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N E W S L E T T E
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8 R
http://creativecommons.org Issue No. 8 August 20081
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CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
Message
Dear All, As a CC supporter, you know this story - you
know the commons is growing. So over the last
Almost six (I know — six!) years ago, Creative two issues of this newsletter I’ve tried to bring
Commons was launched with a “simple” you stories and information that you may not
goal - to help build a pool of content of every know. Glimpses inside the world of CC (the
material-type that anyone could access. organization) of what we are doing to help
In order to do this, we empowered you — the YOU continue to build the commons — and
citizen publishers of the Web — by providing this newsletter is no different, as it highlights
the legal and technical tools needed to help the work of Eric Steuer — our Creative Director
you take advantage of all that the internet who is working ceaselessly to help make CC as
has to offer. And because of you and your user-friendly and ubiquitous as possible. Alex Roberts. “Melissa
Reeder.” CC BY 3.0
contributions over the years, the commons is
thriving. Millions of digital objects are under As always, if you have any suggestions for how
CC licenses — 75 million photographs on I can make this newsletter any better, please
Flickr alone. Hundreds of scholarly and let me know. Melissa Reeder
scientific journals, open educational resources, Development Manager
architectural drawings, scientific illustrations, All the best, Creative Commons
songs, blogs, novels and movies.
News Flash
On Aug. 13th, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the leading IP court in the U.S.), held that “Open
Source” or public license licensors are entitled to copyright infringement relief, agreeing with a brief submitted by Creative
Commons and several other organizations. This is huge for Creative Commons and the open movement.
Read more at http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8826
Contents
3 Inside Scoop 15 *50 Millionth View of TEDTalks
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8410
ccCore *ccLearn (bi)monthly update - July 18, 2008
5 Esther Wojcicki Joins Creative Commons Board! http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8495
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8470
6 Creative Commons Launches Collaborative Global Case CC Points of Interest
Studies Project 16 *Google Code adds content licensing; Google Knol launches
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8396 with CC BY default
8 Incorporating content license information just made easier http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8506
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8507 *LibriVox: 1500 public domain audio books
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8327
Backgrounds are derivatives of Joi Ito’s “tiles” http://flickr.com/photos/
CCi 17 *The Onion’s AV Club talks CC Publishing with Cory
9 Case Studies - The Book! Doctorow
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8599 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8360
10 Experts in Norway adapt CC licenses to national law *Doctorow: First CC-Licensed Work on NYT Best Sellers
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8335 List/New Graphic Novel
11 Australian Version 3.0 drafts in public discussion http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8351
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8373 18 *George Eastman House, Bibliothèque de Toulouse Join Flickr
12 Singapore proudly celebrates the launch of the localized Commons
Creative Commons Licenses http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8497
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8521 *VIA’s OpenBook Project Takes Off, Wins International
Award
Science Commons http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8401
13 Announcing the Health Commons 19 From Open Software to Open Music
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8358 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8354
20 The Smithsonian Joins Flickr: The Commons
joi/1734721/ CC BY 2.0
ccLearn http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8381
14 *Digital Research Tools (DiRT) Wiki Launched 21 The Spirit of Sharing in Jordan
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8339 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8368
*Agrega, the New Educational Digital Object Platform 22 Featured Commoner: CASH Music
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8377 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8602
24 Gilberto Gil on Democracy Now
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8405
The Inside Scoop
Culture Commons
Eric Steuer, Creative Commons’ Creative Director
As the creative director of Creative Commons, I help guide
CC’s strategy for increasing the amount, breadth, and quality
of creative work available to the public for free and legal use,
sharing, and remixing. There are several key components of
this work; each plays a role in helping Creative Commons
succeed in getting more (and better) cultural material added
into the commons.
I work with websites, technology companies, and media
sharing platforms to implement CC-licensing tools inside their
systems. Flickr is a great example of how sites that offer the
easy ability to attach Creative Commons licenses to content
are immensely useful in growing the commons. By current
count, there are more than 77 million Flickr photos under Joi Ito. “Eric Steuer” http://flickr.com/photos/joi/2455373456
CC licenses. This an incredible number, and this success is CC BY 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
largely due to the fact that Flickr offers a simple and intuitive
interface for adding CC licenses to photos, as well as very launch an art and music exhibit (it’s both a live, physical
clear messaging about how Creative Commons works. installation that will travel, as well as an online exhibition)
called Into Infinity (check it out at http://intoinfinity.org). All
A handful of recent interesting implementations of CC- of the works in Into Infinity are licensed under CC BY-NC.
licensing tools in this same fashion include Lingro We have reached out to hundreds of artists and musicians
(a collaboratively-built multilingual dictionary under CC BY- for submissions; in the process of directly bringing new and
SA), Obama in 30 Seconds (a project encouraging the public interesting creative work into the commons, we are exposing
to create Barack Obama campaign ads under CC BY-NC- influential creators to the Creative Commons approach
SA), Zhura (a screenwriting website that offers CC licensing to copyright. In turn, we hope that they will expose their
options to users to enable easy collaboration), GreenYour. communities, friends, and fans to more open and permissive
com (a user-developed database of simple ways to make ways of creating and distributing work.
your everyday choices more environmentally friendly), and
Rifflet (a site where musicians can post unfinished songs for I also spend time presenting Creative Commons’ goals and
others to hear, build upon, and rework). mission in public fora, including panels, conferences, and
media. With this work, I intend to educate influential “point
I also work with musicians, filmmakers, and artists to figure out people” about Creative Commons, so that they are equipped
the best ways to incorporate CC licenses into their releases to share what they have learned about CC with others. As
and projects. A few recent examples of high profile creators one of the leading organizations that deals with intellectual
that have used CC licenses include Loops (choreography by property issues, Creative Commons is routinely invited to
master dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham that is provide expertise in the media and at high profile events
released under CC BY-NC-SA), Tracey: Re-Fragmented (the and conferences. Some of the most fruitful relationships we
online counterpart of the film The Tracey Fragments, where have made — and some of the most important projects we
all of the film’s footage and music (performed by the excellent have developed — have come as a result of being at events
band Broken Social Scene) are available under CC BY-NC- where companies and creators go to interface with people
SA for people to use for their own endeavors), and NOVA’s and learn about new approaches to making, distributing,
Car of the Future project (where PBS and NOVA released and monetizing creative work.
240 clips of raw footage from the making of their Car of the
Future documentary under CC BY-NC).
As part of our outreach work, Creative Commons has
become more active in creating, curating, and producing
CC-licensed media projects. Most notably, we are about to
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
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Inside Scoop
Recent success stories from CC users
Nine Inch Nails The samples, which have only been online for a few months,
have already been downloaded and used thousands of
Contrary to what many people believe, giving the world times. While this is great in and of itself, of even more value
instant, free, and legal access to cultural material is not the to the world is the fact that this project provides a simple
death knell for industries like the music business. In fact, the model for creating freely usable libraries of high quality
freedoms that CC licenses facilitate actually provide myriad cultural material. Inspired by the OLPC project, there are
new opportunities for commercializing creativity. new efforts under way to create similar libraries of CC BY-
licensed photography and clip art geared towards kids (but
Creative Commons works closely with musicians and that can be also used by the general public).
music businesses to develop innovative new models for
distributing creativity. While there are a variety of examples Media That Matters film festival
of how our work in this regard has paid off, an obvious
recent success story involves Nine Inch Nails, one of the The Media that Matters film festival showcases short movies,
world’s most loved bands. Nine Inch Nails licensed its documentaries, music videos, animations, and experimental
two most recent albums under CC BY-NC-SA licenses, as a work addressing social themes ranging from gay rights
way of engaging with fans more freely and more directly. to global warming. All of the films are created by young
The albums were downloaded millions upon millions of filmmakers (many of whom are under 21) who are looking for
times over the ensuing months, and tracks from the albums their work and ideas to be exposed as broadly as possible.
were subsequently shared on blogs, remixed and mashed-
up, and used as source material for new creative works Arts Engine, the non-profit that organizes and hosts the
many times over. Meanwhile, the band made millions of festival, releases the films after the festival under a CC BY-
dollars from selling CDs and merchandise associated with NC-ND license and also sells region-free unencrypted CC-
the releases, proving that the reputational and publicity licensed DVDs of all the films that can be shown in any non-
benefits of making music available to the world for free commercial setting. The organization uses CC licensing to
and legal sharing, remixing, and reuse can be incredibly promote the festival, films, and filmmakers to people outside
good business. of New York, who would be unlikely to be able to attend the
festival in person. A short from the Media That Matters film
This development is critical, as it signifies to music fans — festival, entitled “A Girl Like Me,” recently made its way on to
and perhaps, most importantly, to other creators — that CC The Oprah Winfrey Show, and has since racked up almost a
licenses are not just soft expressions but hard legal tools million views on YouTube.
used by serious artists as important components of emerging
business models. Since the Nine Inch Nails releases, CC
licenses have been built into the business models that power
recent projects by well-known musicians like Radiohead,
Deerhoof, and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears.
