Creative Commons Australia -

Australasian Case Studies - the book!

jess — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:08:57 -0500

Those who have been following the international CC blog will know that over the last month CC has launched an exciting new initiative - the CC Case Study Wiki. This is a place for people to upload stories of the commons - the whys, hows and wherefores of successful Creative Commons practitioners from around the world.

What you might not have realised is that CC Australia, and in particular staffer Rachel Cobcroft, played a major role in the project - helping to design the wiki and providing the initial group of more than 50 case studies, drawing on material we've been collating from the CC community in Australia and the region for the last few years.

With over 100 case studies, the wiki is now officially the most comprehensive documentation of the experiences of different groups using the Creative Commons licences worldwide, from individual artists to large government corporations. With interviews, statistics and examples of work, the case studies provide information on business models, motivations and impact - all with a view to helping others understand how Creative Commons might work for them.

And, for the time-being anyway, most of them are from Australasia.

To celebrate this, and help to spread the word even more, CCau has put together a book - Building an Australasian Commons. This book sets out the best of the Australasian case studies in fully illustrated and annotated form. To make this wealth of material easier to navigate, the book also divides the case studies into different clusters: music, film, visual arts, education, open democracy, and cultural and governmental institutions. It all can be downloaded in PDF form, printed out for personal use - or, if you'd like your own version, drop us a line via info@creativecommons.org.au and we'll see what we can do.

Keep an eye out as we develop the case studies even further - releasing new versions, different formats, not to mention volume 2 of the case studies book. Or better yet - join in by writing your own case study. It can be about yourself, someone you know, or just someone you admire. If they're using CC, we want to know their story.

CCau v3.0 Licences - Public Consultation (at last!)

jess — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:25:26 -0500

In the lead up to our Building an Australasian Commons event, CCau is very pleased to announce that we have (finally) finished the first drafts of our version 3.0 licences. Once these are finalised and officially launched, the Australian licences will be up-to-date with the latest version of the CC licences internationally.

But before we finalise them, we thought we'd see what others had to say about them. So we're releasing two of the draft licences for public consultation:

Attribution (BY) and

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (BY-NC-SA).

We've decided to do this for two reasons:

we believe in crowd sourcing - the more eyeballs who look at the licences before they go live, the better; and
we value your input - we want to make sure that the Australian CC community is happy with the changes to the licences, and get feedback on any other changes you'd like.

Getting everyone's feedback on the v3.0 licences is particularly important because we've decided to depart slightly from our traditional drafting approach. Rather than writing the licences as a straight translation from the Unported (ie non-country specific) licences provided by Creative Commons International, we've instead decided to base them on the excellent licences produced last year by our friends in New Zealand, which they in turn based on the England and Wales licences. The great thing about these licences is that they're written in plain English rather than legalese - which means they're much easier for non-lawyers to understand.

We're also adding some clarifying language on the licensing of derivative works to the BY and BY-NC (Attribution-Noncommercial) licences which isn't in either the Unported licences or the New Zealand licences - so we wanted to see what people thought about this.

So if you have the time, take a glance over the new licences and let us know what you think. If you have any comments, you can send them to us directly at info@creativecommons.org.au. Or, better yet, send them to the CCau mailing list - that way we can get some community discussion going on any issues raised.

More detail about the licences and the public consultation process is provided below. However, if you have any particular questions, feel free to email us - we're always open to public inquiries and feedback.

What are the v3.0 changes?
There's a detailed explanation of the changes made as part of the v3.0 upgrade on the CC international website, but in summary, the main changes that were introduced in v3.0 are:

* new language that makes it clear that a person cannot improperly imply a relationship with or endorsement by the licensor or author when they use a CC work (see here).
* the CC Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licences now include the ability for derivatives to be re-licensed under a “Creative Commons Compatible License” (see here).
* minor clarifications to the language to take account of concerns expressed by Debian (see here) and MIT (see here).
* harmonised moral rights (see here) & collecting society (see here) language for all jurisdictions. However, this doesn't really affect Australia, as the approach taken is the same as that already used by the Australian v2.5 licences.

What do the plain English Australian licences look like?
Like the New Zealand and UK licences we are basing the new Australian licences on, our v3.0 licences are very simply drafted. A lot of the language is drawn directly from the Unported licences, however it has been simplified and rearranged to make it easier to understand and follow. The main feature is a series of lists that set out clearly what users can do, what they can't do, and what they must do. Other than that, they contain the same basic statements as to disclaimers, warranties and introductory materials that are included in all the CC licences.

We've made a particular effort to make sure the Australian licences align with the Unported licences - after all, the whole point is that each licence has the same effect anywhere in the world, and you shouldn't have to worry about which country version you're working with. The one exception to this is with respect to the strict requirement to include a URL link to the relevant Creative Commons licence every time you use a work. We've followed the UK and NZ example by loosening this up a bit, to allow you to provide this reference to the licence in any manner reasonable to the medium you are working in. This ensures, for example, that someone playing a song on their radio station can attribute the CC licence just by mentioning it, and perhaps providing a link on the station's website, without breaching the licence. You could arguably do this under the Unported licence too, but we wanted to make it clear.

