This document discusses the importance of open licensing for open government initiatives. It argues that open licensing provides legal clarity, prevents chilling effects, and maximizes reuse of government information. It describes how Creative Commons licenses work by allowing copyright holders to choose which rights to reserve and which to grant. The document recommends using CC0 to waive copyright and the Open Definition as a baseline for open licenses. The goal is to establish consistent, interoperable licensing that minimizes restrictions and maximizes reuse of government information.

1. Why is open licensing
important for OGP?
Open Government Partnership
Civil Society Day workshop

2. Why do need legal standards and open
licensing in the first place?
● Legal clarity
● Or else! chilling effects
● Legal problems = huge timesuck
● Make it invisible
● Posting online not enough
● Put in PD or attach open license
● Machine-readable license
● It’s not so difficult!

3. What is enabled by clarifying legal standards?
● Efficient reuse by all, esp gov’
t
● Effective gov’t spending;
maximize investments
● Citizen participation,
collaboration, transparency
● Promote creativity,
innovation, unexpected uses
and applications
● Spur economic activity
● Example: Europeana - http:
//pro.europeana.eu/casestudies-edm

4. What is Creative Commons and how
does it work?
● CC licenses built on traditional copyright law
● works within existing system by allowing
movement from “all rights reserved” to
“some rights reserved”
● CC gives creators a choice about which
freedoms to grant and which rights to keep
● CC minimizes transaction costs by granting
the public certain permissions beforehand

5. License Building Blocks
All CC licenses are combinations of 4
elements:
Attribution
ShareAlike
NonCommercial
NoDerivatives

7. Anatomy of a CC license

8. Human readable deed

9. Lawyer readable code

10. Machine readable metadata

11. Creative Commons license chooser
https://creativecommons.org/choose/

13. Important License Attributes 1
●
●
●
●
Scope is copyright and related rights
All are non-exclusive, irrevocable licenses
All require attribution
All permit reuse for at least noncommercial
purposes in unmodified form
● Do not contract away user rights
(exceptions/limitations)
● CC licensor enters into separate license
agreement with each user

14. Important License Attributes 2
● License runs with the work; recipient may
not apply technological measures or
conditions that limit another recipient’s rights
under the license, e.g. no DRM
● no warranties
● license terminates immediately upon breach
● CC is not a party to the license

15. CC0 Public Domain Dedication
● read “CC Zero”
● universal waiver, permanently surrenders
copyright and related rights, placing the work
as nearly as possible into the worldwide
public domain

16. Public Domain Mark
● not legally operative, but a label to be used
by those with knowledge that a work is
already in the public domain
● useful for very old works where we know it is
in the public domain
● only intended for use with works in
worldwide public domain

17. Examples of CC open license
adoption

18. Examples of country-specific open
government license

19. Many statements, common goal
●
●
●
●
●
“License free”
“Public domain”
“No restrictions on use”
“CC0”
“Most open licensing terms
available”
● “CC BY is default”
● “Enable free reuse, including
commercial”
● “Open Definition is baseline”
● all about minimizing
restriction, maximizing
reuse!

20. Challenges
● Public domain = problems solved
● Even better: harmonize limitations &
exceptions
● Ongoing “license envy”
● So be it, but keep out “poison” clauses
that kill interoperability
● Example: OGL 2.0
● Good moves: Open Definition WG,
LAPSI 2.0

21. So what should we use?
● Codify & harmonize limitations and
exceptions to copyright!
● CC0 to waive copyright worldwide
● Open Definition as baseline
○ means, reuse for any purpose (even commercial),
with at most requirement to attribute and sharealike
○ conformant licenses = http://opendefinition.
org/licenses/
● Push for most progressive policies, as fewer
restrictions leads to increased reuse

23. Resources and getting involved
● Open data handbook - http:
//opendatahandbook.org/
● LAPSI project - http://www.lapsi-project.eu/
● EC consultation on PSI Directive - http://bit.
ly/14JyJ8K
● CC affiliates in your country - http://wiki.
creativecommons.org/CC_Affiliate_Network
● OKFN, GODI, Sunlight Foundation
● Open Definition Working group

24. This work is dedicated to the public domain.
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.
Attribution is optional, but if desired, please attribute to Creative Commons.
Graphics
Credits
● Policy Icon - by The Noun Project - Public Domain
● Question Icon - by Rémy Médard, from The Noun Project - CC BY
● Stamp Icon - by Marino Cagnina, from The Noun Project - CC BY
● Big Idea Icon - Public Domain
● Puzzle Icon - by John O’Shea, from the Noun Project - CC BY