Thanks to The Wired Campus, I recently stumbled across this new wiki whilst looking for a visualization tool for a ccLearn research project. The new wiki is called Digital Research Tools, also known as DiRT. DiRT is edited by a team of librarians from Rice University’s Digital Media Center and Sam Houston State University’s Newton Gresham library. Basically, DiRT reviews the myriad research tools available for free (and some for profit) on the internet in a human-readable way, so that “professors, students, think-tankers, corporate intelligence gatherers, and other inquisitive folks [can] do their work better.” These “snapshot reviews” are immensely helpful for even seasoned researchers, since the web is always popping up with new open source tools. To see a list of tools in DiRT’s queue and to add your own, check out their del.icio.us page.
So far, the reviews cover tools that allow you to analyze texts, author interactive works, collect and visualize data, conduct linguistic research, and more. All current and future reviews are licensed CC BY.
CC got a nice plug in a recent article in The Art Newspaper, highlighted in regards to the 36th Annual Conference on Legal Issues in Museum Administration that took place in early April:
Sharon Farb, associate university librarian at UCLA Library in Los Angeles, said that as museums put more images and content online, more users will ask to use it; she advises that museums not require licences for everything. Instead, they should make clear on their websites which content can be reproduced without permission, and should post all licence forms for those objects which require them. Virginia Rutledge, Vice President and General Counsel of the non-profit Creative Commons, San Francisco (CC), described the CC licence which piggybacks on existing copyright law to let copyright holders “signal when it is just fine” for a user to copy, or even alter, a work. The New Museum in New York, for example, uses CC licences to permit copying. The CC website posts six different licence forms to choose from, and tells you how to mark your content so users will know what copyright rules apply (https://creativecommons.org).
We are always looking to expand into diverse areas and having CC mentioned in a publication as widely read and as highly regarded as The Art Newspaper is amazing news for our efforts to engage with museums and the art world as a whole.
Similarly, Rebeca Tushnet has a thorough and thought provoking recap on her blog of the CC co-sponsored event “Who Owns This Image?: Art, Access, and the Public Domain after Bridgeman v. Corel” that took place at the end of April. The whole post is worth a read – it is great to CC being mentioned more and more in connection with mainstream cultural institutions.
Musiquetes is a new collection of CC-licensed children’s songs by cultura lliure, the same group that published the amazing Música lliure and Música lliure II. The songs are released under a CC BY-NC license, ported for both France and Spain as the project is aimed at groups in both countries.
Supported by La Bressola, an association of Catalan schools in the south of France (where Catalan is spoken) who strive to keep the Catlan language alive, Musiquetes is being distrusted both online and through former Featured Commoner the Enderrock Group (who has placed the CD in their magazines). By freely licensing Musiquetes, cultura lliure are able to reach a wider audience, furthering their ideological goal through legally sound methods of distribution.
Just a reminder that the first Creative Commons Technology Summit is coming up in less than two weeks. There’s still space to register if you’re interested in attending.
The list of panelists has grown; the full schedule is available in the wiki. We’re looking forward to great discussions around digital asset management, digital copyright registries and how CC technologies integrate with and enable them. And for those of you who aren’t in the Bay Area, we’re planning to make video from the day available online.
Hope to see you there.
Today the Nordic jurisdictions Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are joined by CC Norway in offering Creative Commons licenses legally and linguistically adapted to national law.
The CC Norway team is headed by Project Leads Gisle Hannemyr and Peter Lenda, who with Haakon Flage Bratsberg, Thomas Gramstad, Tore Hoel, and Vebjørn Søndersrød, coordinated the license porting process with Creative Commons International and conducted public discussion with local and international legal experts.
The Norwegian licenses, available at Version 3.0, constitute the forty-sixth localized Creative Commons licensing suite.
The launch of the licenses will be celebrated on Friday, June 6th at 10:00am during a press conference at Oslo University College. For more information, please read our press release in English and Norwegian.
Takk, thank you, and congratulations to CC Norway!
[Text in English and Norwegian]
Oslo, Norway and Berlin, Germany — June 6, 2008
The Creative Commons Norway team has successfully ported the Creative Commons licensing suite to Norwegian law. The localized licenses will be unveiled today at a press conference at Oslo University College.
The team responsible for coordinating the porting process and public discussion with local and international legal experts consists of Haakon Flage Bratsberg, Thomas Gramstad, Gisle Hannemyr (Public Project Lead), Tore Hoel, Peter Lenda (Legal Project Lead), and Vebjørn Søndersrød.
