CC Licensing Guidebook for Government Agencies and NGOs

Michelle Thorne, April 10th, 2008

CC Taiwan has produced a lovely and informative 36-page guidebook to CC licensing for government agencies and NGOs. The document is available to download in Taiwanese Mandarin.

In other publication news, a translation of Lawrence Lessig’s book Free Culture is now available in Taiwanese Mandarin. The translator, Ching-Yi Liu, is a professor at the National Taiwan University and a former student of Lessig. A short introductory preface for the translated book was written by CC Taiwan Project Lead Tyng-Ruey Chuang.

To read more about CC-related activities in Taiwan, such their lively panel session at the National Digital Archives Program 2008 Annual International Conference, check out the CC Taiwan newsletter archives.

Cover image by CC Taiwan. CC BY SA http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/tw

ccMixter’s Trifonic Releases Tracks into Commons

Victor Stone, April 9th, 2008

After finishing at USC music department and working with electronic superstar BT, Brian Trifon joined his brother Laurence to enter ccMixter’s first remix contest with a one-off band they called Trifonic. Their entry Bored on Your Backside went on to be the top vote getter in the contest and album opener for the WIRED remix CD. As Trifonic they entered two more contests at ccMixter - and won both of those placing Stranger from Below on Magnatune’s Lisa Debendictis: Mixter One album and The Next Step in the Copyright Criminals movie.

Then Hollywood started calling and their music was getting licensed all over including for TV shows such as CSI. 

Spurred by their success on ccMixter they decided to make it official and collaborated with songwriters and singers to create their aptly named debut album Emergence and in a very generous gesture back to the Commons have released the solo tracks, including the a cappellas into the Commons under a BY-NC license for sharing and remixing. You can download the tracks from ccMixter.

“Thanks to the community at ccMixter for all the inspiring remixes and support!” says Brian. “We wouldn’t be here without ccMixter… seriously, that was our first real step as Trifonic.” Read more about their history, working process and other happy things in their Artist Spotlight Q & A.

Open Educational Resources Survey

Jane Park, April 9th, 2008

In May of 2007, the Center for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report called, “Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources.” This report published the findings from a study in 2006, which included the results of a survey taken by 193 people in 49 countries. At the time, a quarter of them used one of the Creative Commons licenses, with half using no license at all. This data curiously contrasted with what the majority of the respondents actually said, according to the report, that “they were deeply involved in OER activities, mostly as users of open content and only slightly less as producers.”

However, two  years is a long time considering the nature of the net. That’s why, in order to accurately track and capture developments in the world of OER, CERI/OECD has posted an OER Follow-up Survey on the web. Whether you’re a teacher or researcher, ccLearn encourages you to contribute just 15 minutes to this survey. Your answers will be valuable in gauging and relaying the (perhaps leaps and bounds of) progress that has occurred in the field of OER and open learning. 

ccNewsletter #6 — CCi

Melissa Reeder, April 9th, 2008

Looking for another way to stay abreast of current CC news? Subscribe to the bi-monthly ccNewsletter — a one stop shop for all the current CC related news you could want. This month’s newsletter highlights the amazing work of Creative Commons International’s (CCi) affiliate network as well as the most interesting and informative links from the CC Blog. And in case you’d rather read in print (or just love well-designed documents), check out the ccNewsletter #6 PDF — collaboratively designed by CC Philippines project leads and CC’s Senior Designer Alex Roberts.

From My Space to Hip Hop: New Media in the Everyday Lives of Youth

Jane Park, April 9th, 2008

On April 23, the MacArthur Foundation and Common Sense Media are hosting a public forum at Stanford University on “how digital technologies and new media are changing the way that young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life.”  Julia Stasch, the Vice President of the foundation, will shed light on MacArthur’s $50 million digital media and learning initiative in addition to introducing presenters. Some topics of interest include:

• Teen Socialization Practices in Networked Publics
• Understanding New Media in the Home
• Hip Hop Music and Meaning in the Digital Age
• New Media from a Youth Perspective

Powerhouse Museum Joins Flickr: The Commons

Timothy Vollmer, April 8th, 2008

Market Street, Sydney | No known copyright restrictions.

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia has become the first museum in the world to release publicly-held historical photographs for access on the Flickr: The Commons. Powerhouse has released an initial 200 photographs from its Tyrrell Collection, and will continue to add more from this 7900+ image collection over the coming weeks. The Powerhouse Museum joins the Library of Congress in the ‘Commons’ initiative. The Library of Congress is sharing over 3,300 photos from its vast collection on the Flickr site.

The key goals of The Commons are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives, and secondly to show how your 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

Read the Powerhouse announcement.