OLPC sound samples
The One Laptop Per Child project has organized a giant
sound library with more than 7000 sound samples that
have been donated by institutions like the Berklee College
of Music and companies like digital audio software makers
M-Audio and Digidesign. The samples are released under a
CC BY license so that kids can use them to learn about music
and musicmaking. They’re also, of course, available to adults
around the world, who are encouraged to use them freely
and legally for teaching, demos, and creating music.
ccCore
Esther Wojcicki Joins Creative Commons Board!
by Tim Hwang
10 July 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8470
http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8469
Great news being released today that Esther Wojcicki,
prominent education innovator, has officially joined the
Creative Commons board! We’re thrilled (and lucky) to get
her experience and advice on all our developing education
related initiatives.
Education Innovator Esther Wojcicki Joins Creative
Commons Board Joi Ito. “Esther Wojcicki” http://flickr.com/photos/joi/2593396471
CC BY 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Creative Commons (CC), a global non-profit focused on
the preservation and growth of an openly shareable and Google Teacher Outreach Program and Google Teacher
remixable media landscape, officially announced today Academy, a professional development event which trains
that education innovator Esther Wojcicki has joined its teachers to leverage innovative technologies to enhance
Board of Directors. their classrooms.
Wojcicki has been a prominent figure in American Wojcicki joins a board of directors that includes technologist
education. As the leading mind behind the creation of Joi Ito, cyberlaw and intellectual property experts James Boyle,
the country’s largest high school journalism program, she Michael Carroll, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, Eric Saltzman,
has won numerous awards, including the prestigious title and Lawrence Lessig, MIT computer science professor Hal
of Teacher of the Year from the California State Teacher Abelson, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, documentary
Credentialing Commission. Most recently, she received filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, and Public Knowledge founder
special recognition for her work from the National Scholastic Laurie Racine.
Press Association.
More About Esther Wojcicki
“We’re truly excited to have Esther on board. Her presence
marks an important step in the developing role Creative Esther Wojcicki has been teaching Journalism and English
Commons seeks to play in supporting open educational at Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, California for the past
content” commented Joi Ito, CEO of CC, “Her experience 25 years, where she has been the driving force behind the
and advice will be an invaluable part of shaping our future development of its award-winning journalism program.
in that arena. It is now the largest high school journalism program in
the U.S involving 400 students. All the publications can
Esther Wojcicki said, “I am thrilled to be joining the be found at http://voice.paly.net which is the school
talented team of directors, advisors, and staff at Creative publication website.
Commons, whose collaborative efforts are supporting
the expansion of the public domain. I look forward to In the spring of 2008, she was recognized for inspiration
applying my experience in education and technology, and and excellence in scholastic journalism advising by the
am eager to work closely with the Board as this pioneering National Scholastic Press Association. She has won multiple
organization continues to grow.” awards throughout the years. A couple of others included
the 1990 Northern California Journalism teacher of the
Wojcicki has also been a key pioneer in exploring the year in 1990 and California State Teacher Credentialing
emerging interface between education and technology.
She helped lay the groundwork for the design of the Esther Wojcicki > 25
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ccCore
Creative Commons Launches Collaborative
Global Case Studies Project
by Jon Phillips CC’s CEO, Joi Ito, said in the press release for this project[3]
23 June 2008 that it is important to realize that CC is not just a “cute
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8396 idea,” but a crucial fact in the success of many businesses,
artists, authors, and professionals. So, highlighted in
the Case Studies Project[4] are examples such as the
Blender Foundation[5] and their success with applying[6]
Creative Commons Attribution licenses[7] to both of their
Open Source 3D animations.[8] Also, there are specific
highlights on authors like NYTimes bestselling author[9]
Cory Doctorow’s overall usage of CC[10] to support the
dissemination of his books, all the way to detailed case
studies about Luxembourg-based (but global!) Jamendo[11]
and of course studies on Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I–IV[12] and
The Slip album releases.[13] Remember: The goal is to focus
on the story of these successes.
We need your help.
We didn’t want to just build a system that is static like many
corporate case studies that one might get at a conference
and immediately chuck into the bin. Rather, we built this on
top of our Semantic MediaWiki-based wiki[14] (highlighted
in the /participate page[15] above) so that there is a simple
human-readable form for adding and editing case studies
that anyone out there may use. Since the system is a structured
wiki, the data part of the system is sortable, queryable, and
mashable. For example, here is a sort through the entire
system alphabetically[16] with four columns: pagename,
Author, media format and country of the project.
This is an invitation to hop over to the Case Studies project[17]
right now, and help us make this project super solid. We need
more case studies from around the world in any language.
And, if you speak more than one language, please help
by translating the case studies.[18] If there is something that
bugs you about it, then help us out by committing: its a wiki!
Poster by Blender Foundation (http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/), CC If you really want to be a saint, then direct your energy as
BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). well to our public roadmap for the project,[19] jump onto our
cc-community mailing list[20] to express interest, and chat with
Over the past few months several of us at Creative Commons us on our IRC chat channel.
have been collaborating with our colleagues at Creative
Commons Australia[1] to create a collaborative system for And, if that is not enough incentive to participate, Creative
promoting the great CC stories that will help the world Commons Australia today has released at the Creative
understand how great Creative Commons licenses are for Commons Australia conference, “Building an Australasian
creative works. To highlight the global nature of this launch, Commons,”[21] a printed booklet with 60 case studies from
it coincides with the CC Australia’s conference today (June this system all professionally designed. There will be more
24, 2008), “Building an Australasian Commons”[2] where printings of these case studies in the future, which might
this project is to be presented. include your contributions.
Look for presentations about this project at upcoming
conferences this summer, where newly added case studies
will be highlighted on big projectors. Look for this project at
Communia/CC Europe meetings June 30-July 1 in Belgium,[22]
FSCONS on October 25-26 in Gothenburg, Sweden[23] and
other conferences focusing on the local and global.
Hats off as well to all those who have helped including
the project party: Jessica Coates, Rachel Cobcroft, Elliot
Bledsoe,[24] Timothy Vollmer,[25] Cameron Parkins,[26] Tim
Hwang,[27] Greg Grossmeier,[28] and Michelle Thorne.[29]
There are many more that have helped as well. If you help,
you get plugged!
Joi Ito. “Cory Doctorow” http://flickr.com/photos/joi/2196901054/
Please help us by spreading the word on this project, blogging CC BY 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
about Case Studies, and adding more to the system.
Endnotes
1 http://creativecommons.org.au/ 17 http://creativecommons.org/projects/casestudies
2 http://creativecommons.org.au/australasiancommons 18 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcWiki:Translate
3 http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8397 19 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Casestudies_roadmap
4 http://creativecommons.org/projects/casestudies 20 http://creativecommons.org/contact
5 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Blender_Foundation 21 http://creativecommons.org.au/australasiancommons
6 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8203 22 http://communia-project.eu/conf2008
7 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 23 http://fscons.org/
8 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5846 24 http://creativecommons.org.au/about
9 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8351 25 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8355
10 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Cory_Doctorow 26 http://superhumanoids.com/
11 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Jamendo_Study 27 http://www.fabulousbitches.org/
12 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Nine_Inch_Nails_Ghosts_I-IV 28 http://konsilience.wordpress.com/
13 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Nine_Inch_Nails_The_Slip 29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Thorne_(Creative_
14 http://semantic-mediawiki.org/ Commons)
15 http://creativecommons.org/participate
16 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/
Special:Ask/-5B-5BCategory:Casestudy-5D-
5D/%3FAuthor/%3FFormat/%3FCountry/sort%3D/
order%3DASC
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ccCore
Incorporating content license information just made easier
by Greg Grossmeier functionality to read and write license information into
23 July 2008 many supported media files. Along with access to license
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8507 information, the library offers a standard set of icons for
graphical representation of selected or discovered licenses.
