The Liberated Pixel Cup: an epic contest for gaming freedom

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Liberated Pixel Cup, a free-as-in-freedom game authoring competition being launched in cooperation between Creative Commons, the Free Software Foundation, Mozilla, and OpenGameArt! Liberated Pixel Cup is a two-part competition: make a bunch of awesome free culture licensed artwork, and program a bunch of free software games that use it. Hopefully many cool projects can come out of this… but that will only happen if people like you get involved! Technically the project will run in three phases. Read more.

World Bank announces Open Access Policy and launches Open Knowledge Repository under Creative Commons

The World Bank has announced a new Open Access Policy! Effective July 1, 2012, the Open Access Policy requires that all research outputs and knowledge products published by the Bank be licensed Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) as a default. As part of the first phase of this policy, the Bank launched a new Open Knowledge Repository with more than 2,000 books, articles, reports and research papers under CC BY. Read more.

Reminder to enter the Why Open Education Matters video competition

In March, Creative Commons, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Open Society Institute launched the Why Open Education Matters Video Competition. The goal of the competition is to raise awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) and solicit short, creative videos that help explain what Open Educational Resources are and how they can be beneficial for teachers, students, and schools everywhere around the world. There’s been lots of interest in the competition, and we wanted to remind you that the deadline to submit your video is June 5, 2012. Read more.

• The Austrian government, Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, Italian Chamber of Deputies, and Harvard Library released their data using CC tools.

• Nature Publishing Group also released publication data for more than 450,000 articles using CC0.

• Musician Dan Bull released “Sharing is Caring” into the public domain using CC0. The song reached #9 on the UK independent chart.

• CC's CEO, Cathy Casserly, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Open University for her contributions to open education.

• The Data Journalism Handbook, a collaborative effort to help journalists find and use data for better news reporting led by the Open Knowledge Foundation, was published under a CC BY-SA license.

• We launched the Creative Commons 3.0 Switzerland ported license suite. Huge thanks to the CC Switzerland team for their hard work and dedication in perfecting the Swiss ported licenses.

• We are hosting a workshop on the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) at this year's Content in Context conference as part of the Metadata Lab on educational metadata adoption.

• Lastly, we are seeking a Project Coordinator for Science and Data. Please forward to all qualified and interested folks!

Version 4.0 — CC License draft ready for public comment!

We are pleased to post for public comment the first discussion draft of version 4.0. This draft is the product of an extended (and unprecedented) requirements gathering period involving input from CC affiliates, community and stakeholders. Thanks to all of you who contributed your valuable time and energy in the policy discussions and drafting sessions in support of this draft. We crafted this first draft (v4.0d1) mindful of the overarching design goals first articulated at the 2011 Global Summit:

• Producing a 4.0 suite that addresses pressing challenges of important adopters, including those in countries where localized version of CC licenses have not existed, and never may, for any number of reasons;
• Maximizing interoperability, reducing license proliferation and promoting standardization where possible; and
• Longevity and ease of use.

Read more.

Still from ARTHUR C CLARKE PREDICTS THE INTERNET
provided by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
CC BY-SA

Australian Broadcasting Corporation releases archival news footage under CC BY-SA

CC Australia has announced that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia’s largest public broadcaster and news service, has used Wikimedia Commons to release a selection of historically significant television news stories under CC BY-SA. While other news broadcasters are also making material available under CC licenses, what makes this project significant is that the news segments that have been released aren’t obscure archival material or raw footage, but rather polished stories broadcast by some of the ABC’s premier current affairs programs about major events in Australian history. It includes, for example, news reports on the Apollo 11 moon landings, the Azaria Chamberlain case, and the floating of the Australian currency. Not to mention this 1974 footage of Arthur C. Clarke predicting the internet, with uncanny accuracy. Read more.

National Libraries of Spain and Germany, and Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum open up their data using CC0

CC0 has been getting lots of love in the last couple months in the realm of data, specifically GLAM data (GLAM as in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums). The national libraries of Spain and Germany have released their bibliographic data using the CC0 public domain dedication tool. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it means that the libraries have waived all copyrights to the extent possible in their jurisdictions, placing the data effectively into the public domain. Relatedly, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum, a major design museum in New York, has released the collection data for 60% of its documented collection into the public domain, also using CC0. Read more.

• We are hiring for a variety of positions, including Regional Project Managers for Africa and the Asia-Pacific, community support interns, Counsel, Communications Manager, and a Senior Accountant. See all of the awesome opportunities to work with Creative Commons!

• We re-launched CC Canada and established a new team for CC Argentina.

• In more CC data news, we are pleased to announce that the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research has developed an open data portal under CC BY.