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Design cover for James Boyle’s new book — Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind

Mike Linksvayer, April 7th, 2008

Creative Commons board member (now chair) James Boyle’s forthcoming book The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind which will be published by Yale University Press in Fall of 2008 under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial license.

You could design the book’s cover. To do so, participate in a contest held at Worth1000 with $300 in prizes:

The book is about the fate of the public domain – the realm of material that is available for everyone to use without permission or fee. The book argues that we have been neglecting the vital role of the public domain in innovation, culture, science and politics and increasingly “enclosing it” by expanding the length, breadth and scope of intellectual property rights – copyright, patent and trademark – to cover material that used to be in the public domain. Some examples:

1. We have extended the length of the copyright term repeatedly and retrospectively, so that most of 20th century culture (books, movies, poems, photos) is still subject to copyright — even if it is not commercially available and we cannot find a copyright holder. That means we cannot digitize that work and make it freely available online.
2. Copyright over music has become increasingly “granular,” covering even the tiniest 2 or 3 note sample. Would jazz or the blues have developed under the rules we have today?
3. Broad patents over foundational technologies hamper scientific research in genetics and synthetic biology. Vague business method patents and software patents pose barriers to entry into new markets and hurt free and open source software.
4. Digital fences and digital rights management are used to prevent “fair uses” of books, songs and movies.

The book ranges over all these subjects – discussing everything from Thomas Jefferson’s view of intellectual property and the way that soul musicians borrowed from gospel standards (and were in turn sampled by hip hop artists and remixers) to the challenges posed to the emerging field of synthetic biology. The author argues that we need a movement – akin to the environmental movement – to preserve the balance between the realm of intellectual property and the “commons of the mind.”

The contest ends in seven days. Read on for the complete rules.

Berkman@10, Berkman awards, Lessig v. Valenti replay, and the world ten years ago

Mike Linksvayer, April 7th, 2008

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the wellspring of Creative Commons, is celebrating its tenth year with a public conference and awards.

Conference registration is open. A number of current and past CC staff and international project leads will be present.

Nominations for the first Berkman Awards due April 11:

The awards will be presented to people or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the Internet and its impact on society over the past decade.

The primary awardee will receive $50,000, and five smaller awards will be given in specific categories such as: human rights/global advocacy; academic and intellectual leadership; pro bono work; infrastructure/communications tools; arts/culture/media; and news/information/journalism.

Berkman is also highlighting media from its first ten years, including a classic Lessig v. Valenti debate from 2001.

Creative Commons launched December, 2002, a little over five years ago. Wikipedia is seven. Ten years ago Berkman and Mozilla were just getting started. The free software movement was just getting started 25 years ago, but widespread recognition of its potential is not much more than ten years old. What’s up for the next 5, 7, 10, and 25 years? Berkman@10 may be the best conference venue to obtain some insight. The conference, and the future of openness, are sure to be interesting.

LugRadio Live USA this weekend in San Francisco

Mike Linksvayer, April 7th, 2008

LugRadio Live, the GNU/Linux/Rock conference from the UK, is coming to San Francisco this weekend. Register for only US$10.

Speakers include lots of people from the open media world, including yours truly. Check the schedule.

DRAFT Creative Commons Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike Licenses

Mike Linksvayer, April 4th, 2008

Next in a series addressing a suggested Wikipedia CC BY-SA migration checklist, today I’m publishing a DRAFT Creative Commons Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike Licenses.

This draft statement attempts describe 1) what CC does as a license developer and steward, 2) why CC Attribution-ShareAlike licenses play a special role in the movement for free cultural works — clearly inspired by the free software movement, and 3) CC’s intentions as steward of Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, in the context of (1) and (2).

Note that while (1) provides a reasonable explanation of the role CC plays for all of the licenses it develops, (2) and (3) apply only to Attribution-ShareAlike licenses. Anyone who wants a thorough understanding of the contours of content in this age should take the time to understand the movement this statement addresses. However, other communities have different requirements. It is conceivable that at some point CC will need to address the requirements of other communities in relation to other particular CC licenses and tools that help those communities. One example of this — which takes a different form because all existing CC licenses are too restrictive for the community in question (but public domain and the in-development CC0 waiver are just right) — is the Science Commons Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data. Still other communities rely on more restrictive CC licenses.

This particular draft statement has been previewed to many people within CC, CC’s international project teams, Wikipedians, and free software advocates. However, I take responsibility for its unwieldy verbosity and any minor or fundamental flaws it may have, and for taking too long to take this step of posting for public review. Comments and criticism are strongly encouraged. Leave a comment on this post, on the wiki (requires registration), or on the cc-licenses mailing list (requires subscription).