As Creative Commons’ international team refreshes the
licenses or adds a new jurisdiction, software developers can
Creative Commons has announced the release of two simply update liblicense to receive these changes. Currently,
very important tools for the developer community. These liblicense is distributed with development versions of the
tools, liblicense and LicenseChooser.js, provide simple and Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora Linux operating systems. The
standard ways of reading or writing license information to LGPL license permits adding it to both open source and
a variety of files. proprietary software.
liblicense is specifically geared towards the desktop “LicenseChooser.js and liblicense will make open content
application developer who wants to use license information licensing more valuable for developers, publishers, and
in media files but does not want to implement the low-level users, by making such content more discoverable and
code themselves. LicenseChooser.js, however, is designed to manageable” said Mike Linksvayer, Vice President of
be used in web applications such as a media sharing site for Creative Commons.
users’ pictures or music.
One prominent project incorporating the use of liblicense
Both of these software packages aim to make the lives of the in an upcoming release is One Laptop Per Child (OLPC).
developers’ easier. One way in which that is accomplished is While the OLPC project wiki already uses Creative
that these tools will continue to be updated as new versions Commons Attribution 3.0 licenses for contributions, Creative
of Creative Commons licenses are released thus moving Commons has introduced licensing functionality for the XO
the burden from the developer to Creative Commons. laptops through the development of liblicense and a series
of patches to be integrated. Once it is installed, it allows
There will be a public demonstration of liblicense at OSCON software interfacing with media on the device to be content
on July 24th. license aware. Also, to explain Creative Commons licensing
and the basics of copyright law, Creative Commons has
Creative Commons Launches Web and Desktop created an educational licensing activity that anyone may
License Integration Approach with LicenseChooser. install onto an OLPC XO laptop. This activity uses the
js and liblicense Projects previously released “Sharing Creative Works” comics.
Creative Commons announced today the release of For web applications, Creative Commons has developed
liblicense and LicenseChooser.js, content licensing tools LicenseChooser.js, which allows developers to add
which make integration of Creative Commons license similar functionality into any web-based project. Creative
functionality easy for developers building modern desktop Commons already provided an XML-based web services
and web applications. These tools enable reading and API. LicenseChooser.js provides an additional, lightweight
writing Creative Commons licensing information to a variety method for integrating license selection into web
of media formats. Many projects already support the ability applications. The widget is used by SixApart’s TypePad
to read and write content license information through add- as well as the WordPress plugin WpLicense.
ons, including OpenOffice.org, Adobe Creative Suite and
Microsoft Office. Other programs, such as the open source Today, liblicense will be demonstrated at this year’s Open
vector graphics drawing tool Inkscape, include a default Source Conference (OSCON) in Portland, OR. Integration
capability to read and write CC license information. with two Open Source applications will be showcased: the
file viewer Eye of GNOME and media player Rhythmbox.
For the desktop, Creative Commons has updated the C The presentation will be given by Nathan Yergler, CTO
language-based software library called liblicense. This
Free Software (licensed under GNU LGPL) library provides Content License Information > 25
CCi
Case Studies - The Book!
by Greg Grossmeier
29 July 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8599
If you have only been Endnotes
reading the updates 1 http://creativecommons.org/projects/Casestudies
on the international 2 http://creativecommons.org.au/
Creative Commons 3 http://creativecommons.org.au/materials/Building_an_
blog (this one) about Australasian_Commons_book.pdf
the Case Studies 4 http://creativecommons.org/projects/Casestudies
project,[1] you have
been missing some
important news.
Creative Commons
Australia,[2] the
leaders in the Case
Study project, have
just released the
first draft version
of the Case Studies
book pdf: Building
an Australasian Commons.[3] This is one high quality book
that show cases all of the Australian Case Studies. A huge
“Congrats!” goes to Rachel Cobcroft and everyone else who
has put so much time into this project and produced such a
wonderful tool for all to use.
If you like this book enough that you want to print your own
copy, go for it! However, for those of you that will want to
print a large number of these my advice is to wait; there will
be a newer, more finalized version soon which will make
some changes you will want.
Now, go add your own Case Studies to the project wiki[4] so
that the next version might have YOUR case study included!
Original Creative Commons Australia announcement at
http://creativecommons.org.au/node/180.
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Experts in Norway adapt CC licenses to national law
by Michelle Thorne “To achieve this, we have
5 June 2008 been going through a
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8335 process of adapting the
http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8334 international license to
Norwegian copyright
legislation. During this
Today the Nordic jurisdictions Denmark,[1] Finland,[2] and process, we have worked
Sweden[3] are joined by CC Norway[4] in offering Creative together with community
Commons licenses legally and linguistically adapted to stakeholders and copyright experts to reach a result that
national law. both reflects the spirit of Creative Commons and the letter
of Norwegian copyright law.”
The CC Norway team is headed by Project Leads Gisle
Hannemyr and Peter Lenda, who with Haakon Flage The launch event will be held as a press conference at Oslo
Bratsberg, Thomas Gramstad, Tore Hoel, and Vebjørn University College on June 6th at 10:00 am. The Creative
Søndersrød, coordinated the license porting process[5] with Commons Norway team will be present and give a brief
Creative Commons International[6] and conducted public presentation about Creative Commons and the licenses
discussion with local and international legal experts. translated into Norwegian. The team will also be available
to answer questions.
The Norwegian licenses,[7] available at Version 3.0,[8]
constitute the forty-sixth localized Creative Commons Norway is the forty-sixth jurisdiction worldwide to port the
licensing suite. Creative Commons licensing suite.
The launch of the licenses will be celebrated on Friday, About Oslo University College
June 6th at 10:00am during a press conference at Oslo
University College.[9] For more information, please read our Oslo University College is a young, dynamic institution
press release[10] in English and Norwegian. based on strong traditions. It was established in 1994 when
the Norwegian college system was restructured and 18
Takk, thank you, and congratulations to CC Norway! smaller colleges in the Oslo area merged. Oslo University
College offers the broadest portfolio of professional studies
Experts in Norway adapt CC licenses to national available in Norway. OUC is a dynamic institution based
law / Eksperter i Norge tilpasser CC-lisenser til on strong traditions in professional education and research.
nasjonal lovgivning With 11,000 students, OUC is the fourth largest educational
institution in Norway. For more information about Oslo
The Creative Commons Norway team has successfully University College, please visit: http://www.hio.no/content/
ported the Creative Commons licensing suite to Norwegian view/full/4563.
law. The localized licenses will be unveiled today at a press
conference at Oslo University College. Endnotes
1 http://creativecommons.dk/
The team responsible for coordinating the porting process 2 http://creativecommons.fi/etusivu
and public discussion with local and international legal 3 http://creativecommons.se/
experts consists of Haakon Flage Bratsberg, Thomas 4 http://creativecommons.no/
Gramstad, Gisle Hannemyr (Public Project Lead), Tore Hoel, 5 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Worldwide_Overview#The_
Peter Lenda (Legal Project Lead), and Vebjørn Søndersrød. porting_process
6 http://creativecommons.org/international
“We have taken the initiative to launch the Creative 7 http://creativecommons.org/license/?lang=no
Commons licenses in Norway to promote new forms of 8 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_3
production, sharing and distribution of creative works,” 9 http://www.hio.no/content/view/full/4563
explains the team’s Public Project Lead, Gisle Hannemyr. 10 http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8334
CCi
Australian Version 3.0 drafts in public discussion
by Michelle Thorne
18 June 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8373
In preparation for the Building an Australasian Commons[1]
conference next week, the CC Australia team has released
two ported Version 3.0 license drafts for public discussion:
Attribution (BY)[2] and Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike “ccauv3.0-feedback” © 2008. Creative Commons Australia. Some
(BY-NC-SA).[3] Rights Reserved. This work is licensed under CC BY 2.5 Australia
License. (http://creativecommons.org/weblog/licenses/by/2.5/au)
CC Australia is focusing the discussion on these two
particular licenses because they are 1) the simplest license This includes another neat idea:
(BY) and 2) the most complex (BY-NC-SA). These two licenses
also contain almost all the relevant legal language from the The main feature is a series of lists that set out clearly
remaining four licenses (BY-SA, BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-NC-ND). what users can do, what they can’t do, and what they
must do. Other than that, they contain the same basic
CC Australia has done a magnificent job in explaining[4] statements as to disclaimers, warranties and introductory
their approach to Version 3.0[5] and highlighting some key materials that are included in all the CC licences.
