Creative Commons licensing for game content

creators

Jessica CoatesProject Manager

Creative Commons Clinic

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

AUSTRALIA

part of the Creative Commons international initiativeCRICOS No. 00213J

AUSTRALIA

part of the Creative Commons international initiativeCRICOS No. 00213J

Code v content

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

Open Art Museum by el_aguacil under CC Attribution v2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/12388825@N06/1444349332/

…music, script, lyrics, art, sound recording, film…

Why license content?

• Practical – need to be able to distribute etc whole product, not just code

• Collaboration and innovation – user generated content, machinima etc.

• Clarity – remove any uncertainty as to rights

• Principle – sharing is good (for your players and your pocket)

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

Enter Creative Commons

Aims to make content more freely available by providing free licences that creators can use to give permission in advance

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

Attribution-ShareAlike

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

Licences

Attribution

Attribution-NonCommercial

Attribution-NoDerivatives

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

creators mix and match these elements to make a licence:

Licences

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

Licences

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

Finding CC material

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

Before using CC material

• Check that you’re following the licence (ask for extra permission if needed)

• Do you need any extra rights?

• DRM?

• 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

Why open license?

• Increases reach and reputation

• Facilitates collaboration

• Gives new value to stagnant material

• Community engagement

• Reduced admin

• Legal clarity

• Increases sum of human knowledge, encourages innovation

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

Licences

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

Licences

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

Licences

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

Using CC licences

• As well as licence generator – also ccPublisher, plug-ins, individual, site generators

• Place button/text in credits, on individual works, websites

• Don’t forget to say what you’re licensing

• Don’t forget metadata

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

Before using CC licences

• Do you have the rights to license the material?

• Do you need extra rights yourself?

• Non-revocable, worldwide?

• Are you choosing the right licence?

• Don’t use CC for code – GPL

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

CC and open source?

• Some grey area – but code licences generally don’t work for content

• Ease of compliance?

• CC licences endorsed by FSF and Debian (some)

• Compatible with GFDL?

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

GFDL BY-SA

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

GNU

Case studies

AUSTRALIApart of the Creative Commons international initiative

CRICOS No. 00213J

Thanks

http://www.creativecommons.org

http://www.creativecommons.org.au

info@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/.