Why is open licensing important for OGP?Open Government Partnership

Civil Society Day workshop

● Legal clarity● Or else! chilling effects● Legal problems = huge timesuck● Make it invisible● Posting online not enough● Put in PD or attach open license● Machine-readable license● It’s not so difficult!

Why do need legal standards and open licensing in the first place?

● Efficient reuse by all, esp gov’t

● Effective gov’t spending; maximize investments

● Citizen participation, collaboration, transparency

● Promote creativity, innovation, unexpected uses and applications

● Spur economic activity● Example: Europeana - http:

//pro.europeana.eu/case-studies-edm

What is enabled by clarifying legal standards?

What is Creative Commons and how does it work?

● CC licenses built on traditional copyright law● works within existing system by allowing

movement from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved”

● CC gives creators a choice about which freedoms to grant and which rights to keep

● CC minimizes transaction costs by granting the public certain permissions beforehand

License Building Blocks

All CC licenses are combinations of 4 elements:

Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivativesShareAlike

Anatomy of a CC license

Human readable deed

Lawyer readable code

Machine readable metadata

Creative Commons license chooser

https://creativecommons.org/choose/

Important License Attributes 1

● Scope is copyright and related rights● All are non-exclusive, irrevocable licenses● All require attribution● All permit reuse for at least noncommercial

purposes in unmodified form● Do not contract away user rights

(exceptions/limitations)● CC licensor enters into separate license

agreement with each user

Important License Attributes 2

● License runs with the work; recipient may not apply technological measures or conditions that limit another recipient’s rights under the license, e.g. no DRM

● no warranties● license terminates immediately upon breach● CC is not a party to the license

CC0 Public Domain Dedication

● read “CC Zero”● universal waiver, permanently surrenders

copyright and related rights, placing the work as nearly as possible into the worldwide public domain

Public Domain Mark

● not legally operative, but a label to be used by those with knowledge that a work is already in the public domain

● useful for very old works where we know it is in the public domain

● only intended for use with works in worldwide public domain

Examples of CC open license adoption

Examples of country-specific open government license

● “License free”● “Public domain”● “No restrictions on use”● “CC0”● “Most open licensing terms

available”● “CC BY is default”● “Enable free reuse, including

commercial”● “Open Definition is baseline”

● all about minimizing restriction, maximizing reuse!

Many statements, common goal

● Public domain = problems solved● Even better: harmonize limitations &

exceptions● Ongoing “license envy”● So be it, but keep out “poison” clauses

that kill interoperability● Example: OGL 2.0● Good moves: Open Definition WG,

LAPSI 2.0

Challenges

So what should we use?

● Codify & harmonize limitations and exceptions to copyright!

● CC0 to waive copyright worldwide● Open Definition as baseline

○ means, reuse for any purpose (even commercial), with at most requirement to attribute and sharealike

○ conformant licenses = http://opendefinition.org/licenses/

● Push for most progressive policies, as fewer restrictions leads to increased reuse

Resources and getting involved

● Open data handbook - http://opendatahandbook.org/

● LAPSI project - http://www.lapsi-project.eu/ ● EC consultation on PSI Directive - http://bit.

ly/14JyJ8K ● CC affiliates in your country - http://wiki.

creativecommons.org/CC_Affiliate_Network

● OKFN, GODI, Sunlight Foundation● Open Definition Working group

Graphics Credits

● Policy Icon - by The Noun Project - Public Domain

● Question Icon - by Rémy Médard, from The Noun Project - CC BY

● Stamp Icon - by Marino Cagnina, from The Noun Project - CC BY

● Big Idea Icon - Public Domain

● Puzzle Icon - by John O’Shea, from the Noun Project - CC BY

This work is dedicated to the public domain. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.Attribution is optional, but if desired, please attribute to Creative Commons.