What are the EMFA’s objectives?

The proliferation of digital services has exponentially changed the way in which we engage with information, bringing both opportunities and challenges. In an increasingly digital world, the dual threats of mis- and disinformation are a huge challenge for democratic societies, especially at a time when almost half of the world will hold elections in 2024. And as we look at how media consumption evolves over time, many more citizens are now consuming their information online. In this context, the primary objectives of the EMFA are to ensure media plurality, as well as editorial and functional independence of public media, and to protect journalists across the EU. 

Misinformation is the sharing of inaccurate information. Disinformation is the sharing of inaccurate information, with the intention to mislead.

CC’s support for journalists 

Access to verified information is a basic human right and an issue we care deeply about at CC, especially as part of our work on Open Journalism. In 2023, we published A Journalist’s Guide to Creative Commons, which offers practical advice on how to make the most out of CC licenses in journalism and encourages journalists to openly license their outputs.

We find that CC-licensed news articles can dramatically increase their spread. The Conversation, a nonprofit network of eight international news sites publishing hundreds of useful articles of news and analysis each week under CC licenses, reports that around 60% of their readership comes from republished articles. Furthermore, small news outlets, lacking budgets for image subscriptions, turn to CC-licensed images on platforms like Flickr for free access to media.

Policy engagement with the EU

Starting with our Statement on the Introduction of the EU Media Freedom Act, we have provided context and input into the EU policy making process regarding the costs and risks of disinformation,  through parliamentary hearings and engagement on the EMFA text itself. We have outlined how our licenses and our community-based work can support free and fair access to pluralist media content as well as defend independence of information for citizens, whether they access their information through more traditional channels (TV, radio, newsprint) or more modern, digital channels. 

Our efforts centered on Article 17, which introduced the so-called “media exception,” thus creating special privileges for some incumbent, traditional media such as commercial newspapers and broadcasters. We argued that such a provision would disfavor smaller and independent creators, interfere with policies aimed at protecting users from harmful information, and have implications for how all people are able to share their creativity and knowledge online. 

EMFA: A positive step forward but not the end of the road

While we welcome adoption of the EMFA, we believe the EU must remain active and vigilant in the fight against disinformation, resolute in its defense of independent journalism, and tireless in its defense of media plurality. We remain concerned about several aspects of the EMFA, particularly around the “media exception,” including: 

• Public media should not get a lighter treatment than private media: We believe that public media do not inherently have lower risks of disinformation. So while we welcome the provisions on ownership transparency, we feel the text still falls short in providing lighter touch provisions for state-owned, state-funded media outlets which may hide behind domestic standards bodies and regulators.
• Traditional vs new media – same standards should apply to both: We remain unconvinced by the inferred assumption that public channels, which often tend to be “traditional” media outlets such as radio and TV, are more “reliable” than private media outlets, in particular digital ones. Citizens have a right to expect that all media, irrespective of ownership structure or interfaces used, should respect the same norms and standards. 
• Content moderation provisions risk exacerbating dis- and misinformation:  We support the premise that decisions on content moderation by all operators, including very large online platforms, do not per se negatively affect media freedom. However, we fear the 24-hour “must-carry” obligation could have the perverse effect of allowing dis- and misinformation to spread further and faster. The “going viral” nature of social media and platforms is a challenge to balancing content moderation vs. robust controls to limit arbitrary removal of information. Despite the EMFA’s creation of an appeals process, the final text still lacks appropriate checks and balances to ensure content moderation can be practically enforced in a robust, proportionate way across all platforms. We also fear this could risk undermining the Digital Services Act implementation and encourage other stakeholders to request similar privileges in content moderation policies, creating a patchwork of potentially inconsistent rules. 

In short, we strongly believe journalism provides a crucial public service. Access to verifiable information and stories that question the underlying terrain of power is critical to all democratic societies. Open-access information provides the strongest collective bulwark against the societally corrosive effects of mis/disinformation in the public arena. 

While the EMFA may not be applicable by the time EU citizens cast their votes in June this year, we applaud the EU’s efforts to strengthen its regime in this important area. CC will continue to engage with policymakers to enhance the sharing of knowledge and defend the basic rights and freedoms enshrined in the EU acquis. 

For more information on our work on policy and on open journalism, contact us at info@creativecommons.org.

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Over the last year, Creative Commons (CC) worked with other stakeholders to support open science and open source in the context of artificial intelligence (AI) and, specifically, the EU AI Act. This policy debate has now ratcheted up in the U.S. as well, after President Biden directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the Department of Commerce to start a public consultation process regarding “Dual Use Foundation Artificial Intelligence Models with Widely Available Model Weights.”

This week, we joined a broad coalition of civil society and leading academics urging a tailored, evidence-driven approach. The letter highlights the critical benefits that open models can provide, and encourages the government to consider carefully the best ways to address the marginal risks that openness can create. As the letter states, “We do not claim that openness is always beneficial, and there are some situations where openness may exacerbate risks from AI.” However, risk should be evaluated relative to alternatives (e.g., the use of closed models or other digital tools to accomplish the same ends) and may be addressed through less restrictive means than direct limits on openness.

Read the full letter.

For more information on CC’s works on AI, contact us at info@creativecommons.org

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Last week, on 7 March, Creative Commons participated in the International Public Domain Day celebration at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Together with our partners meemoo, Europeana, Communia Association, The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision,  and the National Library of Netherlands, we hosted two lively roundtables in the afternoon; the first focused on copyright issues related to the public domain followed by another on the future of the public domain.

