22 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8235
A month ago, I blogged about CC’s Role in Open Access
at Otago Polytechnic;[1] specifically, on their adoption of CC
BY as their default IP policy. For those who don’t already
know, Otago Polytechnic made a novel decision last year to
essentially reverse the standard policy of most educational
institutions. While other university staff must obtain permissions
to release their work under a license different from “all rights
reserved” copyright, Otago Polytechnic staff must explain
why they don’t want material published openly under CC BY,
should they desire standard (restrictive) copyright or another
license. Not only does this eliminate all the red tape before
getting your work out in the open, it sets open access as
an educational imperative. (And by open, they mean really
open–free to copy, distribute, adapt and derive the work for
both commercial or non-commercial purposes.)
Because of this inversion in standard IP policy, ccLearn was Above: (http://flickr.com/photos/leighblackall/59675870/) Leigh
curious to learn how and why and what exactly Otago Blackall CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Polytechnic did and thought to arrive at this decision. While
most institutions, especially educational ones, slap on the
non-commercial term, Otago seemed to think differently into my life and things changed. Now here I am in beautiful
about doing so; in fact, they never even considered it. and progressive New Zealand helping teachers think about
ways to integrate some of this into their practices.
Read on for an interview with Leigh Blackall, from the
Educational Development Center[2] at Otago Polytechnic. In your article, “Educational Development at
Some things about Leigh: he lives in beautiful Dunedin, New Otago Polytechnic,” you write that the EDC was
Zealand, develops his own educational resources with his established in 2006 “for staff development,
wife Sunshine and dog Mira, and judging from this photo, is online and flexible learning development, and
a forward thinker who will climb most any mountain. research into educational development.” Can you
expand on this a bit? What is the EDC’s mission, or
Can you say a few words about yourself and your overarching goals?
position in the Educational Development Center at
Otago Polytechnic? What specifically led you to the The bottom line of the Programme Development aspect of
work in Educational Development? the EDC is to help faculty to provide educational services
to existing students more efficiently and effectively and/
I am officially titled as a Programme Developer which or find ways to provide educational services to people we
means I help develop new and existing courses here at the are not currently reaching. (There is a significant economic
Polytechnic. That involves helping teachers to develop new motivation behind this because the public funding we get
skills or identify new avenues for their services, or to help is sadly not enough to sustain the whole operation). So
them make courses more efficient and effective. I found my this involves a lot of staff training in the effective use of the
way into the educational media business because of my Internet and things like Open Educational Resources (OER),
interest in media production and design generally. I started which in turn means that we have to be up with the play,
creating animations and movies for training in Australia. hence research and development.
Later I found myself running a business in producing media
for education, but then open source, open content and the At the end of 2006, the fund for the EDC “started
free web services - generally referred to as Web 2.0, came to engage in content creation.” Do you mean the
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
29
30
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
creation of Open Educational Resources? Why was Well, I think probably since MIT OCW and surrounding free
it important for Otago Polytechnic to offer free and open source thinking, there have been people in our
online content? organisation who have been aware of CC et al for a while
now. So it seemed to me that when the opportunity arose to
Initially OER was not the intention behind the fund. We review our IP policy, all the pieces were in place. The key
had to change a few things first, starting with our policy on people seemed ready and willing to embrace it. I mean,
Intellectual Property. But once that was done, it gave a green who in the media and communications game hasn’t heard
light for those of us wanting to get into OER. Why did we of Creative Commons by now? If you know someone, send
think OER was important? Well, public education has never them our way, I’m setting up a new and open course they
had enough money to do what it needs to do. In saying that can enroll in.
though, it has at times been very inefficient with what it has
tried to do. When the leadership of the Polytechnic made How did Otago Polytechnic decide on CC BY for
available money for the development of content (amongst their default Intellectual Property Policy? Can you
other things), we knew it would be a finite amount and not elaborate on some of the specific steps that led
enough to sustain the staff training and content development to this choice; for instance, did OP consider other
we were aiming to do.. or to then maintain and update licensing options that were ultimately rejected?
what it was we managed to achieve. So it made sense to
first find out what was already out there and available for Well, I think I might have already covered some of this. As for
reuse and adaption (OER) and then to focus our energy on other licenses.. no we didn’t look much into the other licenses.
