APaul Keller | CTA Wageningen 21 april 2008

copyright basics

• copyright arises automatically at the moment a work (not an idea) is created.

• condition: sufficient (>=0) originality

• expires 70 years after the death of the author (or in case of institutional authors 70 years after first publication)

• is an exclusive right to interdict any any uses of the copyrighted work

• copyright law protects authors. performing artists ar protected by so-called neighbouring rights.

• technical protection measures (DRM) form a protective layer on top of copyright protection.

exploitation and moral rights

• copyrights

• temporary and permanent reproductions of the work in any medium. modification of a work

• broadcasting, publishing, distributing, renting, performing, showing, making available, ‘on-demand services’

• moral rights

• non transferable rights of the author to protect the integrity of her personality. (right to first publication, attribution, protects against unauthorised modifications, destruction of works.)

exceptions and limitations

• there are a number of exceptions and limitations of copyright protection (fair use rights in the US). there is no international standardisation of these rights.

• the right to make quotations

• private copying

• educational exceptions

• reporting about public intrest events

• re use of press material by the press

The challenges posed by copyright

• do not sufficiently recognize that there are other motivations for knowledge production than rent seeking.

• limits authors who want to share information and works

• limits access to information especially for so called orphan works (that have become accessible via digital networks)

• reinforce the economic relations between developed and develloping economies

• pursue a one size fits all approach that threats professionals, non-professionals, government actors, educational users and large commercial distributers the same.

about Creative Commons

A

about Creative Commons

• set up in 2002 as a US non-profit corporation by Prof. Lawrence Lessig.

• the CC licenses (based on US copyright law) have been launched on 16 dec 2002.

• currently active (having ported licenses) in 44 counties worldwide.

• Creative Commons Netherlands is a collaboration of Knowledgeland, Waag Society and the institute for information law (with suport from the Dutch Ministry for Education, Culture and Science)

• more than 250 million CC licensed objects available on the internet (more than 45 million pictures on flickr.com alone)

the Creative Commons licenses

the Creative Commons licenses (1)

• the Creative Commons licenses are the most widely used open content licenses (the other is the GFDL)

• they are an instrument for creators to exercise your copy(authors) rights: to give away certain rights while reserving others

• the licenses have three different layers:

• human readable

• lawyer readable

• machine readable

the Creative Commons Licenses (rights)

• all six Creative Commons licenses allow everyone to:

• to Share - to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work (for non-commercial purposes)

• to transfer the work into another format

• under the condition that the user gives proper attribution to the original author and provides a link to the licenses

• the licensor can choose if she wants to limit these rights to non-commercial uses of the licensed work or allow reuse and distribution for commercial purposes as well.

the Creative Commons licenses (reuse)

• the author can further determine if he wants to allow distribution or performance of derivative works (remixes) or not (No Derivative Works)

• it is also possible to make the right to distribute remixes conditional on the fact that they are also released under a Creative Commons license that allows remixing (ShareAlike)

the 6 core licenses:

Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDeriveratives

Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike

Attribution - NonCommercial

Attribution - NoDeriveratives

Attribution - ShareAlike

Attribution

Important characteristics

• expressly drafted not to limit 'fair use' rights

• a non-exclusive, irrevocable public license

• CC licensor enters into a separate license agreement with each user

• no warranties

• license terminates immediately upon breach

some examples