“We have taken the initiative to launch the Creative Commons licenses in Norway to promote new forms of production, sharing and distribution of creative works,” explains the team’s Public Project Lead, Gisle Hannemyr. “To achieve this, we have been going through a process of adapting the international license to Norwegian copyright legislation. During this process, we have worked together with community stakeholders and copyright experts to reach a result that both reflects the spirit of Creative Commons and the letter of Norwegian copyright law.”
The launch event will be held as a press conference at Oslo University College on June 6th at 10:00 am. The Creative Commons Norway team will be present and give a brief presentation about Creative Commons and the licenses translated into Norwegian. The team will also be available to answer questions.
Norway is the forty-sixth jurisdiction worldwide to port the Creative Commons licensing suite.
About Oslo University College
Oslo University College is a young, dynamic institution based on strong traditions. It was established in 1994 when the Norwegian college system was restructured and 18 smaller colleges in the Oslo area merged. Oslo University College offers the broadest portfolio of professional studies available in Norway. OUC is a dynamic institution based on strong traditions in professional education and research. With 11,000 students, OUC are the fourth largest educational institution in Norway. For more information about Oslo University College, please visit: http://www.hio.no/content/view/full/4563.
About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works, whether owned or in the public domain. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit https://creativecommons.org.
Contact
Dr. Catharina Maracke
Director
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
catharina [at] creativecommons [dot] org
Press Kit
https://creativecommons.org/presskit
https://creativecommons.org/international/no/
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Eksperter i Norge tilpasser CC-lisenser til nasjonal lovgivning
Oslo, Norge og Berlin, Tyskland – 6. juni 2008
Arbeidsgruppen i Creative Commons Norge har fullført arbeidet med å oversette og tilpasse Creative Commons-lisensene til norsk. De ferdige lisensene vil bli offentliggjort i dag på en pressekonferanse på Høgskolen i Oslo.
Arbeidsgruppen som har koordinert arbeidet med å tilpasse lisensene, og gjennomført en offentlig diskusjon om innholdet i dem med lokale og internasjonale opphavsrettseksperter, har bestått av Haakon Flage Bratsberg, Thomas Gramstad, Gisle Hannemyr (offentlig prosjektleder), Tore Hoel, Peter Lenda (juridisk prosjektleder), og Vebjørn Søndersrød.
“Vi har ønsker å gjøre Creative Commons-lisensene tilgjengelig i Norge for å fremme nye former for produksjon, deling og distribusjon av kreative verk,” forklarer arbeidsgruppens offentlig prosjektleder, Gisle Hannemyr. “For å oppnå dette, har vi tilpasset de internasjonale lisensene til norsk opphavsrettlovgivning. I løpet av denne prosessen har vi jobbet sammen med interessenter og opphavsrettseksperter for å komme fram til et resultat som reflekterer både Creative Commons’ ånd og åndsverklovens bestemmelser.”
I samband med lanseringen vil det bli holdt en pressekonferanse på Høgskolen i Oslo på 6 juni på 10:00. Arbeidsgruppen i Creative Commons Norge vil være tilstede og gi en kort presentasjon om Creative Commons og de norske lisensene. Arbeidsgruppen vil også være tilgjengelig for å svare på spørsmål.
Norge er den førti-sjette jurisdiksjon i verden som har tilpasset Creative Commons-lisensene til nasjonal lovgiving.
Om Høgskolen i Oslo
Høgskolen i Oslo er en ung, dynamisk institusjon basert på sterke tradisjoner. Den ble etablert i 1994 når norsk det norske høyskole-systemet ble omstrukturert og 18 mindre høyskoler i Oslo-området ble slått sammen. Høgskolen i Oslo har det bredeste tilbud av faglige studier i Norge. HiO er en dynamisk institusjon basert på sterke tradisjoner i faglig utdanning og forskning. Med 11000 studenter, HiO er den fjerde største utdanningsinstitusjon i Norge. For mer informasjon om Høgskolen i Oslo, se: http://www.hio.no/content/view/full/4563.
Om Creative Commons
Creative Commons er en ideell organisasjon, grunnlagt i 2001, med det mål å fremme fremmer kreativ gjen bruk av litterære og kunstneriske arbeider, enten disse er opphavsrettslig beskyttet eller er i det fri. Gjennom sine opphavsretts-lisenser tilbyr Creative Commons forfattere, kunstnere, forskere, og lærere muligheten til å velge mellom beskyttelser og friheter som muliggjør deling gjennom en tilnærming som best kan beskrives med ordene: “noen rettigheter reservert”. Creative Commons mottar støtte fra blant annet: Center for the Public Domain, the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, og The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, samt private donasjoner. For mer informasjon om Creative Commons, se: https://creativecommons.org.