the participation and creation of educational resources that The group of people who drafted our policy quickly saw that
filled the gaps. By making the resources freely available, CC BY was what we wanted, and no one challenged that
by using socially networked platforms like Wikieducator, proposal. So CC BY was the first proposal, and it stayed that
and by trying to establish collaborative networks around our way. I mean, we did discuss the other options - well CC BY
subject areas, we were counting on the strengths of the OER SA was the only other option for us, but for similar reasons
movement to help us sustain our efforts beyond the initial to the NC restriction we decided that CC BY would be the
funding. Imagine if we all did that! simplest most flexible stance to take.
At the same time, it was difficult for EDC staff to find It probably should be made clear at this point that people in
“existing content with copyrights that could enable our organisation who own or are responsible for IP have the
reuse.” Since, Otago Polytechnic has adopted CC BY ability to use licenses other than CC BY—it’s just that they are
as their default license, I imagine that by reusable meant to explain to the managers why they have choose to
content you mean not only the ability to share, but do so.. As you say, a kind of inversion to what was in place
also to build upon, remix, adapt and reproduce the before, where people had to ask permission to be free, now
content. How did OP come to focus on the need for they have to ask permission to be not free.
this level of openness in education?
What about legal and technical interoperabilit y
Yes, we soon realised that while there is a huge amount of open educational resources? C an you say
of open courseware out there, there wasn’t a lot of open a few words about OP ’s view on this and how
educational resources, or certainly anything that was ever it might have played a role in its IP Polic y?
going to easily meet our needs. You see, teaching and Why did OP choose CC BY over the alternative
learning will always be a context specific pursuit and so we CC licenses?
all need the freedom to adapt and reuse content to what
ever context we might be working in. So most of the open I find this part the hardest to explain, and in a way the answer
courseware out there is not open for easy adaptation, and is in your question. CC BY is the most simple to understand
often carries with it a Non Commercial restriction, which and easy to honour license available on CC. (Public Domain
could be at some stage counter to what we find ourselves is not something commonly recognised outside the USA). If we
operating in.. who knows? And anyway, it is ambiguous to had added other restrictions like NC or SA, then we would
us what exactly is commercial. So we knew that we didn’t somehow have to monitor that, and manage what resources
want to use or make derivatives on content that could restrict were what. With CC BY as our default, at least we know that
us or anyone else we might later be associated with. We anything originating from us simply requires attribution and
needed a maximum level of flexibility with our content and nothing more; that’s pretty easy to ascertain and should be
CC BY provides that. Over arching all this, and it is in our IP familiar practice to educational practitioners. But Share Alike
policy as so, we wanted to adopt the practice and principle or Non Commercial.. that requires a discussion, and with
that information and knowledge should be freely shared. that comes complexity.
Did this realization lead naturally to an awareness But CC BY only serves to make the content we create easy to
of Creative Commons licensed material? How use. Obviously the majority of resources out there use CC BY
did Otago Polytechnic first hear of Creative SA or equivalent.. this creates a small issue because it then
Commons? means that if we sample and make derivatives from such
content, then we are obliged to use the same license. This is
a bummer and something I try to bring up in every forum.. What advice would you give other institutions that
but the copyleft movement is strong and uncompromising have more restrictive open access policies?
and I so far haven’t succeeded in convincing any of them
to go CC BY. I guess they still worry about derivatives Well, if you’re reading this then you yourself probably
becoming closed. Personally, in education, I don’t see that aren’t the one that needs convincing, no doubt it is your
happening for much longer. I think everyone will come to management. So you have a careful and indirect educational
see the simplicity and flexibility of CC BY, and that alone role to take. My advice would be to snuggle up with your IP
outweighs all other concerns. lawyer if your place has one and start finding an in there.
Respected 3rd parties can carry a lot of influence if they
Most universities simply offer their content know how to play their game, and if you don’t have the
online under “all rights reserved” copyright, with lawyer on side then they could shatter all your dreams with
sometimes an option to license the content openly. heavy spoken opinions that really are just that.