Why are there different country licences?
One of the main goals of CC is to create a group of standardised licences that have the same effect anywhere across the globe. However, creating licences that will have legal effect in all countries can be difficult, particularly as each jurisdiction will usually have its own requirements regarding, for example, moral rights and consumer protection. This is why CC country offices to create jurisdiction-specific versions of each of their licences. These licences are designed to have the same effect anywhere in the world while at the same time complying with the technical legal requirements of particular jurisdictions.

You can find out more about the licensing porting process here.

What is the new language in the BY and BY-NC licences?
The new language in the BY and BY-NC licences is intended to clarify how derivative works can be on-licensed. While the CC licences currently spell out exactly how on-licensing applies to the original work and collections, and how it applies to derivative works under the ShareAlike licences, they are less clear on how derivative works can be licensed where there is no ShareAlike requirement.

This makes it hard for users to know how they can license derivative works they create with material that is available under the BY and BY-NC licences (ie the two licences that allow derivative works that aren't ShareAlike). You can work out how you are allowed to license such works by applying the basic principles of copyright and contract law - but this doesn't really help non-lawyers. So CC International has a great licensing table on its FAQ page that helps people work out how they can license works incorporating CC material. However, we thought it didn't hurt to include some language in the licence itself.

In line with the CC licensing table, the language we've written up makes it clear that, in the absence of a ShareAlike clause, you are free to license a derivative work incorporating CC material under any licence you like, as long as it is less permissive than the CC licence the original material is under. This is because the derivative work still contains parts of the original work, and you can't pass on rights to those parts that you do not own.

Feel free to drop us a line if you want more clarification on this.

What should I include in my comments?
The main aim of the licence drafting process is to make sure that the licences:

* have the same effect as the Unported licences provided by CC International;
* comply with Australian law; and
* are simple for people to use and understand.

You should focus your comments on these issues. However, we're always open to hearing about other suggestions, or even just typos.

Where can I get the licences?
You can download the Attribution (BY) licence here and the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (BY-NC-SA) here.

Why only two licences?
Because managing all six of the new licences is already hard enough, without having to manage comments on all six as well. Instead we've decided to release the simplest of the licences (ie BY) and the most complex (BY-NC-SA). They also contain just about all of the language that's used for the other licences. But if anyone particularly wants to see the other licences, let us know and we'll send them your way. Any changes made as a result of the public consultation process will, of course, be applied across all the licences.

How long does the consultation last?
We're aiming to get the licences finalised and launched in the next few months, so we're asking that people provide their comments by 1 August 2008 if they want them to be taken into account in the v3.0 licences. However, we're always open to feedback, so even after this, feel free to send in your comments.

New Zealand CC band making a mark

elliott — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:09:39 -0500

In the spirit of the upcoming Building an Australiaisan Commons conference here in Australia exciting stories of Creative Commons’ proliferation in the Asia-Pacific are spurring quite a buzz. An inspiring story out of New Zealand over the weekend that CCANZ let us know about; local NZ band Knives at Noon were on Channel 3 talking about why they release their music under BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence.

In the article keyboardist Oli Wilson says they built a fanbase through their MySpace but wanted to see their music have a 'life of its own'. As Oliver says, "...we relinquish the right for people to copy it, they're allowed to burn it, and they're allowed to download it, and they're allowed to sample and remix it." In the lead up to their first national tour (in New Zealand) it is pretty awesome to have a string of remixes attached to your songs, especially when they are from producers both in New Zealand and overseas.

Knives At Noon will release the best of these remixes later in the year.

You can read the full article or view the video of the story on the Channel 3 website.

Maximising Creative Value and IP: World IP Day Seminar

jess — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:44:10 -0500

It's World IP day this week and how better to celebrate than coming along to a free half day seminar on Maximising Creative Value and IP?

It's being run by QUT's Creative Industries Faculty, and goes from 1:45pm this Wednesday (not strictly World IP day, but close enough) at QUT's Kelvin Grove campus, here in Brisbane.

It looks like an interesting program, with lots of discussion of how to utilise new technologies to create business and innovation models for the creative industries. Jessica Coates of CCau will be presenting, along with:

* Anna Rooke, CEO, Creative Industries Precinct Pty Ltd
* Suzannah Conway, Chief Executive Officer, Australasian CRC for Interaction Design
* Regan Gourley, Patent Attorney, Cullen & Co.
* Matthew Tobin, Creative Director, Urban Arts Projects
* Christina Waterson, Architectural Artist
* Paul Loeffler-White, Manager IP Australia, Queensland

You can find the full details here

At long last - Mayer and Bettle: the Sequel!

jess — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:43:01 -0500

That's right - the kooky CCau duo Mayer and Bettle are back! And this time, they have a friend.

Following on from their fabulously successful cinematic debut, in which they introduced us all to Creative Commons, the new film provides a bit of an update as to what has been happening in Creative Commons over the last two years, and gives us a bit more information on using the Creative Commons licences. To do this, they travel into Creative Commons world, and run into one of Bettle's fans and collaborators, Flik.

Like the previous animation, this sequel was commissioned to inform young people (mainly targeted at upper high school) about the Creative Commons licences. It was produced by the original team, with animation by Pete Foley and sound and music by Chris Perren. The project was co-ordinated by our own Elliott Bledsoe. The animation was commissioned for the QUT Smart Train, which will be traveling around Queensland over the next few months, telling people all about some of the great things happening here at QUT.

