Last week, Creative Commons (CC) participated in the 45th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). In this post, we report on the session discussions on exceptions and limitations for cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), a topic of utmost relevance to our Open Culture Program.

Close-up of the Brussels' Atomium on a clear day By Geertivp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Close-up_of_the_Brussels%27_Atomium_on_a_clear_day_(cropped).jpg

Last week, Creative Commons took part in the International Public Domain Day celebration at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Two engaging roundtables were hosted, delving into copyright issues concerning the public domain and its future. The event united advocates for open access to cultural heritage, featuring presentations on topics like the monetization and decolonization of the public domain, as well as updates on the Europeana Public Domain Charter. Creative Commons introduced new guidelines published in February aimed at encouraging users to reference institutions when utilizing public domain cultural heritage materials.

“Irises, 1889” by Vincent van Gogh, The J. Paul Getty Museum is dedicated to the public domain by CC0.

The J. Paul Getty Museum just released more than 88 thousand works under Creative Commons Zero (CCØ), putting the digital images of items from its impressive collection squarely and unequivocally into the public domain. This is in line with our advocacy efforts at Creative Commons (CC): digital reproductions of public domain material must remain in the public domain. In other words, no new copyright should arise over the creation of a digitized “twin.”

CC’s new guidelines aim to encourage users to refer to host cultural heritage institutions when using public domain materials. Rooted in the Behavioural Insights Team’s EAST Model, they offer institutions practical design ideas to nudge users into referring back to them.

In 2023, the Creative Commons (CC) Open Culture Platform ran an open call for funded activities as part of our efforts to develop local, non-Western models of open culture, and to support the growth of the open culture movement around the world.

“Barrels of Money” by Victor Dubreuil. 1890s. Brandywine Museum of Art , Public Domain.

On Wednesday, 28 February 2024, at 2:00 pm UTC, CC’s Open Culture Program will be hosting a new webinar in our Open Culture Live series titled “Maximizing the Value(s) of Open Access in Cultural Heritage Institutions.”

“Andean Textile Fragment” by Peruvian. 1500. Walters Art Museum., here slightly cropped, is released into the public domain under CC0.

In January we hosted a webinar titled “Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution” discussing the intersection of indigenous knowledge and open sharing. Our conversation spanned a variety of topics regarding indigenous sovereignty over culture, respectful terminology, and the legacy of colonialism and how it still exists today.

Laterna magica bild målad i färg på glasskiva. Bilder ur solsystemet. from Tekniska Museet Svenska, Public Domain Mark. https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016341596/laterna-magica-bild-malad-i-farg-pa-glasskiva-bilder-ur-solsystemet

2023 was quite a year for the Creative Commons (CC) Open Culture Program, thanks to generous funding from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing & Peter Baldwin. In this blog post we look back on some of the year’s key achievements.

"The Electric Boots” British Library. Public Domain.

In November 2023, the Court of Appeal in THJ v Sheridan offered an important clarification of the originality requirement under UK copyright law, which clears a path for open culture to flourish in the UK.

“Andean Textile Fragment” by Peruvian. 1500. Walters Art Museum., here slightly cropped, is released into the public domain under CC0.

On Wednesday, 17 January, 2024, at 3:00 pm UTC, CC’s Open Culture Program will be hosting a new webinar in our Open Culture Live series titled “Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution.” As we observed a few years ago, there is growing awareness in the open culture movement about issues related to the acquisition, preservation, access, sharing, and reuse of cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples and local communities (including traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions), heritage in the context of colonization, and culturally-sensitive heritage.