Otago Polytechnic revolutionizes this standard
concept of openness by defaulting all content CC If like us you’re lucky enough not to have one of those,
BY with the option for the individual to restrict. then you need to watch for your next chance to participate
What has OP gained by having CC BY as their in the review of your IP Policy. This could be a long road
default policy? Can you elaborate on some of the depending on how much support you have from key people
specific benefits? around you.
What have we gained? Your attention for one! Last time the In all these counts, it always helps to move things along by
CC Blog referenced our story, hits to our website and staff working with staff and growing things at the grass roots. If
blogs went through the roof! Over time, this recognition will you can skillfully organise a significant event to draw attention
continue to grow through the attribution requirement with our from the local newspaper and the CClearn blog, then that
content, and maybe that will translate into attracting funding will help too. An event alone won’t do it because key people
or even students.. but really, as great as the recognition is, will find an excuse to miss it, so you might have to try and
it doesn’t immediately change much in terms of the situation work it in with other things that are already happening.
in our courses, and this is where we remain focused. We
want the skills and capacity of our teaching staff and their Don’t be like me and flood every meeting with obsessive
students to continue to grow and develop; we want easy and single mindedness. You’ll only risk alienating yourself.. I was
quick access to what ever information resource is needed at lucky to have a very supportive boss who knew how to cope
the time, and the freedom to reuse it in anyway we see fit; with me. Be patient, professional and diligent. It will happen
we want to share our experience and expertise with others when it is meant to happen.
in similar fields so we can explore collaborative practices
and networked teaching and learning; and we want to find Any last thoughts?
ways in which to operate more efficiently and effectively.
Our adoption of CC BY is a significant step in that direction What was that I just said about myself?…
as it removes at least one of the artificial barriers to any of
that possibly happening. To find out more about Leigh and his projects, visit his
WikiEducator[3] page. To find out more about Otago
What about some challenges? What are they and Polytechnic, visit their WikiEducator page.[4]
how does OP propose to overcome them?
Endnotes
At the moment, one of the biggest challenges we face is 1 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8153
the reliance that some faculty have with all rights reserved
2 http://www.otagopolytechnic.ac.nz/schools-departments/
content. This content is preventing us from developing OER educational-development.html
practices. In some subject areas OER does not yet compete
3 http://wikieducator.org/User:Leighblackall
with the quality of published and restricted resources and so
4 http://wikieducator.org/Otago_Polytechnic
it is argued that using OER would compromise the quality of
our services. In other areas faculty are still convinced of the
possible financial gains they might make by restricting and
selling content. In other areas faculty simply don’t have the
time to rethink the way they teach their courses, let alone
participate in OER development however beneficial it may
be in the long run. All of these issues are not surprising and
certainly manageable challenges that we address through
normal staff development activities and support services like
savvy librarians.
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
31
32
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
ccLearn
LearnHub Integrates CC Licensing
by Jane Park
25 April 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8236
—the new online social Endnotes
learning network—decided 1 http://flickr.com/creativecommons/
to go Creative Commons 2 http://www.educomp.com/
earlier this week. On 3 http://savvica.com/
Wednesday, they integrated 4 http://creativecommons.learnhub.com/lesson/video/22-
CC licensing into their wanna-work-together
platform as an option for users to share their work, with 5 http://creativecommons.learnhub.com/
the additional option of contributing work into the public 6 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
domain. One of their inspirations was Flickr,[1] the online
photo management system that has integrated CC licensing
and search.
LearnHub is the result of a collaboration between India’s
largest online educator–Educomp–[2]and Savvica Inc.,[3] an
educational technology company that John and Malgosia
Green founded back in 2004.
LearnHub is not designed for any one specific group, but for
the networking capabilities among the diverse individuals
and communities out there. Because they emphasize open
educational resources, LearnHub’s goals are definitely in
line with ccLearn’s. John tells me what appealed to him
about CC:
“What I saw in CC was that there were several different
levels, from public domain to copyright, which give
people choice… I’m familiar with CC actually mostly
through Flickr which I use very passionately. I think that
[CC] works very, very well on that platform, but I don’t
think they’ve gone nearly as far as they could with it. And
we certainly have that opportunity in education.”
For an example of LearnHub’s current interface, check
out the “Wanna Work Together”[4] video at LearnHub’s
Creative Commons community.[5] It is licensed CC-BY.[6]
LearnHub looks very exciting, and we will be following
their development closely and reporting further as their
user community grows. John tells me that they plan
for closer CC integration in the future. “We want to
encourage people to share their content freely. We have
a lot of specific ideas around search integration.”