And the animation is, of course, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia licence. This means you can distribute, re-use and remix it as you like. Cut up the animation, grab the sound, play with the music - we'd love to see what people can do with our little guys.

You can download the full video in high resolution flash format here.

Powerhouse update

jess — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:12:09 -0500

Sailing on a Sunday Morning
by magical-world CC BY-SA

Yes, that's right - we've got an update on the Powerhouse Museum's foray into the Commons on Flickr already.

As part of their initiative to release out-of-copyright photos from their Tyrrell Collection on Flickr (see below), Powerhouse has just launched a new initiative - Tyrrell Today. It aims to extend the Powerhouse Museum’s set of images on The Commons by allowing members of the public to post contemporary images from the same Sydney-centric locations as the original Tyrrell photos.

And, excitingly for us, they're encouraging people to provide the photos under a CC licence, so that the Powerhouse can archive them as part of their ongoing collection.

Some of you might note that this is very similar to the Click and Flick project that the National Library has been running for the last couple of years, which allows people to add photographs to the national collection by uploading them to Flickr. However, PHM is making their initiative more interactive, by encouraging people to use the photographs to respond specifically to images from the original Tyrrell collection. People simply upload their photos onto Flickr, tag them with TyrrellToday, and then link to the original photo they're 'responding' to. PHM also adds a geographical dimension by providing a map for people to identify where their photograph is from.

It's great to see Australian institutions leading the world in using Web 2.0 technologies to help our national collections reach their full potential.

Australia's history now free, thanks to the Powerhouse Museum

jess — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:21:05 -0500

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney made a fabulous announcement the other day - they have joined with the Commons on Flickr project as the first museum in the world to release publicly-held historical photographs for access on Flickr. PHM joins the US Library of Congress, the world's largest photo library, which released its first images for public access in January this year.

An initial 200 black and white images from the Powerhouse's Tyrrell Collection of Sydney life in the late 1800s and early 1900s were made available last Tuesday, with 50 more added since then.

The really exciting thing about this initiative is that the images are designated 'no known copyright restrictions', a new label for Flickr created specifically for this project. This means that the photographs are able to be re-used however you like, without any limitations or fear of copyright infringement - for commercial purposes, as part of a remix work etc. You don't even need to attribute (though it's still polite to).

This is one of the most publicised efforts by an Australian archival institution to release material in their collection that has fallen into the public domain for free re-use by the general public. And apparently it's been a roaring success. According to this blog post by PHM staffer Seb Chan, they've had over 20,000 views int he frst week, and hundreds of tags have been added.

And to further encourage public interaction with their collection, the PHM also publishes select images from its Photo of the Day blog under Creative Commons.

APC, Document Freedom Day and more CCau materials

jess — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:46:11 -0500

From the CCau mailing list - Andrew Garton has announced that the Australian arm of the Association of Progressive Communication have released 10 years of essays, lectures, reports and articles dealing with information communication technologies for cultural development (ICT4CD) as part of Document Freedom Day. All the papers are available for sharing and re-publication under a Creative Commons Australia license.

Thanks, Andrew, for drawing our attention to this fabulous initiative. As part of CCau's contribution to the day, over the last few weeks we've been updating our Materials archive to include a whole lot of new powerpoints, speeches and publications. All under CC licences, of course. Feel free to check them out, download them, use them for your own purposes. More should be going up in the next few weeks.

From Andrew's post to the list:

A global initiative celebrated by roughly 200 teams from more than 60
countries, "Document Freedom Day" is aimed at increasing awareness of
the value of open document standards. apc.au, an open standards
advocate, is proud to support "Document Freedom Day 2008."

Open standards allow any conforming application to work with the data
they encode, preventing vendor lock-in and providing an open playing
ground for competition. Open standards are public domain and do not
require legal forms or commercial agreements to use them, allowing
anyone to produce an application that meets the standard. Open document
standards help drive competition and bring freedom of choice to the
creators and consumers of information. By using open document standards
we can ensure that our information is accessible as required, now and in
the future, regardless of the applications in use.

"Many have experienced the pain of trying to convert from one
proprietary format to another when exchanging documents (eg: from MS
Word to Lotus)," says Grant McHerron, apc.au Technical Director.
"Formatting is lost or broken and re-work is often required. This
extends even to different versions of the same product, as those using
Office 2000 are unable to read information created by MS Word 2007.
Storing information in open document standards facilitates the flow of
information and prevents its loss when older applications become obsolete."

In addition to the value of open standards for storing information,
apc.au is also a champion of open licensing. Andrew Garton, apc.au's
Managing Director, says "The author may choose to reserve some or all
rights through open licenses, providing consumers with immediate access
to how content may be used, re-used and / or attributed without having
to communicate with neither the author nor any 3rd party. Open licenses
puts rights management directly into the hands of authors of any form
and medium."

