Creative Commons Launches Study of “Noncommercial Use”

Eric Steuer, September 18th, 2008

San Francisco, California, USA — September 18, 2008

The nonprofit organization Creative Commons has launched a research study that will explore differences between commercial and noncommercial uses of content, as those uses are understood among various communities and in connection with a wide variety of content. Generous support for the study has been provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Creative Commons provides free copyright licenses to creators who want to give the public certain permissions to use their works, in advance and without the need for one-to-one contact between the user and the creator. “Noncommercial” or “NC” is one of four different license terms that creators may choose to apply to their Creative Commons-licensed content. Works distributed under a Creative Commons license including the NC term may be used by anyone for any purpose that is not “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation,” provided the use also complies with the other terms of the license. Works distributed under a Creative Commons license without the NC term may additionally be used for commercial purposes, an option that promotes creative reuse in a broader range of contexts.

“The study has direct relevance to Creative Commons’ mission of providing free, flexible copyright licenses that are easy to understand and simple to use,” said Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito. “The NC term is a popular option for creators choosing a Creative Commons license, and that tells us the term meets a need. However, as exponentially increasing numbers of works are made available under CC licenses, we want to provide additional information for creators about the contexts in which the NC term may further or impede their intentions with respect to the works they choose to share, and we want to make sure that users clearly understand those intentions. We expect the study findings will help us do a better job of explaining the licenses and to improve them, where possible. We also hope the findings, which will be made publicly available, will contribute to better understanding of some of the complexities of digital distribution of content.”

“Developments in technology, social practices, and business models are pressing the question of what should count as a commercial use,” explained Creative Commons Special Counsel Virginia Rutledge, who is leading the study. “The answer to that question should come from creators, who should be able to specify what uses they want to permit, subject to the limitations and exceptions to copyright or other applicable law. Creative Commons is fortunate to have a stellar group of legal, public policy, and information technology experts advising on this project, as well as the help of its extensive international network of affiliates.”

Research is expected to be completed early in 2009. The study will investigate understanding of noncommercial use and the Creative Commons NC license term through a random sample survey of online content creators in the U.S., a poll of the global Creative Commons community, and qualitative data gathered from interviews with thought leaders and focus groups with participants from around the world who create and use a wide variety of content and media.

Advisors on the project include distinguished academicians Christine L. Borgman, Ph.D., Professor and Presidential Chair in Information Studies, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles; William H. Dutton, Ph.D., Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, Professor of Internet Studies, University of Oxford, Fellow of Balliol College; Deborah R. Hensler, Ph.D., Judge John W. Ford Professor of Dispute Resolution and Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, Stanford Law School; and Daniel E. Ho, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Law and Robert E. Paradise Faculty Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Research, Stanford Law School.

Research will be conducted by market research firm Netpop Research, LLC. “The potential impact of this study is profound, given the number of creators turning to the Web to distribute and share their works,” said Josh Crandall, managing director of Netpop Research. “We are excited to be a part of it.”

Since Creative Commons licenses were introduced in 2002, they have been translated into 47 legal jurisdictions and adopted by content creators around the globe, from remix musicians to educator consortia, bloggers to book publishers. At present over 130 million works are available on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses, each work tagged with metadata expressing the rights and permissions associated with it. This wealth of pre-cleared material is locatable through functionality built into major search engines Google and Yahoo!, as well as through the Creative Commons website and many online content providers and services.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works, whether owned or in the public domain. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

About Netpop Research, LLC

Netpop Research, LLC is a San Francisco-based strategic market research firm that specializes in online media, digital entertainment and user-generated content trends. Netpop Research has fielded numerous studies for major profit and nonprofit entities, and is the creator of the Netpop tracking study of Internet usage among broadband consumers in the United States and China.

Contact

Virginia Rutledge
Special Counsel, Creative Commons
virginia at creativecommons dot org

Press Kit

CC Romania Promotes Creativity with Localized Licenses

Michelle Thorne, September 1st, 2008

Text in English and Romanian

Bucharest, Romania and Berlin, Germany — September 2, 2008

Creators in Romania now have the option to license their creative works under one of the six Creative Commons licenses tailored to Romanian law. Available as of today, the ported Romanian licensing suite (BY through to BY-NC-ND of Version 3.0) is provided free of charge to rights holders wishing to signal that for a particular work, they have chosen a “some rights reserved” approach to copyright.