Logo & Screenshot © LearnHub
ccLearn
eIFL.net onOpen Access, Open Education,
and Creative Commons
by Jane Park
5 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8247
In April, ccLearn crossed telephone lines with Italy and eIFL.net is a not-for-profit organization that supports and
Ukraine for the first time. Executive Director Ahrash Bissell advocates the wide availability of electronic resources by
spoke with eIFL.net, Electronic Information for Libraries, an library users in transitional and developing countries. It is
international nonprofit organization whose interests, among universally acknowledged that access to knowledge is
many, lie in open access publishing and fair and balanced fundamental to education and research and the creation
intellectual property laws for libraries. of human capital upon which the development of societies
depend. This is especially true in a knowledge society
Below is a follow-up interview over email with Rima Kupryte, where economic progress depends on having a literate
Director of eIFL.net, and Iryna Kuchma, Program Manager of and educated population. Libraries and education are
eIFL-OA[2] (Open Access). synonymous. A library has little meaning if it cannot impart
knowledge. Good education cannot exist without access to
First, can you say a few words about yourselves and quality information resources to support teaching, learning
eIFL? How did you come to get involved in eIFL and and research. Our current slogan is “Enabling access to
to hold your respective positions within the larger knowledge through libraries in transition and developing
framework? What about eIFL attracted you? countries”. In July we will be having an eIFL visioning retreat
to brainstorm and think where eIFL.net will be five to ten
Rima: I am a professional librarian, graduated from Vilnius years from now.
University in Lithuania. I joined the Open Society Institute[3]–
Budapest (OSI) Network Library Program late in 1995. The Iryna: eIFL.net is a powerful network of 2,220 libraries in
idea for eIFL was born at OSI and later the idea turned 47 transitioning and developing countries with a combined
into an independent organisation which I joined from its population of 800 million people including Armenia,
establishment in 2003. Coming from Lithuania, which had Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana,
poorly resourced libraries and where access to information Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Croatia, Egypt,
was restricted when I was a student, I was very passionate Estonia, Georgia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo,
about ideas—what could be done in order to improve Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macedonia,
libraries, open them and offer better services to its users. eIFL. Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal,
net is a very innovative and creative organisation that offers Nigeria, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia,
a lot of opportunities and ideas; it makes things happen. South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In 2008, a pilot Open
Iryna: IFL’s mission statement, “Enabling access to Access workshop is planned in Latin America – Cuba.
knowledge through libraries in developing and transition
countries,” appeals to me a lot. I graduated from the social I’ve gathered (mainly from information on your
sciences department and access to knowledge was one of website) that eIFL and Creative Commons are
my research topics as well as social aspects of open access, promoting and doing similar things. For example,
free and open source software and open content licenses. the vision of the eIFL program “Advocacy for Access
For nine years I worked for OSI in Ukraine and Open Access to Knowledge: copyright and libraries”, known as
was one of my program areas. It was fascinating to see the eIFL-IP, is the development of fair and balanced
positive changes in scholarly communication and I am glad I copyright laws taking into account libraries and
can go on with this program – Open Access – in eIFL.net. the public interest. How would you relate these
goals to CC and CC-licensing?
What about eIFL itself–can you sum up what it
stands for, its mission and overarching agenda? The goal of eIFL-IP[4] is to maximise access to knowledge
Assuming you don’t already have one, if you could for education, research and civil society through fair and
come up with a catchy new slogan for what eIFL is balanced copyright laws that take into account the needs
trying to do, what would it be? of libraries and students, researchers and professionals
who depend on library services to advance their education,
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
33
34
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
careers and life opportunities. Our vision is that eIFL-IP How do you think these challenges will be
librarians will become activists and leaders for promoting overcome?
access to knowledge, especially in the digital age. We are
achieving this by: • By focusing on building capacity
• providing resources e.g. http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/
• creating a network of library copyright specialists and services/eifl-ip/issues/eifl-handbook-on
building capacity in the library perspective in copyright • holding an annual conference for face-to-face training
issues. e.g. http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-ip/
• becoming the recognised advocate for library copyright training/2008-istanbul
issues in developing and transitioning countries at • identifying “champions” and encouraging those who are
international and national levels. active e.g. Moldova came to WIPO in March 2008, support
• encouraging the international library community to place for regional events (e.g. Nigeria Library Association pre-
the issues of developing and transitioning countries high conference on copyright and digitisation in June 2008).
on their agendas. • developing a curriculum in copyright issues for libraries for
eIFL-IP and CC are natural allies because: mass training (see below).