Dr. Catharina Maracke
Director
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
catharina [at] creativecommons [dot] org
Press Kit
https://creativecommons.org/presskit
https://creativecommons.org/international/no/
Creative Commons is working with the Oslo University College to create jurisdiction-specific licenses for Norway from the “unported” Creative Commons licenses.
CCi Norway List
Legal Project Lead: Olav Torvund
Public Project Lead: Gisle Hannemyr
More about Oslo University College
Creative Commons’ affiliate institution in Norway is Oslo University College (OUC).
Oslo University College is a young, dynamic institution based on strong traditions. It was established in 1994 when the Norwegian college system was restructured and 18 smaller colleges in the Oslo area merged.
Oslo University College offers the broadest portfolio of professional studies available in Norway. OUC is a dynamic institution based on strong traditions in professional education and research. With 11,000 students, OUC are the fourth largest educational institution in Norway.
Oslo University College has more than 50 academic degrees in the following areas: Business Administration, Engineering, Fine Art, Design and Drama, Health Sciences, Media Studies, Social Sciences, and Teacher Education.
The fashion industry has always been an interesting topic for those interested in copyright and creativity – appropriation, reusue, sampling, etc. are approached in a sometimes similar, yet often starkly different, manner than in other content industries. Styles thrive off of building on pre-existing trends, sometimes directly imitating an established look, and the market decides whether or not this reconceptualization is of worth. It is a debate that has unexpected depth and raises numerous interesting questions – TechDirt has a bevy of great articles that discus the issues more thoroughly.
Seemingly noting this debate, Berlin-based fashion label Pamoyo have decided to release the designs for their clothes under a CC BY-NC-SA license, allowing people to recreate Pamoyo’s styles at home as long as they don’t sell their creations. Similarly, someone can build upon one of Pamoyo’s existing designs – if they release the new design publicly they must do so under the same license, continuing the process of reuse and creativity.
Unrelated to CC but interesting nonetheless is Pamoyo’s decision to use either recycled clothing or organic cotton for the clothing, with a portion of all profits donated to German Environmental group Grass Routes. The designs haven’t been posted yet, but keep your eyes on this space as they should pop up soon (via SmartPlanet).
Lucas Gonze, engaged in a blogversation about what music labels really are and what they can be in the future, doesn’t know, but has a suggestion for how a label might figure it out (emphasis added):
Mo bettah, Mr. Hands
Clustering is something labels are already doing. Blue Note is for jazz. Warp is for a particular kind of electronica. Matador, Sub Pop, Metal Blade…
Which brings me back to Ian’s proposal to Guy Hands: reconfigure your labels to be based around affinities and focused narrowly enough to serve roughly the same audiences from release to release.
I’ll buy that this is an important thing to do, and the need is not going away. But I’m still skeptical that record companies can cannibalize their current business to do the right thing in this new niche, and in the meantime YouTube, Myspace, CC Mixter, and GYBO are doing fine without them.
So here’s my proposal to Guy Hands as to what he should do with EMI’s new music business.
Creative Commons has posted a Request for Proposals (RFP) regarding the future of the ccMixter.org site, and Victor has posted detailed comments on this. If I were EMI I would step in to operate CC Mixter. It’s a fully functional cluster of music makers with a strong hold on its niche. I don’t know how to monetize it at the scale EMI would need, but I do know that at least EMI would be in the game. Take over and learn how it works. Use the time to gain the institutional skills in managing community. This will take a while, but in a few years the Mixter community will have started to reverse colonize your company. And that’s EMI needs — to absorb the values and skills needed to manage clusters.
Also check out Lucas’ music blog, a very cool mix of the old and new — fresh guitar recordings of sheet music in the public domain (recordings under CC BY-SA) and an experiment in digital music packaging and of control of a musician’s identity on the web.
Modiba Productions is an international music production/publishing company and record label that aims to combine a love for music and a fervor for activism. Focusing primarily on ‘afrocentric’ music, Modiba has been the source for two great CC-based contests over the past year and a half, one with Malian artist Vieux Farka Touré and the other with Brazilian band Nation Beat. We recently caught up with Modiba co-founder Eric Herman and were able to get some background on Modiba, what they aim to accomplish, and how CC-licenses have helped facilitate their goals in combining their passion for music and zeal for social activism.
Can you provide us with a bit of background on what Modiba Productions does? How did it get started? Who is involved?
Modiba Productions is a social activist music production company, record label, and publishing company focusing on international – primarily what we dub “afrocentric” – music. Our mission is to use the best in international music as a vehicle for the empowerment of Africa and its Diaspora. Jesse Brenner and I founded Modiba while we were seniors at Wesleyan University as a means of combining our passions for music and activism. We have grown into a working family that includes an operations manager, a graphic designer, a lawyer, and a staff of interns.
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