revisions (see also)[6]:
As did the other jurisdictions who have implemented Version
Rather than writing the licences as a straight translation 3.0, CC Australia is working hard to ensure that their ported
from the Unported[7] (ie non-country specific) licences licenses align with the Unported licenses. One notable
provided by Creative Commons International,[8] we’ve exception affects the strict requirement to include a URL link
instead decided to base them on the excellent licences[9] to the respective CC license every time a work is used. CC
produced last year by our friends in New Zealand,[10] Australia explains the change:
which they in turn based on the England and Wales[11]
licences. The great thing about these licences is that they’re We’ve followed the UK and NZ example by loosening
written in plain English rather than legalese - which means this up a bit, to allow you to provide this reference to
they’re much easier for non-lawyers to understand. the licence in any manner reasonable to the medium you
are working in. This ensures, for example, that someone
There have also been some modifications to improve the playing a song on their radio station can attribute the CC
readability of the licenses: licence just by mentioning it, and perhaps providing a link
on the station’s website, without breaching the licence.
We’re also adding some clarifying language on the You could arguably do this under the Unported licence
licensing of derivative works to the BY and BY-NC too, but we wanted to make it clear.
(Attribution-Noncommercial) licences which isn’t in either
the Unported licences or the New Zealand licences - so The community is discussing these issues and more on CC
we wanted to see what people thought about this. Australia’s mailing list.[12] Come join the conversation!
Like the New Zealand and UK licences we are basing
the new Australian licences on, our v3.0 licences are
very simply drafted. A lot of the language is drawn
directly from the Unported licences, however it has been
simplified and rearranged to make it easier to understand
and follow.
Australian Version 3.0 > 25
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
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CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
CCi
Singapore proudly celebrates the launch of the localized Creative
Commons Licenses
by Patricia Escalera The panel will, in addition,
25 July 2008 explain the aims and
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8521 philosophy of the Creative
Commons initiative and
the specific nature and
uses of the Creative
We are delighted to announce the successful localization Commons licensing suite
of the Creative Commons licenses in Singapore,[1] the in Singapore. Stanford
47th worldwide to do so. The CC Singapore team, led by law professor and Creative Commons founder Lawrence
Associate Professor Samtani Anil and Assistant Professor Lessig will address the audience to commemorate the
Giorgios Cheliotis, has worked under the auspices of the completion of the licenses.
Centre for Asia Pacific Technology Law & Policy (CAPTEL)[2]
and in collaboration with Creative Commons International Following the event, the CC Singapore team hopes to initiate
to port the licenses to Singaporean law. a series of educational talks to explain the philosophy of
Creative Commons and the practical ways in which users
The launch event will be celebrated on Sunday, July 27, can implement the licenses.
at the International Symposium on Electronic Art.[3] The
ceremony will be followed by several panels organized by Project Lead Samtani Anil adds, “We also believe the
CATPEL and Creative Commons Singapore on copyright launch of the Singapore CC licenses will lead to a better
issues in digital media and a keynote address from appreciation of the ambit, contours, and limits of the
Professor Lawrence Lessig. For more information we invite existing copyright regime in Singapore in relation to the
you to read our press release.[4] sharing and dissemination of culture and the advancement
of innovation. This, we believe, will sensitize various
Congratulations, CC Singapore! stakeholders to the avenues that are open to them to share
their works in accordance with their wishes and needs.”
Singapore Announces Ported Creative
Commons Licenses The CC Singapore team is supported by team members
Assistant Professor Warren Chik, Vinod Sabnani, Tham Kok
Today Creative Commons Singapore announces the Leong, Lam Chung Nian, Harish Pillay and Ankit Guglani.
completion of the locally ported Creative Commons licensing
suite. In close collaboration with Centre for Asia Pacific About Centre for Asia Pacific Technology Law & Policy
Technology Law & Policy (CAPTEL), the Creative Commons
team in Singapore, led by Associate Professor Samtani The Centre for Asia Pacific Technology Law & Policy
Anil and Assistant Professor Giorgos Cheliotis, adapted (CAPTEL) is a research center founded to investigate and
the licenses both linguistically and legally to Singaporean research issues on how businesses and economies are being
national law. The Creative Commons licenses, now ported affected by the challenges of new technologies on law,
to 47 jurisdictions, enable authors, artists, scientists, and regulation and policy. CAPTEL is located at the Nanyang
educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and Business School, Nanyang Technological University. Please
freedoms in efforts to promote a voluntary “some rights visit http://captel.ntu.edu.sg for more information.
reserved” approach to copyright.
The Singaporean Creative Commons licenses, available Endnotes
soon online, will be celebrated today in Singapore City 1 http://creativecommons.org/international/sg/
at the International Symposium on Electronic Art. The 2 http://captel.ntu.edu.sg/
event will also feature a panel, organized by CAPTEL and 3 http://isea2008singapore.org/conference/conf_panels.html
Creative Commons Singapore, to introduce the audience to 4 http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/8517
key copyright issues in the digital age and also share tips
for creators and users to avoid common pitfalls in the field
of copyright law.
Science Commons
Announcing the Health Commons
by Kaitlin Thaney efficiently, by providing better access to the resources
12 June 2008 that large pharmaceutical companies assemble and
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8358 integrate “in house.” To do this, Health Commons will
facilitate the emergence of a “virtual marketplace,” or
ecosystem, through which participants can more easily
access the data, knowledge, materials and services for
Over on the Science Commons blog,[1] Donna Wentworth[2] accelerating research.
writes:
The components might include databases of the results
People make chairs more productively, hamburgers more of chemical assays, toxicity screens and clinical trials;
productively, cars more productively, everything else in libraries of drugs and chemical compounds; repositories
the world except medicines. — Aled Edwards, Director of biological materials (tissue samples, cell lines,
and CEO of the Structural Genomics Consortium[3] (via molecules); computational models predicting drug
CBC News Canada) efficacies or side effects; and contract services for high-
throughput genomics and proteomics, combinatorial
The drug discovery process is badly broken. Despite the drug screening, animal testing and biostatistics.
scientific and technological advances that make genetic
decoding commonplace, the time it takes to go from gene “The resources offered through the [Health] Commons
target to cure still stands at 17 years. might not necessarily be free, though many could be,”
explains Wilbanks. “However, all would be available under
Science Commons’ mission is to speed the translation of standard pre-negotiated terms and conditions and with
basic research to useful discoveries, and we believe that standardized data formats that eliminate the debilitating
a new approach is necessary to find more cures, faster. delays, legal wrangling and technical incompatibilities
Today, we’re opening up the Health Commons,[4] a project that frustrate scientific collaboration today.”
aimed at bringing the same efficiencies to human health
that the network brought to commerce and culture. Science Commons welcomes your interest in the Health
Commons. If you’d like to collaborate with us to accelerate
The project, founded by Science Commons in drug discovery, we encourage you to contact us.[9]
collaboration with CommerceNet,[5] CollabRx[6] and
the Public Library of Science (PLoS),[7] is introduced in
a 6-minute video presentation and white paper posted Endnotes
on the Science Commons website. The paper, Health 1 http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/
Commons: Therapy Development in a Networked 2 http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/wentworth/
World [PDF],[8] is co-authored by John Wilbanks, Vice 3 http://cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/05/30/f-strauss-
President of Science at Creative Commons, and Marty drugresearch.html
Tenenbaum, an Internet commerce pioneer and founder 4 http://sciencecommons.org/projects/healthcommons/
of CommerceNet and CollabRx. 5 http://www.commerce.net/
6 http://collabrx.com/
“Biomedical knowledge is exploding, and yet the system to 7 http://www.plos.org/
capture that knowledge and translate it into saving human 8 http://sciencecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/health-
commons-whitepaper-launch.pdf
lives still relies on an antiquated and risky strategy of focusing
9 science@creativecommons.org
the vast resources of a few pharmaceutical companies on
just a handful of disease targets,” explains Wilbanks in the
project introduction.
