The Creative Commons

Richard McCracken

Head of Rights

The Open University

Open Source Licensing

• Software – such as Linux

• Licences allow free use, distribution and modification of the source code

• Based on industry standards and protocols rather than proprietary systems

• May be available for all operating systems

• Support and troubleshooting via informal, peer web sites and discussion groups

Gperiodic

• Periodic table application using Linux

• Educational content

• Runs via browser

• Not tied to a particular platform

• Multilingual versions

Open Source Licensing Models

• Open Source Initiative

• GNU Free Documentation Licence

• Open Content

• MIT Open Courseware

• Creative Commons

Creative Commons

• Housed at Stanford Law School

• Started by legal, academic and business specialists in cyberlaw/IP, computer science, documentary filmmaking and public domain web-publishing

• Aimed at developing content, web sites and applications rather than programming

Standard Licence Conditions

• Mix and match clauses• Eleven standard licences• Copying, distribution, display and

performance in four categories• Attribution• Non-commercial• Non-derivative• Share-alike

Licences expressed as:

• Plain language text for users

• Fine-print legally expressed draft for courts

• Machine readable for search engines

Other Features

• Use of metadata (RDF Format)

• Irrevocable licences

• Range of standard symbols indicating types of licensed use

Challenges for Creative Commons

• Moral Rights

• Imbedded third-party content

• Free use and commercial exploitation

Publishers and Creative Commons

• Prentice Hall and the Open Source Series (Bruce Perens)

• Thomson (Gale)

• The American Physical Society

Other Open Source Models

• OSI (Open source Initiative)

• GNU Free Documentation Licence

• OpenContent

• MIT OpenCourseWare

References

• Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org• OSI http://www.opensource.org• GNU http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html• OpenContent http://www.opencontent.org• MIT OCW http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html• American Physical Society

http://publish.aps.org/infoauth.html• SURF http://www.surf.nl/copyright