With support from the Free Software Foundation, Google, IBM, Red Hat
Linux, Sun Microsystems and many other organisations, Document Freedom
Day is a volunteer, grass roots effort to ensure people and
organisations realise the importance of open document standards.

building an australasian commons

elliott — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:54:59 -0600

CCau is pleased to announce that details for its 2008 national conference, Building an Australasian Commons, have now been finalised.

Building an Australasian Commons will be held on 24 June 2008 at the State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

The event provides an opportunity for those interested in the free internet to come together to exchange ideas, information and inspiration. It brings together experts from Australasia to discuss the latest developments and implementations of Creative Commons in the region. It aims to be an open forum where anyone can voice their thoughts on issues relating to furthering the commons worldwide.

The conference's full program can be viewed below, or downloaded here.

Attendance is free and open to all comers. However, places are limited, so if you're interested in attending please register ASAP. Registration closes 10 June. You can download the registration form here.

Building an Australasian Commons is affiliated with Creating Value: Between Commerce and Commons, which is being run by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation at the Brisbane Convention Centre from 25-27 June 2008. This conference showcases the latest research into enterprise and innovation along the dynamic boundary between market and non-market, cultural and economic, commercial and community. It features a range of prominent international keynotes, including Henry Jenkins, Mark Deuze and Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield. All Building an Australasian Commons participants are encouraged to attend both conferences.

After Building an Australasian Commons conference, stay on to experience Creative Commons in action at the second Australian ccSalon. Grab a drink and watch the CC Film and Video showcase, or peruse Sydney's Powerhouse Museum's Photo of the Day exhibition. Then get into the groove with music by Sydney performer Yunyu and Andrew Garton's Terminal Quartet. The full program for the ccSalon is below the conference program.

building an australasia commons conference program - Upload a doc

ccSalon program - Upload a doc

image: Them colors... by jurek d. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licence.

EngageMedia Facebook application

elliott — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:13:35 -0600

Australian-based video distribution platform and network EngageMedia have released a Facebook application that allows users of the social network to embed the 'Latest Videos' feed into their profile. The widget, EngageMedia.org Latest Videos (+ to profile), further expanded the potential reach of videos published under open content licences.

EngageMedia uses the Attribution-Noncommerical-NoDerivative Works 3.0 unported licence as the default copyright management for content on the site. And they allow filmmakers to choose any other Creative Commons licence or the GNU Free Documentation licence (or any other type of licence specified by the user) to help facilitate the distribution of their content. This type of licensing facilitates legal syndication of the content, including syndication via the Facebook application.

For EngageMedia, this widget furthers its aim to show you films you might never have seen on a distribution platform that is free from “the control of big media conglomerates.”

For more about the widget, read here.

Asia and the Commons Case Studies 2008

elliott — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:15:27 -0600

The Asia and the Commons case study project represents an effort to uncover exemplary individuals and organisations engaged in the commons in the Asia-Pacific region. From Australia and New Zealand to Malaysia and India—in text and film and music and image—this booklet is a snapshot of the Asian commons. The booklet has been prepared as part of ACIA: International Workshop on Asia and Commons in the Information Age in Taiwan on 19-20 January, 2008.

This research is part of the Creative Commons Clinic research program, funded by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology. It is being undertaken in collaboration with Creative Commons Australia as part of the iCommons Local Context, Global Commons initiative.

Its primary goal is to examine past, present, and future implementations of commons-based projects to offer insights into the innovative operation and possible future direction of Asia and the Commons.

The case studies assembled to date represent activities in nine countries, broader regions such as the Arab nations, and global efforts towards sustainability and social justice, revealing creative ways of participating in the commons. Featured are remix artists, performers, open-source software programmers, filmmakers, collecting institutions and publishing houses focused on democracy and change, who demonstrate a diverse set of motivations to engage with the shared ideals of openness and community collaboration.

We hope that you enjoy reading these vignettes, and are inspired to contact the individuals and organisations involved. This booklet will contribute to a larger selection of case studies to be presented at the iSummit ’08, to be held in Sapporo, Japan, between 29 July and 1 August, 2008.

Case Studies

To this end, we invite any individual or organisation participating in the commons to submit their stories to info@creativecommons.org.au. Bountiful thanks go to all contributors and participants in these projects for helping to make the commons a flourishing cultural movement.

Or you can download the booklet here

If you want to do your own print run of the case studies, a printer-ready version with bleeds included in available here here

View the whole PDF online in this Scribd frame:

International Workshop on Asia and Commons in the Information Age

jess — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 19:32:48 -0600

For those who are looking for something to do during the slow late-January period, can I suggest a quick trip to Taiwan?

The International Workshop on Asia and Commons in the Information Age (ACIA) will be taking place in Taipei, Taiwan on Jan 19 and 20, 2008. It's a gathering of experts from across the Asia Pacific region, to meet, greet and generally discuss all things open access.

The objectives of the ACIA workshop are to:

1. Strengthen the “Asia Commons” by bringing in more members and improving links to related organizations within the Asia Pacific region;
2. Promote the commons in the region, and providing a forum to develop practical strategies for this promotion;
3. Provide a forum for industry engagement, and in particular identifying and presenting successful commercial uses of open content licensing within the region;
4. Provide a forum for discussion of topics of importance to the Asia Commons (e.g., the meaning of ‘open’ in our age, and the history and role of the commons in Asia).

