Creative Commons awarded $10M grant from Hewlett Foundation to support renewed strategy

On behalf of the Creative Commons staff, Board, Affiliate Network, and global community, we are thrilled to announce that the Board of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has unanimously approved an unrestricted multi-year grant in the amount of $10 million to Creative Commons. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been a proud founding … Read More “Creative Commons awarded $10M grant from Hewlett Foundation to support renewed strategy”

European Commission hearing on access to and preservation of scientific information

Along with over 50 organizations, I attended a recent European Commission public hearing on access to and preservation of scientific information. Among those present were representatives from national and regional ministries, higher education institutions, libraries, data repositories, public and private funders, scientific societies, supranational research centres, journal publishers and advocacy groups. A majority of those … Read More “European Commission hearing on access to and preservation of scientific information”

Does your sharing scale?

Hannes Grobe / CC BY-SA Techdirt’s Mike Masnick is perhaps the most prolific blogger on the ill impact of overly restrictive legal regimes, including of course copyright and patents, but also trademark and even employment law (see Noncompete Agreements Are The DRM Of Human Capital) and often on people delivering real value to customers (sad … Read More “Does your sharing scale?”

Rights Expression vs. Rights Enforcement: clarifying the Associated Press story

The Associated Press wants to track reuse of their content through a “news registry.” This registry “will employ a microformat for news developed by AP”: The microformat will essentially encapsulate AP and member content in an informational “wrapper” that includes a digital permissions framework that lets publishers specify how their content is to be used … Read More “Rights Expression vs. Rights Enforcement: clarifying the Associated Press story”

UK National Portrait Gallery threatens Wikipedia user over public domain images

Museums, archives, and cultural institutions have been forced to re-examine their relationship with the digital presentation of public domain works in their collections. This has brought the issue of “copyfraud” to the forefront. Recently, the UK’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) threatened legal action under UK law against a Wikipedia user for, among other things, copyright … Read More “UK National Portrait Gallery threatens Wikipedia user over public domain images”