You are also now developing a distance learning
• eIFL-IP supports the use of alternative models through open course on copyright for librarians jointly with
content licenses, such as CC and GPL. eIFL.net advocates the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at
for open access and OER. Harvard Law. Can you describe the project?
• eIFL-IP and CC both promote access to content (for CC
digital content). In partnership with the Berkman Center for Internet and
• eIFL-IP builds capacity and raises awareness, including how Society[5] at Harvard Law School in the USA, we are developing
to use copyright law as an enabler of access to knowledge a brand new curriculum on copyright for librarians. This is a
rather than a means to distort, deny or delay access. CC first, and we hope that many more librarians, especially in
licenses support this goal by promoting the full spectrum of developing and transitioning countries, will benefit from the
possibilities within the copyright system, i.e. from all rights training and become advocates for access to knowledge.
reserved to the public domain.
• As information professionals, librarians should be in a The curriculum seeks to develop greater understanding
position to advise library clients on issues relating to access of copyright by librarians. The goal is to build a human
and use of digital content. With its powerful brand, CC network from which they can draw support. We hope to
helps librarians to understand and promote issues relating reach a critical mass of librarians who can contribute to
to access. public discussion, who can take part in informed debate
For more information on the library perspective on CC: with government and industry representatives, and who can
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-ip/docs/ join the library community from the developed world by
handbook-e/#cc expressing their views in important international forums, such
as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The
What are some of the major challenges eIFL-IP course should be implemented with strategic partners in the
faces? global South, such as library training and law schools in
universities, as well as distance learning programs.
The challenge that remains is how to build capacity at the
national level; when we are working well at both international The goals of the course are:
and national levels, we will achieve the best results.
• To develop greater understanding of copyright by librarians
The relevance of copyright to libraries wasn’t always recognised by providing copyright training tailored to the needs of
because the connection with day-to-day library activities was librarians in developing and transitioning countries.
not fully understood. This is changing, however, and eIFL-IP • To support librarians’ mission (participation to the access
librarians are becoming more aware and thus are more active. to knowledge movement).
Once this connection is made, the importance of advocating • To help librarians answer copyright questions they face
for better copyright laws will be better understood. during their work.
• To help librarians answer users’ questions on their rights
Good activists are in short supply so it is disappointing to lose (professors, students, general public).
trained people due to changes in jobs or through emigration. • To empower librarians to advise governments and other
We rely almost entirely on volunteers which limits our ability public policy makers and initiatives toward balanced
to make too onerous demands or to enforce deadlines. copyright law.
The project lead Melanie Dulong de Rosnay, Berkman
Fellow, has been legal lead for CC France since 2003..
A meeting of international experts in libraries, copyright,
distance learning and developing countries took place at the
Berkman Center 17-18 April 2008 to provide advice on the and educational materials) and by encouraging authors
structure, methodology and the content of the course as well within the countries to publish their articles in Open Access
as its sustainability. journals. eIFL-OA Program seeks to enhance access and
use of research findings, increase the efficiency of research
How important is this and other collaborative developments, and accelerate use and innovation—stimulating
relationships to your work? Are you reaching out to the economy. To achieve this, we apply the developing
additional partners? What types of organizations practices of Open Access as defined by the Budapest Open
are key to your efforts? Access Initiative (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/). The
same practices became the foundation for the recently
Collaboration is very important as our agenda and wishes launched Cape Town Open Education Declaration:
are great and we can not accomplish everything by Unlocking the promise of open educational resources
ourselves. There are certain movements and program areas (http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/).
