Google Image Search Implements CC License Filtering

Fred Benenson, July 9th, 2009

Today, Google officially launched the ability to filter search results using Creative Commons licenses inside their Image Search tool. It is now easy to restrict your Image Search results to find images which have been tagged with our licenses, so that you can find content from across the web that you can share, use, and even modify. Searches are also capable of returning content under other licenses, such as the GNU Free Documentation License, or images that are in the public domain.

To filter by CC search, go to Google’s advanced Image Search page and select the options you’d like in the “Usage rights” section. Your results will be restricted to images marked with CC licenses or other compatibly licensed photos.

Remember, Google can only provide search results that its algorithms find tagged with the license you specify; it is your obligation to verify the license of the image you’re using and make sure you’re conforming to its guidelines.

This is a huge step forward for the future of image search on the web, so congratulations to the Google team on another great CC implementation!

Vietnam opens national license draft for discussion

Michelle Thorne, July 9th, 2009

CC Vietnam has released its first license draft (pdf) and is inviting the Vietnamese and international community to join in reviewing it. The goal of the license porting, coordinated by Creative Commons International, is to legally and linguistically adapt the CC licensing suite to national law. That way, creators enjoy additional legal certainty while better understanding the license terms in their own language.

An English retranslation (pdf) of the Vietnamese license is available, including an explanation of its substantive legal changes. The team has also provided supplemental documents about the jurisdiction’s civil code and corresponding copyright law.

CC Vietnam hosted at the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) and led by Dr. Lynne McNamara, Dr. Phuong Nguyen, and Mr. Tu Ngo, and initiated by Mr. Hung V. Tran. The Vietnamese license porting is supported by Ms. Thuy Dang and Ms. Hang Dang of the renown law firm D&N International.

National CC projects rely on content creators and license users worldwide to give feedback to improve local legal tools and build a strong community. Please consider weighing in on CC Vietnam’s drafting efforts by subscribing to their mailing list.

Thank you and congratulations, CC Vietnam!

vosotros presents: the years

Cameron Parkins, July 8th, 2009

vosotros presents: the years is the latest release from CC-friendly label Vosotros. Described as a “a musical journey through time”, the CC BY-NC-SA licensed album is being released as a free download through out the month of July while simultaneously being sold through a variety of digital outlets.

The album, which is a collaboration between Vosotros and Sam Barsh, is generating some amazing buzz and digital sales. Most exciting for those in the CC-community is the following quote from Amazon-blog Chordstrike (the album peaked at #8 on Amazon’s Classic R&B download chart):

Assembled by a crew of some premier sidemen, this fluid set of thumping soul is the sort of album that as fun to listen to as it seems like it was to make. With one eye pointed towards the past and the other one winking, they show love for not only the funky greats of the past 30 years, but affection for kitsch, too. Vosotros takes their motto, “music for you-all,” seriously. They’ve made the album available as a free download for a limited time and licensed it under Creative Commons encourage sharing. Enjoy it, remix it, and tell your friends.

Download the album for free or order it from vosotros’ online store.

Reuse of material in the context of education and research

Jane Park, July 6th, 2009

Last December, when ccLearn issued its report to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Creative Commons Netherlands published its own entitled, “Reuse of material in the context of education and research.” However, the report was only available in Dutch until recently. Now, thanks to Paul Keller (Creative Commons Nederland) and Wilma Mossink (SURF), the English version of the report is online. It recommends the most open Creative Commons license, Attribution Only, for reuse of material in the context of education and research. From the original announcement,

“The rise of the Internet and other new ICT tools have led to drastic changes in the options for distribution and reuse. These changes demand a reorientation in the rules for sharing educational and research materials.

Since sharing educational and research materials is high on the agenda of Dutch higher education and research institutions, SURFdirect and Creative Commons examined the different Open Content licences that are available and that will make clear to reusers what they are permitted to do with material held in repositories.

SURFdirect has indicated that the choice of licence must not create barriers to the future use of educational and research material, that it can be applied at both research universities and universities of applied sciences [hogescholen], and that this can in fact be done in 80% of cases, this report recommends using the most liberal Creative Commons licence for textual output…

Another important recommendation in this report is that SURF should set up an effective awareness-raising campaign in order to introduce and explain Creative Commons licences to those ‘in the field’.”

The report itself is licensed CC BY, and you can download the report as an openly editable document.

Thursday @ EYEBEAM - Copyright & The Creator: Who Cares What’s Fair?

Fred Benenson, July 6th, 2009

If you are in New York on Thursday this week, you are invited to a panel I’ve helped organize with our friends at Eyebeam on fair use and creators. I’ll also be moderating the panel and giving a brief primer on fair use:

This Thursday, July 9, 6–8PM at Eyebeam, there will be a panel discussion on fair-use and appropriation within activist and creative practice moderated by Creative Commons product manager and Eyebeam research associate Fred Benenson; artist/curator Mark Tribe, audio-visual remix artist Jonny Wilson (Eclectic Method), Postmasters gallery director Magdalena Sawon, and Eyebeam resident Jon Cohrs.

