Category: Uncategorized

Book launch of ”The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture”, Brussels, June 18th

From the Communia-Association’s blog:

More information about the book can be found on the Communia Association’s website.

On Monday, June 18, MEP Amelia Andersdotter, along with her colleague MEP Ioannis Tsoukalas, is inviting you to attend the launch of the book ”The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture”, edited by Melanie Dulong de Rosnay and Juan Carlos De Martin as an output of the Communia Thematic Network.

The book is under a CC Attribution license and the PDF can be downloaded here.

book cover

”The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture”

18 June 2012

18:30 – 20:00

European Parliament, Brussels, ASP Main Hall

(Ground Floor, in front of the Newspapers Quiosque)

18:30 Welcome: MEP Amelia Andersdotter

18:35 Introduction: MEP Prof. Ioannis Tsoukalas

18:45 The Digital Public Domain – presentation by editors: Melanie Dulong & Juan Carlos De Martin

19:00 Q&A and Discussion / Cocktails

19:45 Closing remarks: MEP Amelia Andersdotter

If would like to attend the event and require access to the Parliament, please register with amelia.andersdotter-office@europarl.europa.eu before June 14, indicating your full name, date of birth and ID number.

Link to the invitation on Amelia Andersdotter’s blog.

A video interview of Anne-Catherine Lorrain, Juan Carlos De Martin and Melanie Dulong de Rosnay during the book launch event is available on YouTube. Thanks to Amelia Andersdotter’s team members Julia Reda, Edvinas Pauza and Tess Lindholm.

CC clarification – UK House of Lords misinformation about CC licence for UK Open Access policy

Timothy Vollmer writes on the CC Blog:

In the UK, the House of Commons has asked for feedback on their Open Access Policy. One provision of that policy requires that articles funded through the Research Councils UK (RCUK) must be released under a CC BY license. Last year, CC submitted a short comment in support.

And just last month, the House of Lords completed a consultation period which has generated some misinformationabout how the CC BY license operates. So, in order to clarify some of these misconceptions, Creative Commons and Creative Commons UK submitted a joint response to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee to set the record straight.

We’ve pulled together some clarifications to some of the uncertainty lobbed at the CC BY license provision in the Open Access Policy. Some of the reasons given that CC BY should not be retained include:

  • it would promote “misuse of research or would cause authors to “lose control of their work”
  • third party rights negotiations for content that authors wish to include within an openly licensed article would prove too difficult
  • open licensing provides less protection against plagiarism
  • CC BY is not widely used in OA publishing
  • authors should choose licensing conditions, not funders

These claims are confusing, misguided, or not backed up by evidence. We offer our responses and support here.

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/BIS_committee_UK_OA_Policy

So, what is the deal with copyright and 3D printing?

“Public Knowledge is happy to announce a new whitepaper: “What’s the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing?” This paper is something of a follow up to our previous 3D printing whitepaper “It Will Be Awesome if They Don’t Screw It Up“. Unlike “It Will Be Awesome”, which focused on the broad connection between intellectual property law and 3D printing, What’s the Deal? takes a deeper dive into the relationship between copyright and 3D printing.”

Continue reading on www.publicknowledge.org/blog/so-what-deal-copyright-and-3d-printing

Auf dem Weg zu einem Urheberrecht für das 21. Jahrhundert

Till Kreutzer’s Ideen für eine zukünftige Regulierung kreativer Güter:

“Moderne Technologien machen es den Nutzern möglich, sehr viel mehr urheberrechtlich geschützte Güter zu kopieren und weiterzugeben, als dies noch vor 50 Jahren der Fall war. Das Urheberrecht kann die Rechteinhaber derzeit nicht effektiv schützen. Es müsste gründlich reformiert werden, um Kreativen zu ihrem Recht, das weniger durch Privatnutzer als vielmehr von Verwertern beschnitten wird, zu verhelfen.”

Den ganzen, sehr lesenswerten, Text gibt es im Wirtschaftsdienst vom Oktober 2012.

CC Europe urges European Commission to support Open Education

Timothy Vollmer writes:

“In August we wrote about the European Commission’s request for information on the topic Opening Up Education. The point of the consultation is to gauge the need for EU action to promote the adoption and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. Several Creative Commons affiliates in Europe have submitted a joint response to the survey. The jurisdictions signing onto the response include Luxembourg, Denmark, Greece, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, Sweden, Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Serbia, Poland, Netherlands, Finland, Bulgaria, and Ireland.

The joint response urges the Commission to support the recommendations in the 2012 Paris OER Declaration, which was unanimously supported by UNESCO member nations at the World Open Educational Resources Congress on 20-22 June 2012. As described in the consultation document (PDF), “the EU will use the tools at its disposal (policy guidance, EU regulation whenever relevant, funding mechanisms, exchange of good practices and innovative pilots).” By leveraging these various tools in alignment with the suggestions laid out in the Paris Declaration, the Commission can be very effective in promoting the development and use of OER. (…)”

Read full post.

Full response sent to the European Commission.

2nd draft of 4.0 licences online

Diane Peters of Creative Commons HQ:

We are pleased to post draft 2 of 4.0 for public discussion. This comes after several months of substantive conversations on a number of policy issues, with input solicited from our global community on the CC license-development list (archive), through affiliate consultations, via comments posted directly on our 4.0 wiki, and submissions to staff.

We fielded comments from an impressive number of jurisdictions — more than 50 by our estimate. The combined input reflects an incredibly diverse set of opinions and an equally diverse group of constituents. Individual creators, educators and educational institutions, governments, policy makers, academics and many others all added their voices to the conversation. We received a great deal of input and revision proposals, and people shared many informed (and sometimes passionate) opinions on a wide range of topics. And while compromise and consensus are not always achievable, we feel the decisions reflected in draft 2 are well grounded and considered. (…)

(More)

Luxembourg is global Nr 6 in Wikipedia edits

Surprising?

In the 2012 “Global Innovation Index”, Luxembourg  is ranked Nr6 fro Wikipedia edits.

More proof of the innovative potential in services based on sharing and remixing, such as Wikipedia, which is based the legal toolkit of Creative Commons licences.  Great to see that there is a beginning recognition that value is created and maintained in the public Commons.

Full report here:  www.globalinnovationindex.org

global-innovation-index.gif

Elinor Ostrom

Elinor Ostrom, economics nobel prize in 2009 and inspiration for thinking about knowledge as a Commons, died june 12th. http://elinorostrom.indiana.edu/

e ostrom

Three book references:

Elinor Ostrom

Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action

Link to book on amazon.de

Charlotte Hess, Elinor Ostrom (Ed.)

Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11012

Silke Helfrich, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (Hg.)

Commons – Für eine neue Politik jenseits von Markt und Staat

http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts2036/ts2036.php