You can find out more details here. Hope to see you all there!

vibewire.net relaunches with integrated CC licensing

elliott — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:39:01 -0600

Youth media portal Vibewire.net has relaunched today with integrated Creative Commons licensing options. Vibewire has been publishing young people's voices on the things that matter to them since 2002.

The latest revamp of the website allows contributors to CC licence their content–whether it be a blog entry, article, review, interview, story, short story, poem or comment–under their licence of choice.

It also allows them to specify a CC licence as a default for all content they upload. The site is currently calling on writers, bloggers, multimedia artists, musicians, filmmakers and commentators to get involved with the site. For more, click here.

happy birthday CCAU!

emma.carroll — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:17:13 -0600

so my login is working after all!! will take this opportunity to say happy birthday to CCAU and congratulations on your outstanding efforts in 2007 - looking forward very much to seeing how things progress in 2008. love your work!

CCau Birthday BBQ Bash

jess — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:46:59 -0600

photo: by Free-ers, under CC BY 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46357488@N00/380933738/

CCau on Radio National

jess — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:04:35 -0600

Just a quick note to let everyone know that tomorrow's Law Report on ABC Radio National will focus on Creative Commons.

The show, which airs at 8:30am AEST, will feature excerpts from a debate held at this year's Melbourne Writer's Festival, Creative Commons or Creative Theft?, in which CC-using sci fi author Cory Doctorow and CCau's own Jessica Coates duked it out with Jeremy Fisher (the Director of the Australian Society of Authors) and Sandy Grant (Publisher and Director of the Copyright Agency Limited) about the role of open content licensing in modern publishing.

The debate was lots of fun and had some great speeches, so we definitely encourage people to catch the show tomorrow.

The show will also feature an interview with Jessica on Creative Commons, what it is and how it's being implemented in Australia today.

The Radio National online stream is available here. If you can't listen to the show live, it's replayed tomorrow night at 8pm, or can be downloaded as a podcast from the Law Report website.

Report launched on Legal Aspects of Web 2.0 Activities

elliott — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:45:47 -0600

Intellectual Property: Knowledge, Culture and Economy (IP:KCE) researchers Jessica Coates, Nic Suzor and Dr Anne Fitzgerald have prepared a report for the QLD Government entitled, ‘Legal Aspects of Web 2.0 Activities: Management of Legal Risk Associated with Use of YouTube, MySpace and Second Life’.

As Web 2.0 technologies proliferate, an increasing number of Australians, especially young Australians, are relying primarily on information and communication technologies to engage and interact with each other and the world. If governments are to have meaningful interaction with young people, it is therefore important for them to explore the potential of these communication platforms. But legal considerations must be taken into account when strategising how best to make use of emerging technologies.

The report identifies the practical legal risks associated with activities conducted in online participatory spaces. Encompassing Copyright, Privacy, Defamation, Breach of Confidence and other areas of law, the report outlines the main considerations that arise when engaging in the online environment. It also examines the popular social networking platforms YouTube, MySpace and Second Life in detail, analysing legal issues specific to their Terms of Use and functionality.

Get a copy of the report here.

Say hello to CCANZ

jess — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:46:13 -0600

CCau is glad to (slightly belatedly) welcome New Zealand to the Creative Commons fold.

On 27 October Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand launched its licences. Headed up by Dr Brian Opie, and operating under the auspices of Te Whāinga Aronui The Council for the Humanities, the launch of CCANZ was one of the principal goals of the New Zealand Government's National Digital Content Strategy.

The launch took place at the National Library in Wellington. CCau was represented by Dr Anne Fitzgerald, who gave a presentation on the current state of CC internationally.

CCANZ has launched with the CC v3.0 licence - now it's up to us here in Australia to update our own licences to keep up with our cross-Tasman counsins.

ccau music industry forum

elliott — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:59:43 -0600

28 november 2007, 2.00 till 4.00pm @ the queensland college of art, griffith university, 226 grey street, south bank, brisbane

On 28 November, The ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation will be hosting the CCau Music Industry Forum as part of Apple University Consortium’s Create World 2007 conference.

It is designed to provide a forum for the discussion of issues surrounding music licensing in Australia. It will take place from 2.00 till 4.00pm on Wednesday 28 November 2007 at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane.

The digital environment presents new opportunities for musicians and new business models for the distribution of music. Creative Commons licensing in particular has gained considerable favour with content producers world-wide. However the legalities and practicalities of releasing music under these new models can be complicated, particularly when you wish to combine them with more traditional collective licensing options (for further information visit www.creativecommons.org.au/musicinfo).

The CCau Music Industry Forum aims to bring together industry representatives and interested parties to discuss issues such as:

• potential online distribution models for musicians and the music industry;
• compatibility issues with current collective licensing schemes; and
• legal and practical issues relating to the use of Creative Commons licences by Australian songwriters, composers and musicians.

Discussants at the Forum will include:

• Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Project Lead, Creative Commons Australia;
• Scot Morris, Director International Relations, APRA;
• Professor Paul Draper, Director of IMERSD (Intermedia, Music Education & Research Design) and Deputy Director, Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University; and
• Q Music

The forum also aims to gather feedback regarding the current understanding of and attitudes towards copyright, open content licensing and Creative Commons within the Australian music industry whilst providing an opportunity for key music industry personnel in to learn more about these topics.

