Creative Commons

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Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share.<ref>Creative Commons FAQ</ref> The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy to understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. This simplicity distinguishes Creative Commons from an all-rights reserved copyright. Creative Commons was invented to create a more flexible copyright model, replacing "all rights reserved" with "some rights reserved". Wikipedia is one of the notable web-based projects using one of its licenses.

The organization was founded in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, and Eric Eldred<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with support of the Center for the Public Domain. The first set of copyright licenses was released in December 2002.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2008, there were an estimated 130 million works licensed under Creative Commons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Creative Commons is governed by a board of directors and a technical advisory board. Joi Ito is currently the chair of the board and Catherine Casserly is the CEO.<ref name="CCBoard1">Template:Cite web</ref> Creative Commons has been embraced by many as a way for content creators to take control of how they choose to share their intellectual property. There has also been criticism that it does not go far enough, or discourages regional cultural production.

Contents

Aim and influence

File:GoldenNica CreativeCommons.jpg
Golden Nica Award
File:Creative Commons Japan Seminar-200709-1.jpg
Creative Commons Japan Seminar, Tokyo 2007

Creative Commons has been described as being at the forefront of the copyleft movement, which seeks to support the building of a richer public domain by providing an alternative to the automatic "all rights reserved" copyright, dubbed "some rights reserved."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> David Berry and Giles Moss have credited Creative Commons with generating interest in the issue of intellectual property and contributing to the re-thinking of the role of the "commons" in the "information age". Beyond that, Creative Commons has provided "institutional, practical and legal support for individuals and groups wishing to experiment and communicate with culture more freely."<ref>Berry & Moss 2005</ref>

Creative Commons works to counter what the organization considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive permission culture. According to Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, it is "a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lessig maintains that modern culture is dominated by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema, and that Creative Commons can provide alternatives to these restrictions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Governance

The current CEO of Creative Commons is Catherine Casserly.<ref name="CCPeople1">Template:Cite web</ref> Mike Linksvayer is Vice President and Diane Peters is the General Counsel.

Board

The current Creative Commons Board includes: Hal Abelson, Glenn Otis Brown, Michael W. Carroll, Catherine Casserly, Caterina Fake, Davis Guggenheim, Joi Ito (Chair), Lawrence Lessig, Laurie Racine, Eric Saltzman, Annette Thomas, Molly Suffer Van Houweling, Jimmy Wales, and Esther Wojcicki (Vice Chair).<ref name="CCBoard1" />

Technical Advisory Board

The Technical Advisory Board includes five members: Hal Abelson, Ben Adida, Barbara Fox, Don McGovern and Eric MillerTemplate:Disambiguation needed. Hal Abelson also serves on the Creative Commons Board.<ref name="CCBoard1" />

Audit Committee

Creative Commons also has an Audit Committee, with two members: Molly Shaffer Van Houweling and Lawrence Lessig. Both serve on the Creative Commons Board.<ref name="CCBoard1" />

Affiliate Network

In 2011, there are more than 100 affiliates working in over 70 jurisdictions to support and promote CC activities around the world.<ref>Creativecommons.org</ref>

Creative Commons Asia-Pacific

South Korea

Creative Commons Korea (CC Korea) is the affiliated network of Creative Commons in South Korea. In March 2005, CC Korea was initiated by Jongsoo Yoon (in Korean: 윤종수), a Presiding Judge of Incheon District Court, as a project of Korea Association for Infomedia Law (KAFIL). The major Korean portal sites, including Daum and Naver, have been participating in the use of Creative Commons licences. In January 2009, the Creative Commons Korea Association was consequently founded as a non-profit incorporated association. Since then, CC Korea has been actively promoting the liberal and open culture of creation as well as leading the diffusion of Creative Commons in the country.

Supporters of Creative Commons

Corporate Support

Sustainer Level (Committed for 5 years)

  • The Beal Fund of Triangle Community Foundation, on behalf of Lulu.com
  • Google
  • Mozilla Foundation
  • Red Hat

Investor Level ($25,000 and up)

  • Best Buy
  • Digital Garage
  • Duke University
  • Ebay
  • Microsoft Corporation
  • Mountain Equipment Co-op
  • Nike

Types of Creative Commons licenses

File:Wanna Work Together? with subtitles - Creative Commons.ogv
Wanna Work Together? animation by Creative Commons
File:Mayer and Bettle 2 - Creative Commons.ogv
The second version of the Mayer and Bettle promotional animation explains what Creative Commons is.

