Hi Creative Commoners! We’re back with a very special episode of CC’s podcast, Open Minds … from Creative Commons. Today marks the 20th Anniversary of Creative Commons!

On this milestone episode of CC’s Open Minds podcast, join us as we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Creative Commons’ founding on December 19, 2021. We take you back to Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig’s keynote from the 2021 CC Global Summit (watch the recording here), originally held in September 2021.

 

“Let me say thank you, 20 years is forever, and 20 years is just a beginning. The first 20 were extraordinary, but I think the next 20 could be so much, much more. Thank you so much for gathering to celebrate, and thank you for the inspiration and ideas that will make the next 20 even more important than the first.”

Lawrence, fondly referred to by many as Larry, reflects on how CC began, what it has accomplished, and is later joined by Creative Commons CEO, Catherine Stihler, for a fireside chat where he shares his hopes for CC for the next twenty years and beyond. A distinguished attorney, political activist and incredible visionary, Lawrence is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Lawrence is a Board Member Emeritus of the Creative Commons board.

• Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also subscribe via the show’s RSS feed.
• Episode transcript: Text // PDF // Doc

Please subscribe to the show in whatever podcast app you use, so you don’t miss any of our conversations with people working to make the internet and our global culture more open and collaborative.

The post Open Minds Podcast: Creative Commons’ 20th Anniversary Special feat. Lawrence Lessig appeared first on Creative Commons.

Creative Commons’ statement on the Opt-Out Exception Regime / Rights Reservation Regime for Text and Data Mining under Article 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is now available here. We’re grateful to everyone who contributed their many thoughtful comments during the public consultation period, which has now come to an end. 

We especially want to take the opportunity to thank our contributors to this statement:
Ana Lazarova (CC Bulgaria), Thomas Margoni (KU Leuven), Ariadna Matas (Europeana), Sarah Pearson (CC), Julia Reda (Shuttleworth Foundation), Brigitte Vézina (CC), Kat Walsh (CC), and Stephen Wyber (IFLA). 

Here is Creative Commons’ summary position: 

The terms of the Creative Commons (CC) licenses cannot be construed or interpreted as a reservation of a right in the context of Article 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (EU 2019/790) or any of its national transposition instruments. CC licenses do not operate as an opt-out of an exception or limitation to copyright. Both the language (legal code) and purpose (spirit) of the licenses prohibit such an interpretation:

1. The language in the licenses specifically makes clear that they are not intended to impose any restrictions beyond what copyright imposes, and that they do not override exceptions and limitations. 
2. The licenses are designed to permit more uses than the default all-rights-reserved, so any interpretation that they do reserve rights in the context of Article 4 runs contrary to the overall design and purpose of the licenses. 

Read Creative Commons’ full statement here.

The post Creative Commons’ statement on CC licenses and the ext and data mining exception under Article 4 EU CDSM Directive appeared first on Creative Commons.

Earlier this year, we shared an exciting announcement that CC Search would be joining WordPress. Several beloved former CC tech team alumni joined the team at WordPress to tackle this important initiative, shepherding it forward into an exciting new era.

Starting today, all our wonderful, loyal users of CC Search will be redirected to Openverse at WordPress. You’ll find the same important, openly-licensed collections. You’ll see a familiar interface, allowing you to search by use case, license type, or several other filters. Significantly, Openverse has built language support into the project, so users now have options for what language to use the search engine in, with 10 languages already fully translated.

A lot of work has been done to prepare for this day, and we anticipate a smooth transition. If any of our community members experience any issues, we invite you to please let us know or contact the Openverse team, and we will all do our best to resolve them as quickly as possible. More details about the transition are here.

We’d like to once again express our thanks to WordPress for carrying forward the important work of providing the open community with a search engine to find works to remix, reuse, and openly enjoy. For those interested in staying involved in the project in its new home, we’d like to direct folks to the Openverse developer community. We also recommend joining the Making WordPress Slack, where the Openverse team can be found in the #openverse channel.

The post Dear Users of CC Search, Welcome to Openverse appeared first on Creative Commons.

Every year, on 1 January, advocates of free and open content celebrate the works of art that have entered the public domain around the world. Why New Year’s Day? Copyrighted works such as books, artworks or music are only protected for a certain number of years, and this protection ends on 1 January.

On 20 January 2022, Creative Commons, the Internet Archive, and various other Open Movement leaders will honor the amazing works published in 1926 that will enter the public domain for the first time.

Next year’s public domain celebration will be one for the history books, as approximately 400,000 sound recordings from the pre-1923 era will join the public domain for the first time in our history due to the recently enacted Music Modernization Act in the United States. That’s why this year, our theme is a Celebration of Sound.

Virtual Celebration

Join us for a virtual party on 20 January 2022 at 1pm PT/4pm ET/9pm UTC with a keynote from Senator Ron Wyden, champion of the Music Modernization Act, and a host of musical acts, dancers, historians, librarians, academics, activists and other leaders from the Open world! This event will explore the rich historical context of recorded sound from its earliest days, including early jazz and blues, classical, and spoken word recordings reflecting important political and social issues of the era.

Additional sponsoring organizations include: Library Futures, SPARC, Authors Alliance, the Bioheritage Diversity Library, Public Knowledge, ARSC, the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and the Music Library Association.

Register for the virtual event here!

In-person Celebration

The Internet Archive will also host an in-person Dance Party on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 6pm at 300 Funston Ave in San Francisco. There you can mingle with like-minded public-domain enthusiasts while sipping a Gin Rickey, a Hanky Panky or a Singapore Sling. Dine on shrimp cocktail, cucumber sandwiches or Waldorf salad. There will be dance instructors to help you learn the 1920’s dance sensation – the Charleston. Period costumes encouraged. Let’s kick up our heels for the Public Domain!

Register for the live, in-person Internet Archive event in San Francisco here.

The post Public Domain 2022: Join us 20 January for a Celebration of Sound appeared first on Creative Commons.

The principles for license enforcement are now published. The consultation period has ended and we’re grateful to everyone who contributed their many thoughtful comments!

These principles will be useful for:

• Platforms that host CC-licensed materials and want to incorporate them into site policy to guide user expectations
• Creators who wants to enforce rights under a CC license but aren’t sure how to do it without being overly aggressive
• Reusers who want to know whether a copyright enforcer might be trolling
• Lawyers or other professionals who want to give informed advice to creators and users of CC licensed works about enforcement of rights

Although the draft comment period is over, you can always continue to suggest improvements or ask questions in our community channels.

This is just one part of CC’s resources for addressing license enforcement issues, and we look forward to sharing more of them over the coming year.

 

 

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