A sad day for fair use

Mike Linksvayer, July 6th, 2009

Last week a U.S. district court judge issued a preliminary injunction against the publication of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, a book based on the idea of J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caufield character as a 76 year old man. Strong reactions to the ruling have come from many across the legal, literary and technology fields, for example Mike Madison, Jim Brown, and Mike Masnick.

My Media Musings delivers the bottom line, easily understood by all:

Seeing judges ban books is never a good thing. Seeing a judge ban a book for such flimsy reasons as this is downright frightening. If her ruling stands, expect to see a long line of similar suits in the near future.

Of course one way to take an affirmative stance for reasonable copyright (still strongly trending toward increasing unreasonableness, as evinced by the above) is to grant permission in advance for some uses of your work with a CC license or all uses with the CC0 waiver. Another is to support our work financially and spread the word.

ccSalon SF (6/24/09) Video Now Online

Allison Domicone, July 2nd, 2009

Thanks to everyone who came out last week for the ccSalon in San Francisco (check out the photos), and a special thanks, as always, to our generous venue host, PariSoMa. We had a great turnout, and amidst the friendly mingling and tasty refreshments, we got to hear from three stellar presenters discussing CC, culture, history, and digital storytelling - and now you can hear them too!* Check out the presentations (via Blip.tv) from:

Francesco Spagnolo, Director of Research and Collections at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley
Dave Toole, CEO and Founder, Outhink Media
Nancy Van House, Professor, UC Berkeley School of Information

We’re currently planning our next salon for mid-August, so stay tuned: check back on our wiki or join our events mailing list.

* A big thanks to summer intern Lee-Sean Huang for his time and video editing skills!

ccLearn at the Whipple Hill User Conference 09

Jane Park, July 2nd, 2009

ccLearn presented on CC and Open Educational Resources at the WhippleHill User Conference yesterday in Boston. WhippleHill Communications is a company that started off more or less building websites for schools. As the Internet evolved, so did WhippleHill’s business model into a service one meeting schools’ online communication needs. WhippleHill targets independent high schools and is a for-profit. However, like a lot of companies who offer services around next generation web technologies, they promote open content and tools for their clients. They also host an annual user conference where they invite cutting edge initiatives to lead sessions on new media and technologies pertinent to the changing world. ccLearn had the opportunity to lead one of these sessions entitled, “Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources: How the world is changing and what you need to know to keep up” targeted mainly at education around CC and copyright for high school students.

The slide show is up under CC BY (except otherwise noted). We would like to acknowledge Jessica Coates’ slide show “Creative Commons in the Classroom” from which we co-opted some great slides!

Thanks again to WhippleHill and its President, Travis Warren, for the strong support!

Carmen and Camille Launch “Mix. Promote. Sell.” Remix Campaign on Indaba

Eric Steuer, July 1st, 2009

Twin sister pop-rock act Carmen and Camille recently launched a very cool CC remix project with Indaba Music. They’ve made the audio stems from their previously unreleased song “Shine 4U” available under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and are encouraging people to use them in new songs. Since the stems are under CC’s most permissive license, you’re free to not only share but also sell and commercially license your remix, as long as you give the duo credit for supplying the source material.

The sisters, whose music has been featured on MTV’s TRL and who have licensed many of their tracks to shows such as The Hills, worked closely with Indaba on the project. Says vocalist/guitarist Camille, in the project’s press release:

“I think what makes us most excited about the outcome of this campaign is getting to hear our song redone in many different ways. We can’t wait to hear what people can add to the track. And the new versions of the song may bring us new fans that it would have taken us a long time to reach, which is great.”

We think these two have the right idea!

Upload your remix to Indaba Music through July 21st, 2009. Winners will be announced on August 14th; prizes include Camel Audio software, Sennheiser headphones, and pro memberships to Indaba Music.

Indaba tells us that entries are currently at the rate of about 1,000 per week, which means there’s a huge amount of music being created that will be available for all kinds of uses under the CC license that Cameron and Camille chose. We’d love to hear from anyone who ends up selling or commercially licensing their remix - if this applies to you, please shoot us a note at press@creativecommons.org.

GOOD: “We Like to Share” interview series

Eric Steuer, July 1st, 2009

This past December, I conducted a series of interviews with people about the value of sharing information and resources in their respective fields of work. The interviews were edited into a podcast for GOOD entitled “We Like to Share” that was made available to people who attended the GOOD December series of events in Los Angeles. Last week, GOOD began posting CC BY-licensed text versions of the interviews on its website and will roll out one a week over the next few months. The first interview is with Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, who was the online strategist for the Barack Obama campaign. Check back at “We Like to Share” each Thursday (starting tomorrow) to read interviews with iconic sharers like Jimmy Wales, Chris Dibona, Frances Pinter, Jesse Dylan, and Curt Smith.