• The deadline for the Why Open Education Matters video competition is June 5, 2012. Enter now for a chance to be the voice of open education and win $25,000.

• GoodSemester, a new learning platform geared toward academic productivity, enabled note sharing, copying and remixing under CC BY-SA.

• In related open educational resources (OER) news, the OER university will provide free learning with formal academic credit — thanks to Creative Commons!

• Lastly, we urge you to check out our revised CC education page, and contribute to the OER policy registry we are working hard to create. This registry will be a place for policymakers and open advocates to easily share and update OER legislation, OER institutional policies, and supporting OER policy resources.

Why Open Education Matters Video Competition! by Creative Commons, U.S. Department of Education, and Open Society Foundations

Creative Commons, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Open Society Foundations announce the launch of the Why Open Education Matters Video Competition. The competition will award cash prizes for the best short videos that explain the use and promise of free, high-quality open educational resources and describe the benefits and opportunities these materials create for teachers, students and schools.  Video submissions are accepted until June 5, 2012 and winners will be announced July 18, 2012. Cash prizes include $25,000 (first), $5,000 (second), and $1,000 (Public Choice Award). Judges include prominent artists and education experts, including Davis Guggenheim, Nina Paley, James Franco, and many others. Learn more.

 

$500 million available in Wave 2 of U.S. Department of Labor grant program for community colleges

The U.S. Department of Labor has released a Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA) for Wave 2 of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program (TAACCCT). Wave 2 makes available an additional $500 million to “eligible institutions of higher education… with funds to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs that can be completed in two years or less…” As with the first wave of funding, all educational materials created from grant funds must be released under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. For Wave 2, the CC BY license must also be applied to modifications made to pre-existing, grantee-owned content using grant funds. Read more.

Creative Commons and Open Education Week

Creative Commons and its affiliates are participating in Open Education Week! a week-long series of global events on and offline to to raise awareness of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement and its impact on universal access to education. 90 organizations are contributing by hosting workshops, conferences, evening events, and online webinars. The first events started March 1, but the official week is March 5 through March 10. It’s not too late for you to join. Learn more.

• The next CC Salon London — Open Educational Resources: Policies for Promotion — is Thursday, March 29! The event is free and open to the public but registration is required. Learn more.

• The U.S. Washington State Senate passed an OER Bill for K-12 education! HB 2337 will help eliminate high textbook costs for one million students. Learn more.

• The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum dedicated its data collection to the public domain using our CC0 public domain dedication tool.

• The German Aerospace Center (DLR) also adopted CC by incorporating CC licenses, including CC Attribution, for its photos and media.

• CC community member, Makerblock, has developed a new WordPress plugin that makes it easier for you to add CC licenses to your website and blog.

• We launched the new Creative Commons 3.0 Ireland suite of licenses.

• Lastly, we urge you to act now to support public access to federally funded research by supporting the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) which would, "require federal agencies to provide the public with online access to articles reporting on the results of the United States’ $60 billion in publicly funded research no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal." Learn more.

Happy New Year! We head into 2012 with exciting new CC developments from all over the world.

CC Kazakhstan and CC Rwanda

At the end of 2011, we announced two new CC Affiliates from Kazakhstan and Rwanda. Led by Rauan Kenzhekhanuly and including Almas Nurbakytov, Nartay Ashim and Balashov Talgat, the Kazakhstan team is supported by Wikibilim, a non-profit organisation which also operates as the local representative of Wikimedia. The Rwanda team, led by Jacques Murinda and including Fred Byabagabo and Prosper Birama, is working in conjunction with the Open Learning Exchange (OLE), an NGO supported by the Rwandan Ministry of Education, which aims to provide universal access to basic education by 2015. We welcome both these teams to our Affiliate Network, and look forward to working with them as they develop the CC community in their regions. This brings the total number of official CC Affiliates to 72, the highest level since the project launched in 2002. Read more.

Ugandan 3.0 Licenses now open for public discussion

Many of you already know that we have begun working on the next version of licenses, the 4.0 suite. Even while this process has begun, we are finishing a few remaining, important 3.0 ports. One of these is the Uganda 3.0 license suite, which we are pleased to announce is now open for public discussion. This is particularly noteworthy, as the Ugandan license suite is only the second tailored suite from the Sub-Saharan Africa region to reach the public discussion stage (after South Africa). These new licenses will be useful to many Anglophone African countries that share similar copyright laws and legal histories. We welcome all those who are interested to view the Uganda BY-NC-SA draft and contribute their comments this month. Read more.

