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Category: Policy

Why cOAlition S’ Rights Retention Strategy Protects Researchers

Copyright
2010 PopTech Science and Public Leadership Fellows talking together Credit: 2010 PopTech Science and Public Leadership Fellows by PopTech (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Last month, cOAlition S released its Rights Retention Strategy to safeguard researchers’ intellectual ownership rights and suppress unreasonable embargo periods—Creative Commons (CC) keenly supports this initiative.  Modernizing an outdated academic publishing system  Under a traditional publishing model, researchers who want to publish their articles in a journal typically need to assign or exclusively license their…

Artificial Intelligence and Creativity: Why We’re Against Copyright Protection for AI-Generated Output

Copyright
A collage of a scientist staring at computer screens Image: "Love is Art Science 95" by Kollage Kid, licensed CC BY-NC 2.0.

Should novel output (such as music, artworks, poems, etc.) generated by artificial intelligence1 (AI) be protected by copyright? While this question seems straightforward, the answer certainly isn’t. It brings together technical, legal, and philosophical questions regarding “creativity,” and whether machines can be considered “authors” that produce “original” works. In search of an answer, we ran…

Sharing Indigenous Cultural Heritage Online: An Overview of GLAM Policies

Copyright
Ndebele Tribe in South Africa 15318215771_72c527508c_k Photo of the Ndebele Tribe in South Africa by UN (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)-

This post was co-authored by CC’s Open Policy Manager Brigitte Vézina and Legal and Policy Intern Alexis Muscat. Tomorrow is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, a day that seeks to raise awareness of and support Indigenous peoples’ rights and aspirations around the world. We at Creative Commons (CC) wish to highlight this important…

Copyright Law Must Enable Museums to Fulfill Their Mission

Copyright

Today is International Museum Day and we at Creative Commons (CC) are thrilled to celebrate the institutions that curate, care for, and provide access to the world’s rich diversity of cultures, ideas, and forms of knowledge. This year’s theme, dedicated to the universal values of equality, diversity, and inclusion, is a testament to museums’ ability…

Does WIPO’s New Leadership Have the Vision to Shake Up Global Copyright Policy-Making?

Copyright
WIPO Main Building WIPO Main Building (Arpad Bogsch Building, WIPO (CC BY-NC-ND)

New beginnings at WIPO  On March 4, Daren Tang was nominated director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations agency dealing with intellectual property matters. Tang is currently the chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and his six-year term as top WIPO official will start on October…

Now Is the Time for Open Access Policies—Here’s Why

Copyright

Over the weekend, news emerged that upset even the most ardent skeptics of open access. Under the headline, “Trump vs Berlin” the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported that President Trump offered $1 billion USD to the German biopharmaceutical company CureVac to secure their COVID-19 vaccine “only for the United States.” In response, Jens Spahn, the…

Why We’re Advocating for a Cautious Approach to Copyright and Artificial Intelligence

Copyright
Public Domain artwork

On 14 February 2020, Creative Commons (CC) submitted its comments on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s Issues Paper* as part of WIPO’s consultation process on artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP) policy. In this post, we briefly present our main arguments for a cautious approach to regulating AI through copyright or any new…

Save the Date: Public Domain Day 2020 Is Happening in January in Washington, D.C.

Copyright, Events, Open Access, Open Culture

Creative Commons is thrilled to announce that the second Public Domain Day celebration is happening on January 30, 2020 in Washington, D.C. We’re working with our friends at the Internet Archive, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law, Creative Commons USA, the Institute for Intellectual Property &…

NGO Network to Support Implementation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation

Copyright, Open Access, Open Education
The New UNESCO House in Paris New UNESCO House in Paris. United Nations. 1958-September-01 / CC BY-NC-ND

The UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation was unanimously adopted on November 25 by 193 UNESCO member states at the 40th UNESCO General Conference. This milestone offers a unique opportunity to advance open education around the world. Why does it matter? This Recommendation is an official UNESCO instrument that gives national governments a specific list…