Slides by Alek Tarkowski, European Policy Advisor, Creative Commons at 'Maximising Digital Creativity, Sharing and Innovation', National Gallery of Ireland, January 2014. Event organised by Creative Commons Ireland and Faculty of Law, University College Cork. http://www.creativecommonsireland.org

1. Open All?
Open Policies for
User Rights and Freedoms
Alek Tarkowski
Creative Commons Poland

2. „Open All”
• Open = Access to Content + User
Rights
• Is „open convergence” possible,
towards a single standard of
open?`
• Access vs. (Re)use
• Public vs. Private content:
obligatory vs. voluntary norms

3. From grassroots activity
to top-down policies
• Policies provide strong leverage for
implementation of open standards
• Public character (funding) of content a
strong argument for openness: the
commons / public infrastructure
• Policies lack the element of personal,
voluntary decision – but are an expression
of a consensus as to the „management”
of common resources

4. Open all: template
• Repositories
• Metadata
• Author / publisher /
intermediary compliance
• Legal / licensing standards
• Use / reuse practices (by users)

5. Licensing debate
• Strong open licensing is crucial for
OER and other areas, where reuse is
of key importance (open data)
• Public funding – strong argument for
fully open licensing, despite content
type
• Open Knowledge De"nition as a
underlying / uni"ying mechanism for
standards negotiation

6. Beyond the licensing debate: CC

7. Beyond the licensing debate: CC
• We are dedicated stewards of our licenses
and tools […] But the CC vision—universal
access to research and education and full
participation in culture—will not be realized
through licensing alone.
• CC licenses are not a substitute for users’
rights, and CC supports ongoing efforts to
reform copyright law to strengthen users’
rights and expand the public domain.

8. EU: Beyond the licensing debate
• EU: 2013: Licences for Europe + Copyright
consultation
• The example of Text and Data Mining
(licensing vs. Open Access vs. copyright
exception)
• Fear of using the existence of open
licensing models as an excuse for lack of
copyright reform
• (open licensing in the Directive on
Collective Management of Copyright)

9. Poland

10. Poland: Open Textbooks
• Context for governmental open
education programs: OER developments
in Poland in last 5 years
• 2008: Coalition for Open Education
(KOED)
• Public OER projects („Polska szkoła”)
• Policy debate since 2010

11. Poland: Open Textbooks
• 2012: Open Textbooks project
• Part of larger „Digital school” program
• CC BY + WCAG + open format
• No o$cial policy behind it but…
• Additional programs:
• Scholaris portal
• Purchase of rights to key
literature for making it public
• … suggest that the OER model is
being adopted

12. Open Public Resources Act
• General model from the „Open
textbooks” project
• Complimentary to Public Sector
Information rules -> together would
form a general open norm for public
content
• Inspiration drawn from AUSGOAL
and NZGOAL frameworks
• 2013: Bill proposal

13. Open Public Resources Act
• Beyond PSI access / reuse rules
• Public and publicly funded (50%?)
• Transfer of rights or co-ownership of
rights to a work (instead of licensing,
a major point of contention)
• Three tiers of openness + opt-out
clause
• Embargo period

14. Open Public Resources Act
• Criticism:
• Focused solely on cultural works
• Portrayed as a wholesale taking
away of all creators’ copyrights by
the state; robbing of artists of their
money
• Little controversy over education
(previous debate on textbooks /
science

15. Europe: Open all?
• OA: Framework Programs -> Horizon
20202
• OER: „Opening Up Educaton”
• Open data: Reuse Directive
• But also … Copyright Directive
review: exceptions & limitations

16. Opening Up Education
• Pragmatic approach instead of an
ideological one? (with risk of
‘openwashing’)
• (which OA already knows this very well)
• Educators, students don’t necessarily
care about openness – they care about
a%ordability, e$ciency, ease of use,
quality
• And therefore policymakers care about
this too

17. CC’s OER policy project
http://oerpolicy.eu
Policy research: textbook production
models, exceptions and limitations for
education, mythbusting
Policy event in European parliament:
18th February with MEP Róża Thun