CC and the 3D Printing Community

With the exception of CC0, the Creative Commons licenses are only for granting permissions to use non-software works. The worlds of software and engineering have additional concerns outside of the scope of what is addressed by the CC licenses. 3D printing is a new medium which encompasses both the creative domains of culture and engineering, and often 3D printed works do not fall neatly into either category. The purpose of the following article is to explore the similarities between the community that has grown around 3D printing and that of the commons which CC strives to empower. A later article will explore problems with adopting CC in the 3D printing community. Read the article here.

• Our campaign is still going on through January 15. If you haven't donated yet, now's your chance! (Thanks a million to those of you who have. We could not continue to exist without you.)

• The Creative Commons Board of Directors held its year-end annual board meeting on December 9, 2011.

• One week later, CC celebrated the 9th birthday of its license suite.

• We are still protesting SOPA and PIPA. You can, too.

• You can also apply for a 2012 Google Policy Fellowship with us. Deadline to apply is February 3, 2012.

• Or you can apply to be the CC Director of Strategic Partnerships! And be responsible for building and executing a comprehensive fundraising strategy.

• CC’s Russian affiliate Institute of the Information Society (IIS), in collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies, organized an international seminar and expert meeting last month in Moscow.

• Lastly, we'd like to give a shout-out to some recent developments at Mozilla: the release of Mozilla Public License 2.0 and a great publication called, Learning, Freedom & the Web, based on Mozilla’s eponymous festival in Barcelona last year, published under CC BY-SA.

Public Discussion Launches for Version 4.0 of the CC Licenses

We are pleased to announce the beginning of the public discussion process that we expect to result in version 4.0 of the Creative Commons license suite. The 4.0 discussions held at the 2011 Global Summit confirmed for CC the need to commence the 4.0 discussion process now if we wish to consider issues relevant to important would-be adopters in a timely manner. As explained following legal sessions at the Summit, version 3.0 is working (and will continue to work) really well for many adopters, but the reality is different for others. Read more.

Stop [U.S.] American censorship of the Internet

The SOPA and Protect IP bills threaten every site on Internet, but would especially harm the commons. While standard public licenses like CC have lowered the costs and risks of legal sharing and collaboration, SOPA and Protect IP would drastically increase both the costs and risks of providing platforms for sharing and collaboration. Sites ranging from individual blogs to massive community projects such as Wikipedia to open education repositories to Flickr and YouTube could be in jeopardy if a single possibly infringing item causes an entire domain to be taken down. Read more.

 

Wired.com now releasing photos under CC Attribution-Noncommercial

We are thrilled to relay Wired.com’s announcement that from now on all Wired.com staff-produced photos will be released under a CC Attribution-Noncommercial license (CC BY-NC)! Wired.com’s Editor in Chief Evan Hansen says, “Creative Commons turns ten years old next year, and the simple idea of releasing content with “some rights reserved” has revolutionized online sharing and fueled a thriving remix culture. At Wired.com, we’ve benefited from CC-licensed photos for years — thank you sharers! Now we’re going to start sharing ourselves.” Read more.

• The Creative Commons Annual Campaign is in its urgent stages. If you haven't already given, donate $50 or more now and receive a limited edition "I Love to Share" t-shirt!

• A Kickstarted project immediately following the nuclear disaster in Japan, Safecast is a global sensor network that has shared more than 1.25 million radiation data points under the CC0 public domain dedication.

• In related data news, Europeana has published its Licensing Framework, which supports re-use of data and content through CC legal tools (CC0, the Public Domain Mark, and CC BY-SA), providing guidelines for their appropriate applications.

• The German UNESCO Commission released a practical guideline to open content licenses, featuring the CC license suite as its primary example.

• A recent study by the Australian National Data Service found that the benefits of free and unrestricted public sector information (PSI) outweighed costs.

• The first Spanish CC movie (in Catalàn) premiered in Spanish cinema. Check out "Interferències" under CC BY-NC-SA.

• Creative Commons was at WIPO, represented by CC Costa Rica at the 8th Session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

• Lastly, this is just a friendly reminder that the White House wants your input on Public Access to Data and Publications by January 2, 2012.

You Are the Power of Open: 2011 Creative Commons Annual Campaign

Last week we launched our Annual Campaign. Please join us in powering the future of openness! In addition to fueling the activities below, Creative Commons relies on donations to build and constantly improve the technical and legal tools that enable openness to flourish. The future of openness is bright, but ensuring that future requires urgent and sustained effort. CC is continuing to improve the usefulness of our licenses and helping even more artists, institutions and governments share their works. We are reaching a critical mass and need your support now more than ever. Donate now, or read more.

