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Creative Commons and Open Content Licensing:
an introduction
Jessica CoatesProject Manager
Creative Commons Clinic
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Creative Commons
• Founded in 2001 by US academics, including Prof. Lawrence Lessig
• Concerned that default copyright laws were restricting creativity in the digital environment
• Aims to make creative material more freely available through open access licences
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Default copyright
• Default copyright law prohibits unauthorised reproductions/communications/performances of copyright material
• Some exceptions, but extremely limited – eg no general private use/artistic use exception
• Most material available online has no licence/notice saying how it can be used
• Even where creators want to allow some additional use of their material, very difficult to do so without a lawyer
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Default copyright
Things you can’t do without permission:
• Email an article to a friend
• Download a file onto your hard drive
• Copy a picture/song/film onto your blog page
• Use a song in a podcast or in the soundtrack of a home movie/short film
• Create a digital collage/video out of news clips
• Make a remix or mash up
• Record a cover song
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Default copyright
Copyright law is important. But in its current form it:
• doesn’t reflect the behaviour of ordinary users
• doesn’t reflect the wishes of many creators
• makes it difficult to collaborate or remix
• stifles creativity and innovation by preventing technologies from being used to their fullest
• makes more jobs for lawyers
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Enter CC
A set of licences designed to:
• facilitate sharing;
• be flexible;
• be easy to use and understand; and
• apply in the same way anywhere in the world.
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
CC Myths
CC licences are not:
• Anti-copyright – just another rights management tool for creators
• Anti-commercial – can charge for first use, commercial uses, “gold” service, or embed advertising
• Right for every situation – look carefully at what you want
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Licences
4 licence elements:
Attribution – attribute the author
Noncommercial – no commercial use
No Derivative Works – no remixing
ShareAlike – remix only if you let others remix
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Licences
creators mix and match these elements to make a licence eg:
Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike – can remix, tweak, and build upon the work, as long as:
• you credit the author;
• it is for non-commercial purposes; and
• you license your new creations under the same licence
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Choosing a licence
• Licence generator – on CC website – uses simple questions to determine appropriate licence
• Also available:– ccPublisher – downloadable
desktop wizard– Microsoft plug-in –allows you to
CC license straight from Office programs
– Individual site generators eg Flickr
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Benefits
CC can be of use to artists:
1. as a source of material; and
2. as a rights management and distribution tool.
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
CC as Resource
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
CC as Resource
CC provides:
• a pool of material;
• legally available for use (eg as source material, background music, samples);
• without additional permission and (generally) without payment;
• under certain conditions.
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Licence Use – June 2006
• Total = 140 million webpages
• Most - but not all – use non-commercial limitation
• Moving towards more liberal licences
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
Use of licence elements – June 2006
CRICOS No. 00213J
Finding CC Material
• Built in metadata makes CC materials easy to find.
• Search engines with dedicated CC functions include Google, Yahoo, Flickr and Firefox (Linux web browser).
• Creative Commons homepage lets you search by type of material.
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
CC sites
Good places to find CC sounds:
• ccMixter – remix community
• Jamendo, Magnatune, ccHits – dedicated CC music sites
• Opsound, Soundtransit – CC ‘sounds’ (music and other)
• Garageband.com, Artistserver – general sites that include CC material
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Before using CC material
Things to think about:
• Check that your use falls within the licence terms (can ask for extra permission if you want to make extra uses)
• Make sure your use isn’t ‘derogatory’
• Use common sense
• Don’t forget to attribute
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
CC as Tool
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Why share?• Facilitates collaboration – eg joint works,
remixes
• Increases reach and reputation – eg unsigned bands, previews, ‘word of mouth’
• Access new business models – eg ‘niche’ markets, advertising
• Gives new value to ‘back catalogue’ and ‘junk’ material – eg BBC Creative Archive
• Community engagement – eg peer review
• Reduces costs for users - eg schools, libraries, charities
• Legal clarity and reduced admin
• Increases sum of human knowledge, encourages innovation
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Why use CC licences?
• Already drafted, ready to use and free – no lawyers needed
• Established system that is easy to use and understand, for creators and users
• Built-in metadata makes material easy to find
• Specifically designed to allow collaboration - without giving up copyright or attribution
• Compatibility with other CC licensed material
• Internationally applicable and recognised
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
What to CC license?
You can publish/archive:
• previews/excerpts
• samples
• ‘drafts’
• short works
• long works
• material that would not otherwise be published – eg source material, back catalogue, ‘junk’
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Where to share material
• Popular sites – eg Flickr, Garageband.com Myspace
• Remix communities – eg ccMixter, Opsound
• CC businesses – eg Revver, Magnatune
• Own website
• Peer-to-peer, bit torrent
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Before using CC licences
Things to think about:
• Who do you want to use the material, and when? eg global, perpetual
• Are you choosing the right licence? eg do you want them to be able to change your material?
• Do you have the rights to license the material? including 3rd party permissions
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
NB - Are you an APRA member? If so, you may need APRA’s permission to CC license – talk to APRA
Case Studies
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
Revver • Free video sharing site – remunerates
authors through embedded advertising
• compulsory BY-NC-ND licensing – cause maximum distribution essential to business model
• Eepybird.com’s “Extreme diet coke and mentos experiment” - watched over 6 million times; made US$30,000
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
“the terms of service for many upload sites give site owners free reign to edit or repurpose uploads however they like, it’s a step forward every time a new creator opts into the CC license.”
Cory Doctorow• Sci-fi author and editor of Boing-Boing
• 2003 - released first book, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, as e-book under BY-NC-ND at the same time as published
• Re-released in 2004 under BY-NC-SA
• 30,000 downloads first day, now in 6th print run
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
“Throughout history, writers have relied on day jobs . . . to make ends meet. The Internet not only sells more books for me, it also gives me more opportunities to earn my keep through writing-related activities.”
Magnatune• Aims to reach niche markets not serviced by
traditional record industry
• MP3 previews available under a CC Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike licence - allows people to promote the music online and remix
• Users pay for higher-quality versions, or for commercial use licences (eg for advertisement or re-mix CD)
• All proceeds split 50/50 with artist
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
“Find a way of getting music from the musician to their audience that's inexpensive and supports musicians. Otherwise, musical diversity will continue to greatly suffer under the current system where only mega-hits make money.”
Thanks
http://www.creativecommons.org
http://www.creativecommons.org.au
AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No. 00213J
This slide show is licensed under a Creative Commons Australia Attribution licence. For more information see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/.
