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Category: Policy

Reproductions of Public Domain Works Should Remain in the Public Domain

Copyright, Licenses & Tools, Open Access
Bust of Nefertiti

It has come to the attention of Creative Commons that there is an increased use of CC licenses by cultural heritage institutions on photographic reproductions and 3D scans of objects such as sculptures, busts, engravings, and inscriptions, among others, that are indisputably in the public domain worldwide. A recent example is the 3000-year-old Nefertiti bust…

We Support the UNESCO Recommendation on OER

Copyright, Open Education
A group of students and a teacher Image credit: "Teaching," Joris Louwes, CC BY-ND 2.0

As part of the drafting committee, Creative Commons (CC) fully supports the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) on which the member states will vote at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference in November. We laud the multitude of national governments and open education experts engaged in the development of this international…

Access to Information Is Not Universal: Here’s Why That Matters

Copyright, Open Access, Open Data
Image credit: UNESCO, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Today is the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI). You may be wondering why this day is necessary—particularly in 2019, when the average person is inundated with an estimated 34 gigabytes of information every day, from emails and text messages to Youtube videos and news programs. In fact, it’s easy to take information…

New Canadian Report Offers Balanced Recommendations for Progressive Copyright Reform

Copyright

Earlier this week the Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) released a report with 36 recommendations on the statutory review of Canadian copyright law. The report caps a year-long study, including a public consultation and committee hearings that included a variety of stakeholders. The document makes progressive recommendations that support a…

Europeans should tell Parliament to vote NO to copyright filters

Copyright

It’s the end of the line for the EU’s proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The dramatic negative effects of upload filters would be disastrous to the vision Creative Commons cares about as an organisation and global community. The continued inclusion of Article 13 makes the directive impossible to support as-is. Last…

EU copyright directive moves into critical final stage

Copyright

In September 2018 the European Parliament voted to approve drastic changes to copyright law that would negatively affect creativity, freedom of expression, research, and sharing across the EU. Over the last few months the Parliament, Commission, and Council (representing the Member State governments) were engaged in secret talks to come up with a reconciled version…