Copyright Experts Discuss CC License Version 4.0 at the Global Summit

The Creative Commons 2011 Global Summit was a remarkable success, bringing together CC affiliates, board, staff, alumni, friends and stakeholders from around the world. Among the ~300 attendees was an impressive array of legal experts. Collectively, these experts brought diversity and depth of legal expertise and experience to every facet of the Summit, including knowledge of copyright policy across the government, education, science, culture, and foundation sectors. We designed the Summit’s legal sessions to leverage this expertise to discuss our core license suite and the 4.0 license versioning process. Read more.

Blackboard to add support for CC Attribution

Blackboard, the popular Learning Management System (LMS), has announced that they will build in support for CC licensing, specifically enabling instructors the ability to publish and share their course materials under the CC Attribution (CC BY) license. Cable Green, CC’s Director of Global Learning, notes, “The core part of any OER is an open license, and Blackboard has shown its leadership by empowering instructors to share so others can revise, reuse, remix and redistribute their courses.” Read more.

• The Open Course Library released the first 42 high-enrollment courses for Washington State Community Colleges under CC BY.

• UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning released Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education, citing that "OER are teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain and released with an open license (such as Creative Commons)."

• CC Portugal launched its second localized suite of CC licenses!

• Open Access Week 2011 involved CC affiliates and community from around the world, including Perú, Poland, Croatia, and the U.S.

• You may recall that the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative's Technical Working Group, with the input of the wider community, has been working to create a set of metadata terms to describe learning resources. The public draft specification is open for comment through November 11.

• Musician Christopher Willits has released 121 stems from "Tiger Flower Circle Sun" for a remix project with SoundCloud! Deadline to remix the stems via CC BY-NC-SA is February 1, 2012.

• The Polish version of The Power of Open — stories of creators sharing knowledge, art, & data using Creative Commons — is now available for download. Thanks to the CC Poland team for proofing!

• Lastly, new CC job opportunities are on the horizon; if you have a knack for time management and logistics coordination, see our announcement.

Europeana adopts new data exchange agreement, all metadata to be published under CC0

Europeana — Europe’s digital library, museum and archive, and the first major adopter of the Public Domain Mark for works in the worldwide public domain — has adopted a new Data Exchange Agreement. The agreement, which data providers and aggregators will transition to by the end of 2011, authorizes Europeana to release the metadata for millions of cultural works into the public domain using the CC0 public domain dedication. All metadata for cultural works accessible via the Europeana portal, including previously-delivered metadata, will then be available for free and open re-use. Read more.

Thilo Sarrazin am 3. Juli 2009 by Nina Gerlach
CC BY-SA

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license enforced in Germany

The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA) has been enforced by a judicial injunction in Germany. Legal analysis will be added to our case law database in the coming days. Till Jaeger reported the case at ifrOSS. The photo at right was used without providing attribution to the photographer and without providing notice of the license used, both core requirements of all CC licenses. This is an exciting ruling for CC, as the attribution and notice requirements are very clearly stated and upheld. Read more.

Prof. Brian Fitzgerald joins the Creative Commons Board

Many of you may be familiar with Brian, who has been the legal lead of CC Australia since 2004 and has made an outstanding contribution to the CC and broader open access communities. Brian’s appointment is a product of the first Affiliate Recommendation Process for Board Candidates, which petitioned members of its Affiliate network to recommend new members of the Board of Directors. Having supervised law students from over 30 different countries in his role as director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic at Queensland University of Technology and beyond, Brian brings to the Board not only his own formidable expertise but also that of a significant international network. Read more.

• The Creative Commons Global Summit was a huge success! Read highlights from the event here.

• Freesound, a collaborative database of nearly 120,000 sounds, launches a complete rewrite of its site, implementing a long-awaited license migration. CC takes this opportunity to retire the Sampling+ licenses. Read more.

• $500 million is awarded to first round grantees of the U.S. Department of Labor's community college career training program. New learning materials resulting from these funds are required to be licensed under CC BY. Read more.

• Video creators can now find CC-licensed tracks for their videos via the newly launched Vimeo music store with CC-licensed music curated and provided by the Free Music Archive.

• The 11th annual Media That Matters Film Festival is premiering on October 27 in New York City. Films from the festival will be made available online after the event under CC BY-NC-ND. Learn more.

• The winners of the Free! Music! Contest 2011 were announced last month, and published into a 19-track album available for free under CC BY-SA and also for purchase as a CD. Check it out here.

• Flickr, the ever popular photo-sharing site, reaches the 200 million mark for CC-licensed photos!

• Lastly, CC announced opportunities last month for two full-time positions: Senior Project Manager and Senior Project Analyst. Applications close this Friday, October 7.