The Health Commons proposes a different approach:
enabling more companies, foundations, laboratories or
even individuals to conduct research on disease targets
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ccLearn
Digital Research Tools (DiRT) Agrega, the New Educational
Wiki Launched Digital Object Platform
by Jane Park by Jane Park
6 June 2008 19 June 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8339 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8377
Thanks to The Wired Campus,[1] I recently stumbled across Agrega,[1] a new educational initiative promoting internet in
this[2] new wiki whilst looking for a visualization tool for a the classroom, is a collaborative effort on the part of the
ccLearn research project. The new wiki is called Digital Spanish Ministry of Education, Social Politics and Sports,
Research Tools, also known as DiRT. DiRT is edited by a team Red.es, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce,
of librarians from Rice University’s Digital Media Center and and the Autonomous Communities and Autonomous Cities of
Sam Houston State University’s Newton Gresham library. Spain (CC.AA). Agrega[2] is Spain’s new educational digital
Basically, DiRT reviews the myriad research tools available object platform, “which consists of a central repository and
for free (and some for profit) on the internet in a human- other autonomous repositories which have educational
readable way, so that “professors, students, think-tankers, content for non-university level centres.” Its emphasis is
corporate intelligence gatherers, and other inquisitive folks on content creation and development for primary and
[can] do their work better.” These “snapshot reviews” are secondary educators by providing a space where various
immensely helpful for even seasoned researchers, since the digital content of Spain’s Civil Service and the private sector
web is always popping up with new open source tools. To are joined. One way of “commonizing” the content is to
see a list of tools in DiRT’s queue and to add your own, check catalogue it under common criteria and thereafter to share
out their del.icio.us[3] page. these cataloguing efforts in Agrega. This will serve to expand
the pool of online educational content available to Spanish
So far, the reviews cover tools that allow you to analyze educators and students, particularly in the fields of finance
texts, author interactive works, collect and visualize data, education and teacher training. The website offers engaging
conduct linguistic research, and more. All current and future tutorials on how to search for, download and view content
reviews are licensed CC BY.[4] on Agrega, in addition to a content catalog.[3]
The digital educational materials in Agrega can be used and
Endnotes adapted according to CC BY-NC-SA.
1 http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3068&utm_
source=wc&utm_medium=en [The above can also be read] in Spanish, thanks to ccLearn
2 http://digitalresearchtools.pbwiki.com/ intern Grace Armstrong.[4]
3 http://delicious.com/tag/tools4research
4 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
Endnotes
1 http://proyectoagrega.es/
2 http://proyectoagrega.es/acerca.php
3 http://proyectoagrega.es/docs/demo_catalogo_agrega.pdf
4 See original post: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/
entry/8377
ccLearn
5 0 M illi o n t h V i e w of ccLearn (bi)monthly update -
TEDTalks July 18, 2008
by Jane Park by Ahrash Bissell
26 June 2008 18 July 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8410 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8495
Today TED announced[1] the 50 millionth view of a TED talk, June slipped by before we knew what was happening, so
marking its success since it first launched online two years ago this is a two-month update. These past two months have
in June of 2006. TED[2] stands for Technology, Entertainment, seen ccLearn giving a presentation at CSU Sacramento
Design—and it features talks by various speakers from Bill relating open education and universal design,[1] attending
Clinton to Bono. However, the most viewed talks are actually the first CC tech summit,[2] and plowing along on the various
given by persons previously unknown. They are ideas projects already underway. Also, we welcomed a summer
“flying on [their] own merit[s]“, says the executive producer intern, Grace Armstrong,[3] who is coordinating with CCi[4]
of TED media according to TEDBlog.[3] Almost half of TED’s and open education leaders in Latin America and beyond
audience comes from outside the U.S., establishing TEDTalks on holding meetings and identifying promising collaborative
as a global presence. TED Curator Chris Anderson says, opportunities. More on this later this summer.
“TED’s mission is to spread ideas, and we’re now doing We have also released a great mapping tool for identifying
that on a scale that was unimaginable two years ago. upcoming open educational events, now found on ccLearn’s
It’s clear there’s an appetite out there for big ideas and home page.[5] What is unique about this tool is that the data
meaningful stories.” are derived from a wiki-table,[6] and anyone can contribute
or edit event info. We encourage you to add any events
Check out the Top 10 TEDTalks[4] of all time; you’ll be relevant to open education that you may be aware of. We
surprised by the speakers and their subjects, with number intend to re-purpose this tool for other mapping exercises
one titled, “My stroke of insight,” by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte as well, and since it is open source, like everything Creative
Taylor. And while you’re at it, check out Richard Baraniuk’s Commons builds, you can also use it for your own mapping
“Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning,”[5] a needs. One idea that has already been discussed is
talk by the founder of Connexions,[6] a leading educational “mapping the open educational space” at the upcoming
platform in the OER movement. iSummit.[7] This exercise could take many forms, and the
open, collaborative nature of the wiki allows for a lot of
All TED talks are licensed[7] under the Creative Commons creativity in how the map takes shape.
license CC BY-NC-ND.[8]
Look for other developments and research projects to come
to fruition in the coming month. The days are getting shorter
Endnotes here in the Northern Hemisphere, but the fire season has
1 http://blog.ted.com/2008/06/50_million_tedt.php just begun.
2 http://www.ted.com/index.php/
3 http://blog.ted.com/
4 http://blog.ted.com/2008/06/counting_down_t.php Endnotes
5 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/richard_baraniuk_on_ 1 http://www.slideshare.net/ahrashb/cclearn-and-universal-
open_source_learning.html design-29-may-2008
6 http://cnx.org/ 2 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Creative_Commons_
7 http://www.ted.com/index.php/help#talks5 Technology_Summit_2008-06-18
8 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ 3 http://creativecommons.org/about/people/#99
4 http://creativecommons.org/international/
5 http://learn.creativecommons.org/
6 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Open_Education_Events
7 http://icommonssummit.org/
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CC Points of Interest
Google Code adds content licensing; Google Knol launches
with CC BY default
by Mike Linksvayer As prior to its launch Knol was often speculatively compared
23 July 2008 to Wikipedia, it should be noted that the default Knol license
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8506 (CC BY) could permit using Knol content in Wikipedia (with
attribution of course), but knols under more restrictive options
could not be incorporated into Wikipedia. On the other
A Google twofer for Creative Commons today! hand Wikipedia content could not be incorporated into
knols (except in the case of fair use of course), even in the
Google Knol[1] opened today, intended to be a platform case Wikipedia migrates to CC BY-SA[8] — Knol doesn’t offer
for authoritative articles about specific topics, also known a copyleft license.
as knols, by a created single author or collaboratively. The
default license for a new knol is CC Attribution.[2] A creator The two CC licenses offered by Google Code are those
can also choose CC Attribution-NonCommercial[3] or All that are in the spirit of free and open source software,[9]
Rights Reserved. befitting Google Code’s user base — free and open source
software developers.
Separately, Google Code added an option[4] for software
projects to specify a separate license for content associated
with a software project — CC Attribution or CC Attribution- Endnotes
ShareAlike.[5] This does not change Google Code’s selection 1 http://knol.google.com/
of free and open source software licenses[6] for source code. 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
(Note: Creative Commons also recommends[7] and uses free 3 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
and open source software licenses such as the GNU GPL for 4 http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/07/
source code.) introducing-content-licenses-on-google.html
5 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
It’s really great to see both Google Knol and Google Code 6 http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/05/standing-
against-license-proliferation.html
launching with and launching support for CC licensing on the
7 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#Can_I_use_a_
same day, and interesting how their choice of licenses to offer Creative_Commons_license_for_software.3F
differs. Knol defaults to the most liberal CC license, but allows 8 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8213
authors to choose a more restrictive (NonCommercial) license, 9 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8051
or even the most restrictive option — no public license.