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There are six major licenses of the Creative Commons:<ref name="CCLicenses1">Template:Cite web</ref>

  • Attribution (CC-BY)
  • Attribution Share Alike (CC-BY-SA)
  • Attribution No Derivatives (CC-BY-ND)
  • Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC)
  • Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (CC-BY-NC-SA)
  • Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)

There are four major conditions of the Creative Commons: Attribution (BY), requiring attribution to the original author; Share Alike (SA), allowing derivative works under the same or a similar license (later or jurisdiction version); Non-Commercial (NC), requiring the work is not used for commercial purposes; and No Derivative Works (ND), allowing only the original work, without derivatives.<ref name="CCLicenses1" />

As of the current versions, all Creative Commons licenses allow the "core right" to redistribute a work for non-commercial purposes without modification. The NC and ND options will make a work non-free according to the Definition of Free Cultural Works.

Additional options include the CC0 option, or "No Rights Reserved."<ref name="CC0">Template:Cite web</ref> For software, Creative Commons endorses three free licenses created by other institutions: the BSD License, the CC GNU LGPL license, and the CC GNU GPL.<ref name="GNU LGPL">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="GNU GPL">Template:Cite web</ref>

Usage and list of projects that release contents under Creative Commons licenses

Template:See Template:Rewrite section Creative Commons maintains a content directory wiki of organizations and projects using Creative Commons licenses.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On its website CC also provides case studies of projects using CC licenses across the world.<ref>Creative Commons Case Studies</ref> CC licensed content can also be accessed through a number of content directories and search engines (see CC licensed content directories).

On January 13, 2009, some broadcasting content from Al Jazeera on the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict was released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Jurisdiction ports

File:Creative Commons Intl Map.svg
Countries to which Creative Commons licenses have been ported (green) or are being ported (blue)

Template:Main The original non-localized Creative Commons licenses were written with the U.S. legal system in mind, so the wording could be incompatible within different local legislations and render the licenses unenforceable in various jurisdictions. To address this issue, Creative Commons has started to port the various licenses to accommodate local copyright and private law. As of May 2010, there are 52 jurisdiction-specific licenses, with 9 other jurisdictions in drafting process, and more countries joining the worldwide project.<ref>Project</ref>

Criticism

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General criticism

File:CC some rights reserved.svg
CC some rights reserved

Péter Benjamin Tóth asserts that Creative Commons' objectives are already well served by the current copyright regime, and that Creative Commons' "some rights reserved" slogan, as against Copyright's "all rights reserved", creates a false dichotomy. "Copyright provides a list of exclusive rights to the rightholder, from which he decides which ones he wishes to "sell" or grant and which to retain. The "Some rights reserved" concept is therefore not an alternative to, but rather the very nature of classical copyright."<ref name="Péter Benjamin Tóth, Creative Humbug">Template:Cite</ref> Other critics fear that Creative Commons could erode the copyright system over time.<ref name="John Dvorak, Creative Commons Humbug">Template:Cite</ref>

Some critics contend that the Creative Commons licensing system dissuades content producers from coordinating efforts to revise the Copyright Act.<ref name="John Dvorak, Creative Commons Humbug"/>

Others caution that the Creative Commons licensing system allows "some of our most precious resources — the creativity of individuals — to be simply tossed into the commons to be exploited by whomever has spare time and a magic marker."<ref name="Maritza Schaeffer, Note and Comment: Contemporary Issues In the Visual Art World: How Useful Are Creative Commons Licenses?">Template:Cite web</ref>

Other critics question whether Creative Commons licenses are useful for artists, and suggest that Creative Commons primarily serves a "remix culture" and fails to meet the real needs of financial compensation and recognition of artists.<ref name="Maritza Schaeffer, Note and Comment: Contemporary Issues In the Visual Art World: How Useful Are Creative Commons Licenses?"/>

Some critics worry that a system without rewards for content producers will dissuade artists from publishing their work. <ref name="Niva Elkin-Koren, Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit">Template:Cite web</ref>

Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig counters that copyright laws have not always offered the strong and seemingly indefinite protection that today's law provides.<ref name="Lawrence Lessig, The Creative Commons">Template:Cite web</ref> Rather, the duration of copyright used to be limited to much shorter terms of years, and some works never gained protection because they did not follow the now-abandoned compulsory format.<ref name="Lawrence Lessig, The Creative Commons" />

Another critic questions whether Creative Commons is the commons that it purports to be, given that at least some restrictions apply to people's ability to use the resources within the common field.<ref name="Niva Elkin-Koren, Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit" /> This is restricted entirely within the private rights of others and has nothing to do with rights shared by all.<ref name="David Berry and Giles Moss, On the Creative Commons: A Critique of the Commons Without Commonality">Template:Cite web</ref> Creative Commons also does not define "creativity" or what aspects a work requires in order to become part of the commons.<ref name="Niva Elkin-Koren, Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit" />

Critics such as David BerryTemplate:Disambiguation needed and Giles Moss argue that the founding of Creative Commons is not the proper mechanism for creating a commons of original content.<ref name="David Berry and Giles Moss, On the Creative Commons: A Critique of the Commons Without Commonality" /> Rather, a commons should be created, and its presence preserved, through the political process and political activism, not through lawyers writing down new rules.<ref name="David Berry and Giles Moss, On the Creative Commons: A Critique of the Commons Without Commonality" />

Many criticize that four out of the six Creative Commons licenses are not truly "open" because of the restrictions they place on reuse. With the definition of open being "A piece of content or data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share-alike."<ref name="Open Definition">{{cite web |title= Open Definition| url= http://www.opendefinition.org }</ref>

License proliferation and incompatibility

Critics have also argued that Creative Commons worsens license proliferation, by providing multiple licenses that are incompatible.<ref name="Mako Hill, Towards a Standard of Freedom">Template:Cite web</ref> The Creative Commons website states, "Since each of the six CC licenses functions differently, resources placed under different licenses may not necessarily be combined with one another without violating the license terms."<ref>Template:Cite</ref>Works licensed under incompatible licenses may not be recombined in a derivative work without obtaining permission from the license-holder.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 3.0 Unported">Template:Cite web</ref> Some worry that "without a common legal framework, works which inadvertently mix licenses may become unshareable."<ref name="Michael Fitzgerald, Copyleft Hits a Snag" >Template:Cite web</ref>

License misuse

Due to the nature of Creative Commons and the absence of a central data-base, it is possible that legitimate copyright holders could be exploited by abusive internet users that erroneously brand their copyrighted works with Creative Commons licenses and re-upload these works to the internet. Creative Commons encourages a broad participation of users, but absolves itself from any and all legal liability. The integrity of the Creative Commons system rests entirely with those of the online community. At present, there are no checks in place to hold users accountable for mislicensing.<ref name="Andrew Orlowski, Tragedy of the Creative Commons" >Template:Cite web</ref>

Although Creative Commons offers multiple licenses for different uses, some critics suggest that the licenses still do not address the differences among the media or among the various concerns that different authors have.<ref name="Niva Elkin-Koren, Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit" /> For example, one critic points out that documentary filmmakers could have vastly different concerns from those held by a software designer or a law professor.<ref name="Niva Elkin-Koren, Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit" /> Additionally, people wishing to use a Creative Commons-licensed work would have to determine if their particular use is allowed under the license or if they need additional permission.<ref name="Niva Elkin-Koren, Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit" />

Lessig wrote that the point of Creative Commons is to provide a middle ground between two extreme views of copyright protection—one demanding that all rights be controlled, and the other arguing that none should be controlled.<ref name="Lawrence Lessig, The Creative Commons" /> Creative Commons provides a third option that allows authors to pick and choose which rights they want to control and which they want to relinquish.<ref name="Lawrence Lessig, The Creative Commons" /> The multitude of licenses reflects the multitude of rights that can be passed on to subsequent creators.<ref name="Lawrence Lessig, The Creative Commons" />

