This is a presentation on Creative Commons given to the DPLA Digital Curation Pilot.

2. Creative Commons develops,
supports, and stewards legal
and technical infrastructure that
maximizes digital creativity,
sharing, and innovation.

3. Nonprofit organization
Free copyright licenses
Founded in 2001
Operate worldwide

4. The problem:
traditional copyright
does not work well for
sharing and free online
collaboration.

5. • It’s in the Constitution!
• “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,
by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors
the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
Discoveries.”
• attaches when an “original work of authorship is fixed in
a tangible medium of expression”
• applies to published/unpublished works; you get it
automatically (no registration or marking required)
• in U.S., lasts for life of author + 70 years
• “bundle of rights” = reproduce, make derivative works,
distribute, public performance
Features of copyright today

6. • You have to ask permission
• Copyright infringement can be expensive (in U.S.
$750-$150,000/work infringed)
• Safety valves on exclusive rights of authors =
exceptions and limitations to copyright
• Fair use
• Federal government works not protected
• Libraries, classroom teaching exception
Features of copyright today

7. • Public domain = not protected by copyright
• Copyright = “all rights reserved”; Public domain
= “no rights reserved”
• Don’t have to ask permission!
• in U.S., stuff that was published before 1923
• Facts not protected
• copyrighted works rise into the public domain
after copyright term expires or when author
puts it there beforehand
Features of copyright today

8. FAST FWD

9. With the web,
It’s so damn easy to share

10. But how to ask
permission?

11. How to support those that
just want to share?

12. CC’s solution: A simple,
standardized, legally
robust way to grant
copyright permissions to
creative works (and data).

13. “Lowers transaction costs”

15. CC’s legal infrastructure:
(1) Copyright Licenses and
(2)Public Domain Tools

16. (1) CC Copyright Licenses

17. CC licenses build on
traditional copyright
• CC works within the existing system by allowing
movement from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some
Rights Reserved”
• CC improves copyright by giving creators a
choice about which freedoms to grant and which
rights to keep
• CC minimizes transaction costs by granting the
public certain permissions beforehand.

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

19. Public Domain Dedication
Licenses

20. http://creativecommons.org/choose/
Creative Commons License Chooser:

21. Anatomy of a CC License:

22. Human
Readable Deed

23. Lawyer
Readable Legal
Code

24. Lawyer
Readable Legal
Code

25. <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<span rel="dc:type" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/
Text" property="dc:title">My Photo</span> by
<a rel="cc:attributionURL"
property="cc:attributionName" href="http://joi.ito.com/
my_photo">Joi Ito</a>
is licensed under a
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
License</a>.
<span rel="dc:source" href="http://fredbenenson.com/
photo"/>
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be
available at <a rel="cc:morePermissions" href="http://
ozmo.com/revenue_sharing_agreement">OZMO</a>.</
span>
</span>
Machine
Readable
Metadata

27. Important License Attributes
• All are non-exclusive, irrevocable public licenses
• All require attribution
• All permit reuse for at least noncommercial
purposes in unmodified form
• Do not contract away any user rights
(exceptions/limitations)
• CC licensor enters into a separate license
agreement with each user

28. Important License Attributes
• License runs with the work, recipient may not
apply technological measures or conditions that
limit another recipients rights under the license,
e.g. no DRM
• No warranties
• License terminates immediately upon breach
• CC is not a party to the license

29. (2) Public Domain Tools

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

32. CC Public Domain Mark
Not legally operative, but a label to be used by
those with knowledge of a work already in the
public domain
Only intended for use with works in the
worldwide public domain

34. 74 jurisdictions

36. Who uses
Creative Commons?

37. Wikipedia: Over 77,000 contributors
working on over 22 million articles in
285 languages

38. Open Educational Resources

41. Music

42. Journalism/Broadcast

43. Publishing

44. Europeana: 30M metadata items under
CC0, 5 million digital object with PDM
and 2.8 million digital objects under one
of the CC licenses

47. Free Access - Rig... (3042)
Restricted Access... (866)
CC BY-NC-SA (308)
Public Domain marked (188)
Unknown copyright... (144)
Paid Access - Rig... (83)
CC BY-NC (115)
CC BY (58)
CC BY-NC-ND (40)
CC BY-SA (15)
CC0 (1)
Filter by usage rights

50. Thank you very much!
Questions? tvol@creativecommons.org
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.
Some content such as screenshots may appear here under
exceptions to copyright and trademark law such as fair use,
and may not be covered by CC0.