LibriVox: 1500 public domain audio books
by Mike Linksvayer LibriVox founder Hugh McGuire recently posted an
2 June 2008 explanation of why LibriVox audio books are dedicated to the
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8327 public domain rather than released under a CC license:[5]
So LibriVox is a small beacon of light in this policy
Seven months ago we noted that LibriVox released their question, slowly adding to the public domain while all
1,000th public domain audio book.[1] Now they’ve reached around the public domain is shrinking. this is important in
1,500.[2] That’s over 70 audio books released each month, some broad sense beyond anything particular we do at
and things are picking up — they released 115 in May. librivox. at least I think it is.
Check out LibriVox,[3] perhaps the most interesting The whole essay is well worth reading.
collaborative culture project this side of Wikipedia — and
everything on LibriVox is in the public domain,[4] free for any
use, without restriction.
LibriVox: 1500 public domain audio books > 25
CC Points of Interest
The Onion’s AV Club talks Doctorow: First CC-Licensed
CC Publishing with Cory Work on NYT Best Sellers
Doctorow List/New Graphic Novel
by Fred Benenson by Cameron Parkins
12 June 2008 10 June 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8360 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8351
In a provocative interview with Cory Doctorow about his Hyper awesome super CC-evangelist Cory Doctorow[1] has
new book Little Brother, the non-satirical[1] Onion A.V.[2] club had two great bits of news pop up in the past couple days,
investigates the blogger cum sci-fi author’s motivations and with the first being that his new novel, Little Brother[2] (CC BY-
strategies for convincing his publisher to simultaneously NC-SA[3]) has entered its 4th week on the New York Times
release his young adult book under CC and hardcover: Bestseller List![4] A huge accomplishment in its own right, we
are especially excited as this is the first case of a CC-licensed
AVC: Was the Creative Commons release strategy a hard novel entering the list, let alone staying there for 4 weeks.
sell with Tor that first time out? Per usual, you can download the novel in PDF form.[5]
CD: No, it was totally trivial, in fact. I lucked out in two In other Doctorow/CC news, Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic
respects. My editor at Tor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, is Tales of the Here and Now, “[6] a six-edition series of comics
super-geeky. We met on a BBS in the ’80s, and he runs adapted from [his] short stories by an incredibly talented crew
his own Linux boxes; it just made a lot of sense for him. of writers, artists, inkers and letterers” was recently released
Furthermore, he’s also the senior editor at Tor, he runs the under a CC BY-NC-SA license, meaning you can mix it up as
science-fiction and fantasy line at Tor, so he kind of doesn’t you see fit (get the PDF[7]) provided it is on a noncommercial
have to ask anyone when he wants to do this stuff. basis. Congrats to Cory on both accomplishments!
[…]
Endnotes
Tom Doherty and Patrick both looked at this and said, 1 http://craphound.com/
“You know, electronic books represent the worst ratio of 2 http://craphound.com/littlebrother/
hours spent in meetings to dollars generated in income of 3 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
anything we’ve ever tried at this press. Here’s something 4 http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/04/little-brother-goes.
that’s relatively free — all we need to do is give it away, html
and we can see what people want to do with it. And if it 5 http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
works, great. And if it doesn’t work, well, we’ve learned. 6 http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/09/my-new-graphic-
novel.html
And if it’s inconclusive, we can try more, because we’re
7 http://www.archive.org/details/
a big press, we’ve got lots and lots of books, and we CoryDoctorowsFuturisticTalesOfTheHereAndNow
can try lots of different things.” [emphasis added] And if
it’s going to work for anyone, it’s going to work for me,
because I’ve got such a good online presence. And you
can see that they’re now trying this with writers who have
a less prominent online presence, and they’re finding that
by and large, it’s working pretty well for them.
[Visit http://avclub.com/content/interview/cory_doctorow/]
to read full interview.
Endnotes
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A.V._Club
2 http://www.avclub.com/
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CC Points of Interest
George Eastman House, VIA’s OpenBook Project Takes
Bibliothèque de Toulouse Join Off, Wins International
Flickr Commons Award
by Cameron Parkins by Tim Hwang
21 July 2008 24 June 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8497 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8401
usage/)
(http://www.flickr.com/commons/
| No known copyright restrictions.
Dans les jardins de Monte-Carlo
Big news coming out this month on VIA’s OpenBook mini-
notebook computer[1] project which incorporates an “open
Two more amazing photo collections have been added to design” approach that makes the CAD design plans for the
the continuously growing Flickr Commons,[1] one coming device available to the public under the permissive terms
from the George Eastman House[2] and the other from of a Creative Commons BY SA license.[2] The project invites
La Bibliothèque de Toulouse.[3] Both groups’ photostreams are customers to innovate and solicits suggestions from users on
absolutely amazing to pour over, offering stunning images future iterations of the laptop. To spur involvement, they’ve
from the turn of the century that are all released in the public even recently released a video[3] that opens the laptop up
domain. Again, in case you have missed any of our other and showcases the electronic guts that enable OpenBook’s
posts[4] on the Flickr Commons, some info below: users the flexibility to add modules and choose openly
between wireless options.[4]
The key goals of The Commons are to firstly give you
a taste of the hidden treasures in the world’s public Happy to announce that since we first reported on the laptop’s
photography archives, and secondly to show how your debut in May,[5] the project has taken off. Engadget[6] recently
input and knowledge can help make these collections even reviewed the product, writing simply that the OpenBook
richer. You’re invited to help describe the photographs made “that Macbook Air look positively last century.” And,
you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding this month, before an international jury of design experts at
tags or leaving comments this years Taipei Computex,[7] the VIA OpenBook has taken
home the Gold Award for Design and Innovation[8] for 2008.
The rest of the institutions[5] on the Flickr Commons have all Congratulations guys!
recently added new photos as well, increasing the worth of
an already phenomenal resource.
Endnotes
1 http://www.viaopenbook.com/
Endnotes 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
1 http://flickr.com/commons 3 http://www.viaopenbook.com/index.php?id=13
2 http://flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/ 4 http://www.viaopenbook.com/index.php?Itemid=10
3 http://flickr.com/photos/bibliothequedetoulouse/ 5 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8320
4 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8381 6 http://engadget.com/2008/05/27/via-openbook-hands-on/
5 http://flickr.com/photos/brooklyn_museum/; http://flickr. 7 http://www.computextaipei.com.tw/
com/photos/library_of_congress/; http://flickr.com/photos/ 8 http://via.com.tw/en/resources/pressroom/pressrelease.
smithsonian/; http://flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/ jsp?press_release_no=2389
CC Points of Interest
From Open Software to Open Music
by Greg Grossmeier
11 June 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8354
Jono Bacon, the Community Manager for Ubuntu[1] and full- “I think the key ingredient here is assembling a group
time metal head, recently announced a new musical project of people who have a shared ethos — this is what we
he is undertaking, SeveredFifth. do in Free Software, and this is what I am doing with
Severed Fifth — it’s incredible what is possible when the
SeveredFifth is Jono’s new music project with the aims of right minds come together.”
seeing how far one musician can take the concept of Free (as
in Freedom) music. Jono: I encourage everyone who has a musical taste which leans
towards metal to head on over to SeveredFifth[3] and sign up
“Severed Fifth is really here to ask questions — both for the newsletter[4] and join the discussion;[5] great things are
musically, and in terms of the new music economy.” sure to happen.
To accomplish this goal he is releasing his first album
under the name SeveredFifth using a Creative Commons Endnotes
Attribution ShareAlike[2] license. This license is easy to 1 http://www.ubuntu.com/
understand to any member of the Open Source Software 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/
persuasion (the group with which Jono is currently most 3 http://www.severedfifth.com/
active); you are free to make copies, redistribute, or modify 4 http://www.severedfifth.com/news/
it as long as you cite correct attribution and keep it under 5 http://www.severedfifth.com/forums/
the same license. Jono:
“I chose that license because I wanted to secure some
key rights for listeners of my music - rights that I feel are
important as a listener. I think the choice of license is key
to the aims of the project.”