that require strong advocacy, and for this, more voices are
better. This applies to our activities in Open Access (OA), Among other things, ccLearn is focused on educating
Intellectual Property (IP) and Free and Open Source (FOSS). people about the importance of legal and technical
Some of our programs are more advanced than others as interoperability for open education. What are your
we launched them in different years. Our newest program is thoughts on this? What other activities do you
on FOSS; we started it only last fall. We have quite a long think should be priorities for ccLearn (and Creative
list of NGO partners in IP, which were built due to our strong Commons) with respect to open education?
presence at WIPO. We are building more partnerships in
OA and FOSS this year. Yes, legal and technical interoperability is extremely
important for open education. We encourage educators,
Iryna: Our target audience is scholars and researchers, scholars and students to use open technologies that facilitate
doctors and lawyers, students and teachers. And in Open collaborative, flexible learning and the open sharing. We
Access projects we set alliances with human rights groups, advocate for Creative Commons Attribution Licenses used
environmental organizations, patient groups demanding by a number of open access projects, e.g. The Public Library
access to government information, Internet activists of Science (PLoS) - a non-profit organization of scientists
(Wikipedia communities, Creative Commons, etc.) modeling and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific
the approach of the Alliance for Tax Payers Access (a and medical literature a public resource. Everything they
diverse and growing alliance of organizations representing publish is freely available online to read, download, copy,
taxpayers, patients, physicians, researchers, and institutions distribute, and use (with attribution) any way one wishes.
that support open public access to taxpayer-funded research). Creative Commons did a lot for the free culture movements
We are working closely with SPARC and SPARC Europe, around the world. These approaches should be adjusted
EurOpenScholar, DRIVER project, Electronic Publishing Trust, now for the educators and learners encouraging them to
BioLine International, Association of Research Libraries, practice open education and raising their awareness about
Stichting SURF, Dutch collaborative organization for Higher open content licences. Raising awareness and sharing good
Education and Research on IT, Directory of Open Access examples and advocacy are key elements to the success of
Journals, and we are also glad to start working with ccLearn the Open Education movement.
and Creative Commons International (and iCommons).
Endnotes
Like ccLearn, eIFL is a project that is involved with 1 http://www.eifl.net/
the Open Education Movement. How would you
2 http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa
define the Open Education Movement, and what
3 http://www.soros.org/
role does eIFL play in it?
4 http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-ip
The goal of the Open Education movement is to create a 5 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/
world where each and every person on earth can access
and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. This goal
can be reached by developing a vast pool of educational
resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. eIFL
Open Access (OA) Program encourages sharing of research
publications and educational materials.
Through the eIFL OA Program, eIFL members build capacity
of the issues related to OA to enable members to benefit from
the content, which is made freely available through OA, as
well as ensuring that the local content produced within their
countries is widely distributed. This is accomplished through
the development of open repositories (for the research papers
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
35
36
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
7 < How to free your facts 5 < Introducing the Health Commons
a license represent these complex norms and traditions? We the spectrum. It is also too complex for public, private, or non-
don’t think so. profit organizations alone - reinventing therapy development
for the networked world requires, from the beginning, a
Imposing licensing on data creates all kinds of unanticipated commitment to public-private partnership. Only through a
problems. If you have a database with thousands or public-private partnership can the key infrastructure of the
hundreds of thousands of pieces of facts, does each fact Commons be created: the investments in the public domain of
have to come with their own attribution and licensing data? information and materials will only be realized if that public
How do we aggregate and recombine such data? If we use domain is served by a private set of systems integrators and
a tiny piece of that data to make an assertion about the materials, tools and service providers motivated by profit.
world–to carry on a discourse–do you still have to attribute, And in turn, the long-term success of the private sector
and how far does that obligation go? In the future, will every depends on a growing, robust, and self-replenishing public
database need its own database of attribution? Will every domain of data, research tools, and open source software.