Creative Commons Australia is the Australian arm of the international Creative Commons project, a non-profit organisation that aims to promote flexible copyright options for creators. At the core of the Creative Commons project is a suite of licences, freely available to creators, that foster sharing and collaboration. Creative Commons builds upon the “all rights reserved” of traditional copyright to create a voluntary “some rights reserved” system.

Persons currently involved or interested in the licensing of musical works are welcome to attend. rsvp by friday 23 november 2007 to elliott at elliott@creativecommons.org.au or call (07) 3138 9597.

image: ventura mendoza, licensed under a creative commons attribution licence 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vmendoza/490269072

Australian art database makes sharing legal using CC

elliott — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:01:53 -0500

Australian arts database, Artabase has recently added Creative Commons licensing options to the site to help creative Australians get their work out. Artabase is a beta social networking site for the arts community, turning contemporary events listings into a growing database of art history.

"Images on Artabase can now offer a Creative Commons license if the artist want so that people can reproduce the images on other websites, etc, with some conditions attached," Artabase Director, Rebecca Cannon, says, "which is great if you want to increase your exposure, for example, by allowing other blogs to show off your work." She also throws a salute out to Creative Commons "for making sharing legal."

The site allows users to upload individual images and past, present and future exhibitions (which link groups of images together into a collection) for free. As exhibitions pass, they are archived to keep a dynamic history of the Australian visual arts sector. It also includes gallery pages.

Where a Creative Commons licence has been placed on the image, the name of the licence (including a link to the Commons Deed) replaces "All Rights Reserved" in the copyright notice. If you're an artist, simply sign up and start posting your work.

Artabase is in Beta stage, with more streamlining of the CC process to come.

As the international CC website reports, Artabase joins other arts exhibition websites such as Rhizome.

Supporting CC

jess — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:21:05 -0500

CCau encourages all friends of Creative Commons to support the work it does by participating in the Creative Commons Campaign 2007. Show everyone you love free culture by buying a t-shirt, sticker or badge from the CC store; take a photo for the 2007 swag contest; or, better yet, make a good old fashioned donation. No matter how big or small, every bit counts.

This year CC is making the campaign more exciting by plotting exactly where all contributions are coming from on a map. At the moment America and Europe are way ahead of the pack - let's see if Australia can give them a run for their money!

Creative Commons Clinic - accepting applications for 2008

jess — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:09:08 -0500

CC on Orange by yamabobobo

The Creative Commons Clinic (ccClinic) is a research and education project funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation, which
engages with Creative Commons to research and promote its implementation in Australia.

We are seeking students from all disciplines and all universities who are interested in participating by:

* enrolling in QUT’s ccClinic undergraduate elective;
* undertaking independent study through your own faculty; or
* joining our volunteer internship program (not for academic credit).

Students will have the chance to work collaboratively and with mentors from the education, government and creative industries to complete a major project on topics such as:

* sharing and remixing as tools for innovation in a user-generated context;
* Web 2.0 business models; and
* collaboration through social networking and virtual communities such as Second Life.

For more information contact Jessica Coates at j2.coates@qut.edu.au or ph 07 3138 8301

Stick this in your memory hole - opening the doors to political debate

jess — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:56:15 -0500

Aduki Independent Press, a boutique publishing company based in Melbourne, has today announced the publication of a new book - Stick this in your memory hole by Tristan Clark. This collection of 37 essays uses satire, insight and the occasional foul language to critique the state of politics and society in contemporary Australia.

Why is this important to CCau? Because the book, in its entirety, is being made available under a CC Attribution-Noncommercial licence.

As far as we are aware, this is the first case of a book being released independently by an Australian publisher under a CC licence. Sure, we've published a few books ourselves (including the excellent Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons), and rumour has it there are some self-publishing efforts. But Aduki seems to be the first independent publisher in Australia to get behind its author's wish to truly share their book with the nation using CC.

Breaking out from the pack and taking the plunge into open content licensing isn't an easy decision for a small publisher to make, and Aduki deserves to be congratulated. But, as they say in their press release, with its strong message in support of free speech 'Stick this in your memory hole' is the perfect book to begin with.

As Emily Clark of Aduki press puts it "We really liked the idea of giving people easy access and the right to use the work without seeking our permission as the book has an important message that needs to be shared."

CC announces new Vice President and General Counsel

jess — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 02:15:29 -0500

CCau is pleased to pass on the announcement from the head office in San Francisco that Creative Commons officially has a new Vice President and General Counsel - Virginia Rutledge.

As you can see from the press release here, Creative Commons would have been hard pressed to find a more qualified candidate. She has worked as a litigation associate in the areas of intellectual property, art, entertainment, antitrust, securities, and general commercial law for the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. She is also published art historian, who has presented on art, digital media, and intellectual property law at conferences around the world.

For those who remember, CC's former General Counsel was Australian Mia Garlick, who left for new challenges on Google's legal team back in May. Since Mia left there's been a gapping hole in the CC community. It's great to have Virginia to fill the void.