The Creative Commons team in Romania, led by Bogdan Manolea and Stefan Gavrilescu and supported by the Association for Technology and Internet, carried out the porting process and public discussion with local and international legal experts and in consultation with Creative Commons International.

The licenses will be launched in Bucharest on September 2 at 1600 during an event hosted by the Center for Independent Journalism. The event will be opened by Bogdan Manolea with a presentation about the philosophy of Creative Commons and an introduction to the Romanian licenses. A panel thereafter will outline practical uses of the CC licenses in Romania, with contributions from Razvan Rusu from Travka, the first Romanian band to license their entire album under a CC license; Ioana Avadani from the Center for Independent Journalism; and Florin Grozea from the popular Romanian band Hi-Q. Other Creative Commons users in Romania are invited to join the launch and participate in the conversation.

At the event, Hi-Q will launch a new contest offering a preview of their next single. The vocal tracks of the band’s three singers will be released under the Romanian CC BY-SA 3.0 license, and fans will be invited to create remixes of the tracks and upload them to http://eok.ro or other music-sharing websites.

Remarking on the completion of the porting process, CC Romania Project Lead Bogdan Manolea says, “With the launch of the localized Creative Commons licenses, more Romanian artists and users will learn about open licenses and its benefits. We hope to have more projects that will involve innovation in intellectual property and will promote open content concepts in Romania. We would like to thank everyone that has been involved in this process, including our partners for the launch of the Creative Commons licenses in Romania – Hi-Q band and the Center for Independent Journalism.”

The Romanian licenses are the 26th ported Creative Commons suite in Europe and the 47th worldwide. The licenses are available through the Creative Commons License Chooser at http://creativecommons.org/license/?lang=ro.

About the Association for Technology and Internet

APTI is an independent Romanian NGO that has the objective of promoting the fair use of information society services in balance with current legal norms. The organization aims to further human rights in the digital environment and support the digital civil rights in the Romanian society. For more information about APTI, visit http://www.apti.ro/.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works, whether owned or in the public domain. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Dr. Catharina Maracke
Director
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit
http://creativecommons.org/international/ro

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CC ROMÂNIA PROMOVEAZĂ CREATIVITATEA PRIN LICENŢELE LOCALIZATE

Bucureşti, Romania şi Berlin, Germania — 2 Septembrie 2008

Creatorii români au acum posibilitatea de a-şi licenţia operele printr-una din cele şase licenţe Creative Commons adaptate la legea română. De astăzi, întreaga serie de licenţe adaptate (versiunea 3.0 de la Atribuire (BY) până la Atribuire-Necomercial-Fără Modificări (BY-NC-ND)) este disponibilă în mod gratuit pentru titularii de drepturi de autor care doresc să licenţieze opera lor doar cu “unele drepturi rezervate”.

Echipa Creative Commons din România, condusă de Bogdan Manolea şi Ştefan Gavrilescu şi susţinută de Asociaţia pentru Tehnologie si Internet – APTI, a parcurs procesul de adaptare al licenţelor şi discuţie publică cu experţi juridici naţionali şi internaţionali şi în consultare cu Creative Commons International.

Licenţele vor fi lansate pe data de 2 Septembrie 2008 în Bucureşti, la un eveniment găzduit de Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent. Bogdan Manolea va deschide evenimentul cu o prezentare despre filozofia Creative Commons şi va introduce licenţele româneşti. Alţi participanţi vor contribui la discuţia privind utilizările practice ale licenţelor Creative Commons în România, printre care Răzvan Rusu (ex-Travka, prima formaţie românească care a licenţiat un întreg album sub o licenţă Creative Commons), Ioana Avădani (Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent) sau Florin Grozea (HI-Q). Alţi utilizatori români de Creative Commons din România au fost invitaţi să participe la lansare şi la discuţia publică.