The Free Software Foundation

Some of Creative Commons licenses have been denounced by FSF founder Richard Stallman because, he says, they "do not give everyone [...] minimum freedom" "to share, noncommercially, any published work".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Mako Hill asserts that Creative Commons fails to establish a "base level of freedom" that all Creative Commons licenses must meet, and with which all licensors and users must comply. "By failing to take any firm ethical position and draw any line in the sand, CC is a missed opportunity.... CC has replaced what could have been a call for a world where 'essential rights are unreservable' with the relatively hollow call for 'some rights reserved.Template:' " Some critics fear that Creative Commons' popularity may detract from the more stringent goals of other free content organizations.<ref name="Mako Hill, Towards a Standard of Freedom"/>

Other criticism of the non-commercial license

Other critics, such as Erik Möller, raise concerns about the use of Creative Commons' non-commercial license. Works distributed under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license are not compatible with many open-content sites, including Wikipedia, which explicitly allow and encourage some commercial uses. Möller explains that "the people who are likely to be hurt by an -NC license are not large corporations, but small publications like weblogs, advertising-funded radio stations, or local newspapers."<ref name="Erik Moller, The Case for Free Use: Reasons Not to Use a Creative Commons -NC License">Template:Cite web</ref>

Lessig responds that the current copyright regime also harms compatibility and that authors can lessen this incompatibility by choosing the least restrictive license.<ref name="Lawrence Lessig, CC in Review: Lawrence Lessig on Important Freedoms">Template:Cite web</ref> Additionally, the non-commercial license is useful for preventing someone else from capitalizing on an author's work when the author still plans to do so in the future.<ref name="Lawrence Lessig, CC in Review: Lawrence Lessig on Important Freedoms" />

Debian

The maintainers of Debian, a GNU and Linux distribution known for its rigid adherence to a particular definition of software freedom, did not believe that even the Creative Commons Attribution License, the least restrictive of the licenses, adhered to the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) prior to version 3.0 of the license due to the license's anti-DRM provisions (which could restrict private redistribution to some extent) and its requirement in section 4a that downstream users remove an author's credit upon request from the author.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As the other licenses are identical to the Creative Commons Attribution License with further restrictions, Debian considered them non-free for the same reasons. Version 3.0 of the license addressed these concerns<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and is considered to be compatible with the DFSG.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legal cases

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Creative Commons has defended its licenses in several courts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some notable cases are detailed here.

Dutch tabloid

A Creative Commons license was first tested in court in early 2006, when podcaster Adam Curry sued a Dutch tabloid who published photos without permission from his Flickr page. The photos were licensed under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license. While the verdict was in favor of Curry, the tabloid avoided having to pay restitution to him as long as they did not repeat the offense. An analysis by Professor Bernt Hugenholtz, director of the Institute for Information Science of the University of Amsterdam and main creator of the Dutch CC license of the decision states, "The Dutch Court's decision is especially noteworthy because it confirms that the conditions of a Creative Commons license automatically apply to the content licensed under it, and bind users of such content even without expressly agreeing to, or having knowledge of, the conditions of the license."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Virgin Mobile

In 2007, Virgin Mobile launched an Australian bus stop ad campaign promoting their cellphone text messaging service using the work of amateur photographers who uploaded their work to Flickr using a Creative Commons-BY (Attribution) license. Users licensing their images this way freed their work for use by any other entity, as long as the original creator was attributed credit, without any other compensation required. Virgin upheld this single restriction by printing a URL leading to the photographer's Flickr page on each of their ads. However, one picture, depicting 15 year-old Alison Chang at a fund-raising carwash for her church,<ref name="permission">Template:Cite news</ref> caused some controversy when she sued Virgin Mobile. The photo was taken by Alison's church youth counselor, Justin Ho-Wee Wong, who uploaded the image to Flickr under the Creative Commons license.<ref name="permission"/> In 2008, the case (concerning personality rights rather than copyright as such) was thrown out of a Texas court for lack of jurisdiction.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

CC-Music – Spanish Court (2006)

The issue in this case was not whether the CC license was enforceable, but instead whether the major collecting society in Spain could collect royalties from a bar that played CC-licensed music. In this case, the main Spanish collecting society—Sociedad General de Autores y Editores ("SGAE") sued a disco owner for the public performance of music supposedly managed by the collecting society. However, the Lower Court rejected the collecting society's claims because the owner of the bar proved that the music he was using was not managed by the society, since it was under CC licence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

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Notes

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References

External links

Template:Creative Commons topic Template:Intellectual property activism

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