And just in time for the Virgin Mobile court case. For those who haven't heard about this, you can find out more in these blog postings by Lawrence Lessig and Joi Ito.

Democracy 2.0: YouTube and MySpace as tools for political engagement

jess — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:47:45 -0500

Broadcast your Vote – Have you seen the Howard video on YouTube? Are you in Rudd’s Top Friends list on MySpace? Do you secretly dance along with Obama Girl?

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation and QUT Faculty of Law invite you to an afternoon of conversation with key researchers and industry players discussing the phenomenon of political videos in a user-generated world. From mashups to policy announcements: will this election will be determined by the daily hit rate?

Find out which politicos are online and what they are doing, how people are responding and what opportunities for renewed political engagement, commentary and criticism these new technologies present.

Featuring Associate Professor Terry Flew (author, Understanding Global Media), Elliott Bledsoe (President, Vibewire Inc.) and Professor Brian Fitzgerald (Faculty of Law, QUT)

Friday 14 September, 3.00 - 5.00 pm @ the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, 420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

The Special Minister for State and Creative Commons

jess — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:01:05 -0500

For those interested in discussion of Creative Commons in the corridors of power, we thought we'd point out a few recent speeches by the Hon Gary Nairn MP, Records Management Association of Australasia Conference, the Australian Property Institute New South Wales Annual Rural Conference, the Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference and, perhaps most significantly, the Australian Government Solicitor's Media & Communications Forum.

It's great to see open access and CC being raised by such a respected party in such a broad range of forums. Hats off to the Minister.

60Sox - showing artists the money

jess — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:05:16 -0500

Splotch by frollop - CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

We here at CCAU are always excited to hear about new concepts designed to help Australian/Kiwi creators get paid for what they do, especially when CC licences are involved. So we’re very happy to call attention to the launch of 60Sox, a new initiative coming out of the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation.

60Sox is an online network aimed at connecting creative talent with industry professionals. By providing a home to showcase their digital wares, 60sox gives creators the opportunity to generate exposure, make industry contacts, receive feedback and critical appraisal from peers and industry DSLs (dead set legends) and…wait for it… get paid for their work!

The site acts as a meeting point for emerging creative practitioners and creative professionals by providing members with their own online gallery, which others can access (particularly employers) to critique their work, monitor industry trends and source new talent in a variety of creative disciplines. 60Sox uses member ratings to sort material, with the most highly rated items ‘floating’ to the top of the pile. It is also user moderated, with a ‘dodgy’ button where members can flag any item that they consider might have inappropriate or infringing content.

But what sets 60Sox apart from the crowd is the ‘2bobmob’, a forum of industry professionals who provide constructive feedback and advice to 60sox members. These professionals have committed to commenting on a certain number of works a month, and are able to provide their own ratings to boost material to the front page. Although 60Sox has only been online for a few weeks, the 2bobmob already includes such high-profile experts as author John Birmingham, DJ Kid Kenobi and Simon Cahill of Sony/BMG.

As an important part of its ethos of sharing as a vital part of promotion and creativity, 60Sox encourages creators to upload their materials under a Creative Commons licence. 60sox’s comprehensive, flexible and easy to follow upload system places it right up there in the CC best practice stakes. It uses the CC “Attribution–NonCommercial-ShareAlike Australia 2.5” licence as its default upload licence, but gives users the option to use another CC licence, or even all rights reserved if they wish. By doing so, 60sox actively promotes the exchange of artistic works in the digital domain and encourages creative interaction (eg through remixing), but at the same time retains creators’ freedom to choose their own licensing model to meet their own preferences.

The user interface clearly displays and explains the default licence, which creators can choose to bypass to the main CC licence generator. Members can set a default licence for all of their works, and are reminded of this licence and given the option to change it each time they upload. Further, they can choose a different licence for individual items and change the licence on a work at any time.

60sox is proving itself to be innovative in its rights management of online digital content, and a great resource for participants at all levels in the creative industries. So get out there and share!

article by Emma Carroll and Jessica Coates

60sox is a collaboration between the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), TAFESA, the Queensland Government, the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), the Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts and the Southbank Institute of Technology

still/open forum

elliott — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:25:08 -0500

and present

Brisbane still/open Forum

6.00pm, friday 14 september @ the judith wright centre of contemporary arts, 420 brunswick street, fortitude valley

As part of it's 07 emerging technology labs ANAT is presenting still/open, a series of free public forums for discussion of open source approaches. The forums feature international guests Alessandro Ludovico, Beatriz da Costa as
well as Andy Nicholson with Creative Commons opening the floor for discussion of Open Source Culture.

Come along and hear about current international and Australian projects and be part of discussion about open source modes of thinking and models for collaborative and distributed development.

At the conclusion of the forum, ANAT will launch the latest edition of Filter, an essential guide to ANAT projects and current trends in new media arts. Edition #65, "This is not Open Source", examines the growth of the creative practice of free sharing and cooperative content development in artware, software, biology and publishing.

Please note pre-registration is not required for the forums.

Press Interviews will be held from 4-6pm on 14th September. Please contact Amanda Matulick at communicate@anat.org.au to schedule a time.

For more information on the forum please visit www.anat.org.au/stillopen/blog/forums or contact Sasha Grbich at sasha@anat.org.au.

