Monthly Archives: October 2007

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, Ar Continue reading →

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!
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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:
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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.”

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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.

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