This document discusses common legal principles for open licensing and the importance of clarifying legal standards. It notes that license-free works are in the public domain and CC licenses like CC BY enable free reuse including commercial use. Legal clarity is important to avoid chilling effects and legal problems. Clarifying standards enables efficient reuse, citizen participation, innovation and economic activity. Challenges remain around harmonizing limitations and exceptions across jurisdictions.

1. Legal Standards:
Boring, Necessary
Timothy Vollmer | Creative Commons | @tvol

2. Common Legal Principles

3. ● 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!
Common Legal Principles

4. Why legal standards in the first place?

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

6. What is enabled by clarifying legal standards?

7. ● 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/case-
studies-edm
What is enabled by clarifying legal standards?

8. Challenges and the future

9. PDDL
● 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
Challenges and the future
or

10. 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
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.