CC and Virgin Mobile

jess — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 02:27:24 -0500

Some of you have probably noticed news stories over the past week about Virgin's use of CC licensed photographs as part of an advertising campaign. Here are some thoughts floating around the CCau office about the case.

The basic story is that Virgin found photos on Flickr that had been licensed under CC licences, and used them in a series of billboard and web advertisements around Australia. The advertisements are essentially the photographs with captions written across them - which were often insulting to the people pictured in the photographs - and the tagline 'are you with us?'. Controversially, Virgin did not inform the photographers that they were using the images, or the people in the photographs.

There has been a lot of discussion online about the legal and ethical implications of the campaign. Some of the photographers have criticised the campaign. Some of the people captured in the photos (and in particular the brother of a 15 year old girl who was the subject of an insulting tagline) have also expressed displeasure. On the other hand, other photographers have come forward saying they approve of the campaign, and that this is why they CC license their photos in the first place.

From a CC standpoint, there are a few legal issues to consider. If the photographs Virgin used were licensed to allow commercial use and the company complied with any other licence restrictions (ie Attribution, No Derivatives, ShareAlike) this kind of use is almost certainly permitted under the CC model. However, there are some questions about whether Virgin has followed these steps. For example:

* At least one of the images Virgin used appears to currently be under a licence that doesn't allow commercial use - though it's not clear whether it was under a broader licence in the past.
* The same photo also has a ShareAlike requirement, and there's no sign of Virgin badging the billboards ShareAlike.
* It's questionable whether Virgin's attribution satisfies the CC requirements. They have included a link to the home page of the photographer's Flickr account in the bottom corner of both the billboards and the web versions of the ads, but they haven't directly named the photographer, linked to the photo itself, or referenced/linked to the CC licence the photo is under - all of which are the standard attribution required by the CC licence. Although the licence allows users to vary these requirements when it's 'reasonable', it can be argued that Virgin had no reason not to give greater attribution.
* There is also an argument (though probably a weaker argument) whether by adding captions that are insulting to the subjects Virgin has breached the moral rights of the photographers.

But public discussion of the issue has really focused on the question as to whether Virgin should have obtained model clearances from the people who are identifiable in the photographs. Although it seems to be industry practice to do so where a photograph is being used for commercial purposes, there is real question whether this is a legal requirement in Australia. Certain sections of the Trade Practices Act 1974 do appear to require consent before a company can imply that a person is endorsing or purchasing their product. However, these ads, with their deliberate 'amateur' style and sarcastic bylines, clearly don't imply such endorsement.

Nevertheless, some commentators have suggested that the failure to deal with the issue of model clearances represents a flaw in the CC licences. However, the licences make it very clear that they merely provide copyright permissions, and that they do not purport to deal with any other area of law. Due to the vast number of laws that can come into play when a person is using a copyright work (eg defamation, privacy, competition) it would be impossible for the licences, or the person issuing the licence for that matter, to definitively cover all potential legal issues in placing it releasing it for general use. There is arguably an onus on the person making use of the work to identify any laws their particular use might breach, and to make an effort to obtain any additional permissions that are needed - particularly if their use is large-scale and commercial.

But what this incidence has really highlighted is the ongoing difference of opinion as to the ethics of and motivations for CC usage. Some people have argued that this kind of use goes beyond the purpose of the CC licences. Even if they had no legal duty to do so, should Virgin have notified the photographers that they were planning on using their photos in such a widespread commercial campaign? This might have been a good risk management strategy, and would probably have helped them to avoid some of the public criticism they've received.

On the other hand, there is also an argument that this is exactly why CC has non-commercial licences - so that people can choose to share their material even with large corporations if they wish to, without requiring them to get extra consent. Hopefully those who are using the broader CC licences, like Attribution, understand this - but maybe, if they didn't, more explanatory materials are needed, to ensure that people only licence their material in way they will feel comfortable with.

unlocking the potential through creative commons

elliott — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:01:06 -0500

Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons

The rapid growth of digital technologies over the last decade has led to a revolution in the creation and dissemination of knowledge – a revolution that has created unprecedented challenges for copyright law. The ‘all rights reserved’ model of traditional copyright law, with its complex legal concepts and requirement for permission for even the most common and non-controversial of uses, does not fit well with an environment which both enables and requires reproduction and communication on an unprecedented scale. From a legal perspective, one of the most significant responses to these changes has been the development of new licensing systems designed to open up access to and use of protected material. These ‘open content licensing’ (OCL) models preserve the creator’s intellectual property rights whilst giving permission in advance for the content to be used more broadly than would be permitted under default copyright law. The most popular and widespread of these licensing models in relation to creative material is Creative Commons (CC).

In November 2006, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCi), in conjunction with the Queensland University of Technology, hosted the CCau Industry Forum, a research-focused industry engagement event. The event was run by the CCi ccClinic and CC + OCL Research projects, and aimed to evaluate understanding of and attitudes towards copyright, OCL and CC in Australia. The Forum focused on the government, education and the creative industries sectors.

Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons: An Industry Engagement and Action Agenda evaluates and responds to the outcomes of this Forum and presents a strategy for continued research into Creative Commons in Australia.

Please download the report here.