Because Jono is empowering his fan base with the use of the
CC Licenses, the community of listeners which form around
the music are the ones who will improve the project the most.
The initial work of creating publicity materials such as the
website and photography has been done by some of Jono’s
friends, but without the contributions of community members
the project can not succeed.
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CC Points of Interest
The Smithsonian Joins Flickr: The Commons
by Cameron Parkins
20 June 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8381
The Smithsonian[1] has joined the Library of Congress,[2]
the Powerhouse Museum,[3] and the Brooklyn Museum[4]
in releasing numerous (over 850 from the Smithsonian
alone) photos from their archives online - free of copyright
restrictions - to The Commons on Flickr.[5] There are
some absolutely stunning photographs available in high-
resolution, ranging from portraits of artists, scientists, and
inventors to photos of everyday people and places. Some
info on The Commons below:
The key goals of The Commons are to firstly give you Portrait of Albert Einstein and Others (1879-1955), Physicist |
a taste of the hidden treasures in the world’s public http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2575986742/ No known
photography archives, and secondly to show how your copyright restrictions. (http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/)
input and knowledge can help make these collections even
richer. You’re invited to help describe the photographs
you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding
tags or leaving comments
In similar news, a wonderful new group, Free Use Photos,[6]
has been created as a means for Flickr users to post copyright-
free photos. In lieu of a formal way for users to indicate public
domain status for their photos, the creators of the group have
decided to post information regarding CC0[7] in conjunction
with clear language waiving copyright to make clear that all
photos posted to the group “are available for use by anyone”
with “no need to give credit or to fear rights infringement.”
Endnotes
1 http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/
2 http://flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/
3 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8190
4 http://flickr.com/photos/brooklyn_museum/
5 http://flickr.com/commons
6 http://flickr.com/groups/freeuse
7 http://flickr.com/groups/freeuse/
discuss/72157605551707358/
CC Points of Interest
The Spirit of Sharing in Jordan
by Cameron Parkins able to build on others’ work in a fair manner,” Simpson
16 June 2008 told The Jordan Times [...] “The whole concept passes
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8368 on the spirit of sharing, which in a creative community is
important to do,” she said, adding that legally allowing
creative collaboration would curb intellectual property
rights violations.
Jordan has long been a geographical area where Creative
Commons has looked to expand (you can read about our The article also touches on the amazing work of Abu-
Jordan-specific jurisdiction work at http://creativecommons. Ghazaleh Intellectual Property[3] who we have been working
org/international/jo/) - as such, recent news[1] about the with in an effort to port CC licences to Jordan and the rest
promotion of CC, the public domain, and an increased spirit of the Arab world.
of sharing in Jordan is inspiring.
Two UK artists, Eileen Simpson and Ben White of the Open Endnotes
Music Archive,[2] have been traveling throughout Jordan for 1 http://www.technewsworld.com/story/63247.html?welcome=1
the past 6 months, advocating for the establishment of a ‘CC 212528636&welcome=1212536690 &welcome=1212631647
Jordan’ as a means for local artists to “freely collaborate 2 http://www.openmusicarchive.org/
without harsh licensing restrictions”. To Simpson and White, 3 http://www.agip.com/
CC licences would act as a means to promote authors,
artists, filmmakers, and musicians across the country with
Simpson stating, “If we weren’t allowed to refer back to
previous works, to walk down the path of others, we would
just be lost, and the creative community will be stifled.”
From TechNewsWorld:
In an effort to highlight the importance of a diverse
and vibrant public domain, Simpson and White spent
the last six months attempting to sample old Jordanian
films and musical works whose copyrights have expired,
an experiment to work within restrictions imposed by
international and local trademark and copyright laws.
[...]
Unable to find archived material that is now completely
accessible in the public domain, they turned to the Jordan
Academy of Music, which collected folk songs from the
Kingdom for the 2002 celebration of Amman as Arab
Cultural Capital. As the recordings are from the shared
community and have no accredited author, the folk songs
are a part of the public domain and therefore are not
owned or controlled by anyone and are considered as
“public property.”
Simpson and White plan on taking the songs and
remixing them with local artists, updating the ballads
and encouraging artists to explore the music further.
“We all build on the creativity of others, and we should be
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
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CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
CC Points of Interest
CASH Music
by Cameron Parkins Really, we’re trying to
29 July 2008 show that remixing and
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8602 sharing aren’t the only
ways to get involved with
music. It’s been so rewarding seeing the remixes generated
at CASH, ccMixter, and in the wild; but I’ve also been
CASH Music,[1] an acronym for ‘Coalition of Artists and thrilled to see people downloading and spending time with
Stakeholders’, has been an impressive member of the CC Adam Gnade’s Hymn California novel or flooding Jamie
community since they debuted late last year.[2] Part music from Xiu Xiu with requests for haiku. People are forming
label, part creative community, CASH Music has major plans real bonds with the music, the artists, and the communities
to change the landscape of contemporary artistic output with they’re building around the releases. Music has always been
a particular focus on the dialogue between content creators a highly participatory art form — and we’re trying to harness
and consumers. They already have some amazing projects[3] that in new ways.
out under their moniker and with more on the way, we
decided to catch up with CASH Music partner Jesse Von At CASH artists have been releasing full mix stems for
Doom to learn more about CASH’s goals, their business remixing, tracks with community-added vocals, sheet music,
model, and what they have in store for the future. writing that’s tied to the music — things that get an audience
directly involved with the art. There are also elements
Can you give our readers some background on of enhancing a release to the public. There are videos,
CASH Music? How did it begin? Who is involved? On interviews, photos, ebooks, and lyric sheets. Donita Sparks
a broad level, what are you trying to accomplish? even opened up percentages of licensing for a track off her
last album. Listeners could buy shares in a song, letting them
CASH is an acronym for Coalition of Artists and Stake participate in the profits from any TV or film licensing.
Holders. The name was chosen to reflect the goals and the
people involved. The idea was born in a simple conversation The idea is that artists are exploring new ways to bring
between Kristin Hersh and Donita Sparks about achieving their music to an audience, with the ultimate goal being to
sustainability in the currently volatile music world. Their strengthen both sides of that exchange.
managers, Billy O’Connell and Robert Fagan respectively,
continued the conversation and became the first two Can you discuss CASH’s business model? There
partners in what would be CASH. At the time I was running seems to be a combination between giving away
a graphic and web design firm with my business partner, things for free, selling collector goods, and asking
Jack McKenna. A few business connections and friends-in- for donations. How did you come up with this
common later, Jack and I started working for CASH and combination? How well has it worked so far?
quickly became partners ourselves.
That’s a fair summary of what’s up there now, but it’s more
Since then we’ve won the support of seasoned advisors, of an interim solution than a true business model. We’re
organizations like Creative Commons, and some talented committed to the idea of sustainability, both for the artists
artists. But it still goes back to that first conversation between involved and for ourselves. That means finding the best
Kristin and Donita. We’re trying to help find healthy model for each artist and helping them to move forward in
sustainability for artists while giving listeners more of a stake that direction. When you see an artist offering a subscription,
in the music for a new and better experience. it’s because that’s what fits with their career, rather than it
being something we’ve shoehorned them into. So our long-
CASH is unsurprisingly identified with music. With term model is based on the idea that if an artist succeeds at
that said, you have been working on a variety of his or her goals, then we succeed.
projects that don’t have musical components. Why
is that? But to answer more directly, I’d say I’m very pleased so
far. We’ve had over 4.5 million downloads, over 100,000
visitors, and hundreds of subscribers from all over the world.
Kristin Hersh doing vocals[4] for a Xiu Xiu track.[5]
This went basically unnoticed and I sort of love that.
It was a gem hidden in plain sight, and something I could
never see happening otherwise.