Cu ocazia acestui eveniment formaţia HI-Q va lansa un nou concurs oferind un preview al următorului lor single. Vocile celor 3 membri ai formaţiei vor fi oferite sub licenţa Creative Commons Atribuire–Distribuire în Condiţii Identice (BY-SA) 3.0 România şi astfel toata lumea va fi invitată să creeze remixuri pe aceste voci şi să pună rezultatele pe site-ul http://eok.ro sau alte site-uri de video-sharing de pe Internet.

Bogdan Manolea, Project Lead pentru Creative Commons Romania, a declarat pentru acest eveniment: “O dată cu lansare licenţelor Creative Commons în limba română, mai mulţi artişti si simpli utilizatori din România au posibilitatea să înveţe despre licenţele deschise şi avantajele lor. Sperăm să avem din ce în ce mai multe proiecte care vor susţine inovaţia în proprietatea intelectuală şi vor promova conceptele de conţinut deschis în România. Nu putem să nu mulţumim partenerilor lansării – Trupei HI-Q şi Centrului pentru Jurnalism Independent, ca şi tuturor celor care ne-au ajutat pe parcursul procesului de adaptare a licenţelor”

Licenţele în limba română sunt al 26-lea proiect Creative Commons adaptat în Europa şi al 47-lea în întreaga lume. Licenţele sunt disponibile prin aplicaţia disponibilă pe site-ul Creative Commons la http://creativecommons.org/license/?lang=ro.

Jurnaliştii interesaţi să participe la lansare sunt invitaţi pe data de 2 Septembrie 2008,  la ora 16 00 la sediul Centrului pentru Jurnalism Independent – B-dul Regina Elisabeta nr. 32, et. 1 (Cladirea Federatiei Sindicatelor Libere din Invatamant aflata intre Piata Kogalniceanu si Bd Schitu Magureanu), Sector 5, Bucuresti. Agenda evenimentului este ataşată la acest comunicat.

Licenţele Creative Commons permit autorilor schimbarea termenilor de licenţiere de la clasicul “Toate drepturile rezervate” la “Unele drepturi rezervate”. Licenţele Creative Commons nu sunt o alternativă la dreptul de autor, ci se aplică pe baza legislaţiei privind dreptul de autor, astfel încât să poţi modifica termenii de licenţiere pentru a permite o  licenţiere deschisă a operelor tale.

Asociaţia pentru Tehnologie şi Internet (APTI) este o organizaţie româneasca non-guvernamentală şi independentă care are drept obiectiv promovarea utilizării leale a serviciilor societăţii informaţionale în concordanţă cu normele legale în vigoare. Organizaţia susţine drepturile omului in mediul digital şi promovează drepturile civile digitale. Pentru mai multe informatii vizitati despre APTI vizitaţi http://www.apti.ro/

Creative Commons este o organizaţie non-profit, înfiinţată în 2001, care promovează re-utilizarea creativă a operelor intelectuale şi artistice, indiferent daca sunt proprietare sau în domeniul public. Prin sistemul său de licenţe gratuite privind dreptul de autor Creative Commons oferă autorilor, artistilor, oamenilor de ştiinţă şi profesorilor posibilitatea alegerii unui spectru flexibil de libertăţi şi drepturi care permit schimbarea sistemului tradiţional de “Toate drepturile rezervate” într-un sistem voluntar de “Unele drepturi rezervate”. Creative Commons a fost lansat şi este susţinut prin efortul generos al mai multpr organizaţii, incluzând Centrul pentru Domeniul Public, Omidyar Network, Fundaţia Rockefeller, Fundaţia John D. şi  Catherine T. MacArthur , şi Fundaţia William şi Flora Hewlett, ca şi alte persoane publice. Pentru ai multe informaţii despre Creative Commons, vizitează http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Dr. Catharina Maracke
Director
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons

Bogdan Manolea
Director Executiv APTI
Creative Commons Romania Legal Lead

Press Kit
http://creativecommons.org/presskit
http://creativecommons.org/international/ro