book need another book in which every word and idea and
fact comes with its own genealogy detailing how it made its
way through various databases, web sites and so on? 27 < VIA Releases OpenBook
Endnotes
This problem, which we call “attribution stacking,” can saddle 1 http://tinyurl.com/6xs5r2
science with an unbearable administrative burden. It could 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
shut down present and future sites that aggregate and federate 3 http://www.viaopenbook.com/index.php?option=com_
data from many different sources. It could stifle entire fields of content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=1
research that rely on summarizing, annotating, translating and 4 http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2008/05/now-
integrating many different kinds and sources data. have-you-he.html
5 http://gizmodo.com/393223/is-vias-openbook-the-next-little-
big-thing-in-umpcs
The solution: use a waiver for factual data, not a
6 http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/05/27/via-launches-open-
license or contract source-notebook/
7 http://eeepc.asus.com/
Can licensing facts create its own technological absurdities? 8 http://laptop.org/
We think it can, and it will unless we resist the impulse to 9 http://www.classmatepc.com/
license. We think the best answer is to go back to what 10 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8095
scientists themselves have been doing for centuries: giving 11 http://openmoko.com/
attribution without legal requirements. We think Congress 12 http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Hardware:Neo1973:Alternate_
Cases
got it right when it excluded facts and ideas from copyright
13 http://intellinuxgraphics.org/
protection. And we think it should stay that way, even when
those facts happen to get incorporated into databases. That’s
why we published the Science Commons Data Protocol[11]
and the accompanying FAQ.
We hope that if you are preparing to publish a compilation
of factual data, you will choose to waive any rights to the
data, whatever they may be.
Endnotes
1 http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/overview.htm
2 http://mndoci.com/blog/2008/05/11/the-open-data-licensing-issue/
3 http://www.opendatacommons.org/odc-public-domain-dedication-and-
licence/
4 http://labs.creativecommons.org/license/zero/
5 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License
7 http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/nguyen/
8 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/102.html
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_the_legal_protection_of_
databases
10 http://sciencecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/freedom-to-research.pdf
11 http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-
protocol/
12 http://sciencecommons.org/resources/faq/database-protocol/
ccLearn
ccLearn Monthly Update 21 May 2008
by Ahrash Bissell
21 May 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8303
Work on tools and resources that we hope will help to practices that define our collective work. We continue to
enable engagement with open education continues here engage with all interested parties, spanning commercial and
at ccLearn. We’re getting into the testing phase for the non-commercial efforts, pre-K through lifelong learners, and
Universal Education Search project,[1] and we are currently all manner of initiatives that strive to improve educational
writing a first report on licensing policy diversity[2] among access and opportunity worldwide.
open educational projects and web sites.
Our resources pages[4] continue to grow, and hopefully
ccLearn attended the Berkman at 10 anniversary conference[3] questions and concerns you might have about the open
in Boston this month. Creative Commons was essentially education movement are addressed there. If you have a
birthed at the Berkman Center (Harvard University), so the specific question or comment, or some suggestions for
ten year anniversary provides an interesting reference point additional useful resources for our site, please do not hesitate
for considering how things have changed in that time. It is to contact us.[5]
safe to say that practically everything has changed, at least
with respect to the relationship of society and the Internet. Spring seems to be flying by!
For many people, the Internet is no longer a special feature
of computing; instead, it IS computing. As social networks,
Endnotes
mobile computing, and digital media become ever more 1 http://learn.creativecommons.org/projects/oesearch
integrated into our daily lives, the question of what we want
2 http://learn.creativecommons.org/projects/network
that landscape to look like becomes ever more important.
3 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/berkmanat10
Is this a landscape of blockades and digital hazards,
4 http://learn.creativecommons.org/resources/
dominated by litigation and enforcement of a code that was
developed over many years of pre-digital societies? Or is this 5 mailto:cclearn-info@creativecommons.org
a landscape of open pathways and possibilities, predicated
on the notion that openness and transparency drive diversity
and opportunity. Obviously, we here at ccLearn opt for the
latter option.
We hope that everyone who discovers ccLearn and the open
education movement will help in spreading the ideas and
We rely on our supporters to continue our work enabling http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http://creativecommons.
stories like those listed above. Check it out — org/weblog/rss
Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the
Donate: http://support.creativecommons.org/donate generous support of organizations including the Center for
the Public Domain, the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller
CC Store: http://support.creativecommons.org/store Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
Subscribe to the CC Weblog: as well as members of the public.
http://bloglines.com/sub/http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons newsletters are also posted to the CC
weblog/rss Weblog. For back issues please visit http://creativecommons.
h t t p: //g o o g l e . c o m /r e a d e r/v i e w/ f e e d / h t t p: // org/weblog/
creativecommons.org/weblog/rss
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 7
37