Lucas Gonze taking Deerhoof sheet music[6] and cranking
out midi and all sorts of helpful files.[7] This is a great
photo by Taryn James example. Deerhoof have released their first single off an
CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) upcoming album as sheet music, with the plea that artists
record their own versions and submit them back to CASH.
Virtually everything you see on the CASH Music site right We’ve gotten some great examples of exactly that, but
now wouldn’t be possible without the support we’ve received Lucas took the sheet music and created files that open
from artists and their listeners. Our first project went live eight up potential involvement to a much larger community. It
months ago, and we’ve been able to work on CASH for the was unexpected, impossible without CC licensing, and its
better part of a year as a self-funded endeavor. While not all proving an invaluable asset to the project.
our projects involve commerce, the ones that do have made
significant impact for the artists involved. In just skimming over the projects listed on CASH
Music’s front page it is immediately obvious that
We’ve been especially happy to see people donating to CASH focuses on unique and engaging projects.
artists. From the very beginning we were determined to Can you give us a hint of what may be coming in
provide direct access to music without placing artificial the future?
gateways in front of it. There are obvious questions about
whether people would balk at giving money to an artist You can certainly count on more projects and more artist
for content they could download for free, but we’ve seen involvement. We’ll continue on in this invitation-only, highly
numerous examples of people trying music and donating custom way for a while; but there will be a greater role for
what they feel is a fair price. This is a pretty big deal to the public with each new project. Ultimately we’re working
me. An artist spends time writing the music and money is towards a fully open-sourced, hosted platform that is
spent on studio time, all to put out the best possible music. available to all, and more details on that are forthcoming.
I like to think that people are genuinely considering all that, We’re doing our best to be as open as possible, so fairly
recognizing the effort, and helping it to continue. regular updates can be expected. In the coming months
you’ll see new names, new ideas, and plenty of new music.
In every CASH project there is some level of CC
licensing, be it large or small. Why did you decide
to use CC licenses with CASH Music projects? Endnotes
1 http://cashmusic.org/
The real question is how could we have done it without 2 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7896
Creative Commons. CC Licensing simplifies the process of 3 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8509; http://
community interaction, it pre-clears music for podcasting and creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8089; http://
creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8415
sharing, and it lets the artist define what use of their work
4 http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/kristinhersh/misc/
they see as fair while retaining their copyright and whatever AngelOfTheBattlefield.mp3
level of commercial rights they choose to keep. I feel that the 5 http://xiuxiu.cashmusic.org/singonthissong.php
entire music industry, independents and majors, should be 6 http://deerhoof.cashmusic.org/
using Creative Commons licenses for shared music. 7 http://www.soupgreens.com/offendmaggie/
Have you seen any interesting cases of reuse as a
result of using CC licenses?
Absolutely! There are two that jump to mind right away:
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
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CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
CC Points of Interest
Gilberto Gil on Democracy Now
by Cameron Parkins
25 June 2008
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8405
Today’s Democracy Now! episode[1]
features an extensive interview with
CC advocate and Brazilian Minister of
Culture Gilberto Gil[2] in which he speaks
at length abou his experiences with CC
licensing in regards to culture, medicine,
and the process of “democratizing the
distribution of intellectual property rights”.
You can read or watch the interview
here:
Yeah. The author laws, the author
rights, I mean, they belong to—the
way they are set and the laws are
written and applied and everything,
that all belongs to a previous period,
you know, previous time, an analog,
so to speak, an analog time. Now,
the digital area, the digital era enable
Joi Ito. (http://joi.ito.com/) “Gilberto Gil” (http://flickr.com/photos/joi/2116005332/) CC
us to extend and expand cultural BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)
products and cultural goods and
cultural possibilities to a level that we —
we have to also rewrite and reshape the legal framework Endnotes
and the regulatory framework, so that it can adjust to 1 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/25/from_political_
the new possibilities. That’s what Creative Commons is prisoner_to_cabinet_minister
about, bringing possibilities to manage their own work, 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilberto_Gil
you know, to the creators, so that the songwriters, the 3 http://lessig.org/
theater play writers, the book writers, and so and so, can 4 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
have the possibilities to manage their own work and say 5 http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/sec_agenda.php
— and determine what their work will serve for.
Gil goes on to discuss his decision to CC license his music,
the experience of bringing CC to Brazil with the help of CC
founder Lawrence Lessig,[3] and his opinions in general about
culture and creativity in a digital age. A great interview that is
free to share through Democracy Now!’s decision to release
all their original content under a CC BY-NC-ND license.[4]
UPDATE: Gil is also currently on tour,[5] with upcoming dates
across the United States and Europe.
an advanced degree in French and French History from
5 < Esther Wojcicki
the Sorbonne, Paris, a Secondary School Administrative
Commission Teacher of the Year in 2002. She served on the Credential from San Jose State University, and a M.A. in
University of California Office of the President Curriculum Educational Technology from San Jose State University. She
Committee where she helped revise the beginning and has also worked as a professional journalist for multiple
advanced journalism curriculum for the state of California. publications and now blogs regularly for HuffingtonPost[1]
In 2005–6 she worked as the Google educational consultant and HotChalk.[2]
and helped design the Google Teacher Outreach program,
which includes the website www.google.com/educators and
Endnotes
the Google Teacher Academy. She holds a B.A. degree
1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
from UC Berkeley in English and Political Science, a general
2 http://www.hotchalk.com/
secondary teaching credential from UC Berkeley, a graduate
degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Berkeley,
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Creative_Commons
8 < Content License Information
of Creative Commons, and Asheesh Laroia, Software Creative Commons Sharing Creative Works Public Domain
Engineer, on Thursday July 24th in room F150. Released Comics
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Sharing_Creative_Works
Links
Endnotes
Desktop Integration Software: liblicense
1 http://creativecommons.org/projects/liblicense
http://creativecommons.org/projects/liblicense
2 http://creativecommons.org/projects/LicenseChooser.js
OSCON “Rights on the Desktop with liblicense”
Presentation
http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/schedule/
detail/2857
Web Integration Software: LicenseChooser.js
http://creativecommons.org/projects/LicenseChooser.js
OLPC Creative Commons Page
11 < Australian Version 3.0 16 < LibriVox: 1500 public domain audio books
Endnotes Endnotes
1 http://creativecommons.org.au/australasiancommons 1 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7784
2 http://creativecommons.org.au/materials/BY_v3_Aus_ 2 http://hughmcguire.net/2008/06/02/librivox-115-and-1500/
June_08_draft.pdf 3 http://librivox.org/
3 http://creativecommons.org.au/materials/BY_NC_SA_v3_ 4 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/
Aus_June_08_draft.pdf 5 http://hughmcguire.net/2008/03/31/why-public-domain-and-
4 http://creativecommons.org.au/v3draft not-creative-commons/
5 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_3
6 http://ccelliott.blogspot.com/2008/06/towards-ccau-
version-30.html
7 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/weblog/entry/7249
8 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/international/
9 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/international/nz/
10 http://www.creativecommons.org.nz/
11 http://www.creativecommons.org.uk/
12 http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-au
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
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CC Newsletter - Issue No. 8
creativecommons.org
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Creative Commons was built with, and sustained by, the
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as well as members of the public.
Creative Commons newsletters are also posted to the CC
Wiki. For back issues please visit:
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Cover: “Traced.” © 2008. Lairaja. Some Rights Reserved. Except when otherwise noted, this work is licensed
under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/. This remixed image incorporates Joi Ito’s
(“tiles” http://flickr.com/photos/joi/1734721/) and elements derived from the works of Michael Schamis
(“Constantine Maroulis of The Wedding Singer” http://flickr.com/photos/michael_schamis/240161156/),
Pedro Simões (“Street Painter” http://flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/190673196/), dbking (“US Supreme
Court” http://flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/37621686), and Joi Ito (“Alexandre” http://flickr.com/photos/
joi/2723077409/, “The amazing video duo” http://flickr.com/photos/joi/2723880372/, “Thomas the
Guitar Hero” http://flickr.com/photos/joi/2694771733/, and “Michelle Thorne” http://flickr.com/photos/
joi/559566738/), All under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licenses.
This newsletter is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
— please share and remix!