The event brought together advocates for the public domain and open access to cultural heritage including members of the Open Culture Platform, Doug McCarthy, who presented on the “Monetization of the Public Domain,” Emine Yildirim, who presented on how to “Decolonize the Public Domain,” and Maarten Zeinstra who previewed for the audience an update to the Europeana Public Domain Charter. On behalf of Creative Commons I was happy to present the new guidelines which were published in February: Nudging Users to Reference Institutions When Using Public Domain Cultural Heritage Materials.

In the morning the sessions focused on Belgian cultural heritage and other initiatives related to the public domain. Notably, Wikimedia Belgium announced and presented prizes to the winners of the 2023 Wiki Loves Monuments Photo contest.

The event was well attended by members of the community including from local cultural heritage institutions, academics, and policy advisors at the European level. We are looking forward to collaborating and contributing  to similar events with our partners in the future.

For more images see here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ter-burg/albums/72177720315300448/

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Yesterday, the European Parliament (EP) adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act  (AIA), the world’s first piece of legislation comprehensively regulating artificial intelligence (AI).

Creative Commons (CC) has been actively engaged with EU policymakers on the AIA for the past years, especially as copyright issues arose front and center in the negotiations last June. In this blog post, we share a few high-level assessments of where the text landed across various key aspects impacting the commons as well as some thoughts on what lies ahead.

Open source software

We welcome the fact that the final text excludes open-source AI from some obligations, even if these exclusions are subject to conditions and come alongside ambiguity of the meaning of “open” in the context of AI overall and in the specific context of this law. Other noteworthy positives include an exemption for AI systems “specifically developed and put into service for the sole purpose of scientific research and development” and another exemption from the detailed transparency requirements for open-source general purpose AI (GPAI) models, even if they still have the obligation to put in place a policy to respect copyright law and produce a summary about the content used for model training.

AI and creativity

The AIA is largely agnostic when it comes to how the creative industries (and indeed individual creators) use AI. From our community consultation outcomes, we see some creators embracing AI, using it as a creative tool to further develop new and innovative works. Others, however, remain concerned about the impact of AI on employment in certain sectors as well as the competition aspect of more cost-effective digital/virtual solutions vis-a-vis human created works.

In response to Chat GPT’s explosive adoption, the EP introduced significant provisions, including on copyright. CC provided direct input to policymakers in public and in private on this aspect of the legislation, which touches directly on CC’s core mission.      

As ever with compromises there are aspects of the deal on copyright which are positive and others which will require further reflection and iteration. The AIA makes several cross-references to EU copyright legislation, in particular Articles 3 and 4 of the CDSM Directive on text and data mining. There are already some stakeholders who are pushing for revision of related EU legislation, including said Directive, in light of the AIA and recent technological developments. At CC we look forward to facilitating practical application of Articles 3 and 4. However, we caution against any fundamental revisions of the exceptions provided for in these articles. These are critical for ensuring a balanced copyright system. 

What happens next? A gradual application process

The Council is expected to give its final approval in the coming weeks and the Act will likely be published in the EU’s Official Journal later this spring. The Act will enter into force 20 days later, while the individual provisions will start applying in a staggered manner, with articles on prohibited AI applications applicable after 6 months (circa end of 2024), provisions on general purpose AI applicable after 12 months (circa mid-2025) and the remaining provisions applicable after 24 months (circa mid-2026). Looking further into the future, EU policymakers will no doubt have to assess how the AIA works in practice and ensure appropriate enforcement. 

We welcome the creation of the EU’s AI Office, which will soon have to start crafting technical rules, as mandated by the AIA. We look forward to engaging with the Office as it further develops important technical standards, in particular in developing an opt-out standard in alignment with existing copyright law. The Office will also have an important role in interpreting and further clarifying vaguely worded concepts, such as the requirement to publish “sufficiently detailed” summaries of inputs for large language models (LLMs) and foundation models. These rules will be crucial to provide clarity for firms and individuals regarding regime compliance. 

CC will continue to engage constructively with EU policymakers to ensure that the EU’s copyright regime remains fit for purpose in an ever-evolving digital age and that AI can be harnessed for good in support of a thriving commons.

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The J. Paul Getty Museum just released more than 88 thousand works under Creative Commons Zero (CCØ), putting the digital images of items from its impressive collection squarely and unequivocally into the public domain. 

This is in line with our advocacy efforts at Creative Commons (CC): digital reproductions of public domain material must remain in the public domain. In other words, no new copyright should arise over the creation of a digitized “twin.”

According to the museum’s press release, “users can download, edit, and repurpose high resolution images of their favorite Getty artworks without any legal restrictions.” The museum’s Open Content database is a wellspring of art that is bound to inspire myriad new creative reuses. It includes Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh’s Irises and many more treasures waiting to be explored. Since opening up, Getty has seen “an uptick in image downloads on our site, averaging about 30,000 per month.”

This announcement is a huge cause for celebration for CC’s Open Culture efforts, which strive to promote open access and better sharing of cultural heritage held in cultural heritage institutions, such as museums, libraries and archives. It is also a testament to the stewardship of our open, public-interest infrastructure of Creative Commons licenses and tools. These are free, easy-to-use, and standardized open legal tools that enable worldwide open access to creative content.

We salute the Getty for supporting a thriving public domain and encourage other institutions to engage more deeply in the open culture movement and make the world’s vast collections of public domain materials openly accessible to everyone. We recently released guidelines promoting CCØ and the Public Domain Mark alongside best-practice norms incentivizing users to refer back to institutions. 

Get Involved

For additional guidance on using CCØ to release cultural heritage materials and tailored support in developing or implementing open access policies or to get involved in promoting open culture around the world:

• Join the CC Open Culture Platform
• Sign up for our Open Culture Matters newsletter
• Support our policy initiative Towards a Recommendation on Open Culture (TAROC)
• Take our CC Certificate online training
• Contact us at info@creativecommons.org 

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