Creative Commons for Startups

Today in Cork we held an event on the theme 'Creative Commons for Startups'.

The participants were:

• Dr Andres Guadamuz, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex
• Professor Joseph Feller, Business Information Systems, UCC
• Professor Maeve McDonagh, School of Law, UCC 
• Dr Darius Whelan, School of Law, UCC 

For more information about the background to the event see here. 

The slides are on Slideshare:

Andres Guadamuz - Introducing Creative Commons:



Introduction to Creative Commons from Andres Guadamuz

Joseph Feller - Open for Business:

https://www.slideshare.net/cc-ireland/joseph-feller-open-for-business

[Also: Joseph Feller audio]

Darius Whelan - Creative Commons for Startups:

https://www.slideshare.net/cc-ireland/darius-whelan-creative-commons-for-startups

Photographs are available in this Flickr album.

Event: Creative Commons for Startups

[Update: A report on this event is now available at https://creativecommons-ie.blogspot.ie/2017/02/creative-commons-for-startups.html.]  

Hosted by Creative Commons Ireland in collaboration with Creative Commons UK and the IT Law Clinic, School of Law, University College Cork.

Creative Commons (CC) works to offer creators a way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them, to declare "some rights reserved." This is a middle path between absolute copyright protection (all rights reserved) and pure public domain availability.

This event will discuss how Creative Commons can be useful to startups.  For example, startups can make use of images subject to Creative Commons licences in designing a website.  It is also possible for startups to utilise open business models with CC licences at their core.  Two case studies of businesses of this kind are provided at the end of this post – OpenDesk and The Noun Project.

Participants will include:

• Dr Andres Guadamuz, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex
• Professor Joseph Feller, Business Information Systems, UCC
• Professor Maeve McDonagh, School of Law, UCC
• Dr Darius Whelan, School of Law, UCC

Date: Friday 17 February 2017 

Time: 12.00 to 13.00

Location:  Boole Library, Creative Zone, University College Cork   

This event is open to all.  In order to confirm numbers, please register your attendance at
https://cc-startups.eventbrite.ie.

Funded by the Creative Commons Awesome Fund 2016-2017.

Creative Commons Ireland is hosted at UCC School of Law.  The Public Leads are Darius Whelan and Louise Crowley.  See www.creativecommonsireland.org.

Creative Commons UK – England & Wales - https://europe.creativecommons.org/affiliate/uk_england_and_wales

The IT Law Clinic at UCC School of Law provides free legal information to startups –
https://www.ucc.ie/en/lawsite/currentstudents/it-law-clinic/

Case Studies on use of Creative Commons in Business
(adapted from Paul Stacey’s articles at https://medium.com/@pgstacey  )

OpenDesk – www.opendesk.cc  - London

OpenDesk has curated a collection of digital designs for furniture from a range of international designers. Designs are Creative Commons licensed and can be downloaded and customized by users to fit their specific needs. Users can make furniture themselves from the design for non-commercial use in a do-it-yourself fashion. However, conversion of a digital design into physical pieces of wood usually requires specialized milling tools controlled by computers. OpenDesk has partnered with maker businesses all over the world that have such tools. OpenDesk and their designers make revenue when a user wants a local maker to do the cutting for them.

The Noun Project – www.thenounproject.com – USA

The Noun Project is a platform for visual symbols and icons. The Noun Project aggregates and curates symbols and icons from a global network and profiles the designers of each work. Icons and symbols are licensed under CC licences. There are currently over 150,000 icons available.
Users can download and use the icons and symbols for free as long as they abide by the CC license and give attribution to the original creator. Revenue is generated when users do not want to give attribution. Using the symbols without attribution requires users to pay. In addition, the Noun Project has built out a range of additional tools and services to support bulk use for a fee, integration of symbols and icons to apps using an API, and has released a Lingo app for organizing collections. All these additional tools generate revenue. Revenue is split between designers and the Noun Project.

[Update: A report on this event is now available at https://creativecommons-ie.blogspot.ie/2017/02/creative-commons-for-startups.html.]  

CC Ireland submission on EU Copyright Reform

Creative Commons Ireland has today submitted a letter to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation concerning the EU's new proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market as follows:



We are the Public Leads of Creative Commons Ireland and we welcome the opportunity to express our view on the EU’s new proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

We have been involved in discussions at European level within the Creative Commons (CC) organisation about this proposed Directive.  As a result of that process, a joint letter (attached) has been written and signed by a large number of European CC affiliates.

We fully endorse the contents of the attached letter.

Some of the main points in the letter are as follows:

• The proposed ancillary copyright (“link tax”) would have a negative impact on online sharing and should be removed.  
• The education exception should be broadened beyond formal educational establishments. 
• The Text and Data Mining exception should be available to the private sector as well as to non-profits.
• Rather than a licensing system for use of out-of-commerce works by cultural heritage institutions, a better solution would be an exception for the use of such works.
• The proposal to require internet platforms to monitor content should be removed.
• There should be a mandatory exception regarding freedom of panorama. 
• A general exception should be introduced to make copyright law more adaptable to new uses and technologies over time.

In addition, we note that many of the submissions in the CC letter attached are in keeping with proposals in Ireland’s Copyright Review Committee (CRC) report on Modernising Copyright, published in 2013.  The CRC report was a progressive report at national level and we look forward to its implementation in due course.  It would be a real pity if, at EU level, a Directive were adopted which was not as progressive as our national review committee report.  

We also support the recent open letter by EU academics on the proposed Directive.  This letter is available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2850483. It focuses on the proposed action in relation to content monitoring by intermediaries in the context of the so called 'value gap' proposal.  The academics ask for a public and transparent discussion on the interplay between the proposed copyright directive and the Electronic Commerce Directive.  

We are available to discuss any of the above points at any stage.

Yours sincerely


Darius Whelan   Louise Crowley

d.whelan@ucc.ie l.crowley@ucc.ie

Some Open Internet organisations in Ireland

CC BY SA Jessica Duensing from Flickr

I thought it would be interesting to do a quick list of Open Internet organisations in Ireland.

I use the term 'Open Internet' loosely, to cover organisations which promote openness and sharing online.

Comments and additions welcome.


Creative Commons Ireland -
www.creativecommonsireland.org.

Wikimedia Community Ireland -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_Ireland

Digital Rights Ireland -
www.digitalrights.ie

Open Knowledge Ireland -
http://openknowledge.ie

Irish Free Software Organisation -
www.ifso.ie

Mozilla Ireland -
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contact/communities/ireland/

Ireland's Open Data Portal -
http://data.gov.ie

Ireland chapter of the Internet Society:
www.internetsociety.org/node/511315

Maximising Digital Creativity, Innovation and Sharing

Photo CC BY Conor McCabe 

Our event in the National Gallery of Ireland on 17 January went very well and here's the blog post from the main Creative Commons site:

Creative Commons Ireland held an awareness-raising event in Dublin on “Maximising Digital Creativity, Sharing and Innovation” in January 2014. The event took place in the National Gallery of Ireland and was attended by 100 people working in technology, libraries, academia, galleries/libraries/museums, media and education. The speakers represented a cross-section of perspectives, and the event was an opportunity for CC Ireland to develop relationships with organisations such as the Open Knowledge Foundation, Digital Rights Ireland, and Ireland’s Copyright Review Committee. Eoin O’Dell of the Law School, Trinity College Dublin talked about copyright law reform and its impact on Creative Commons licences. The Copyright Review Committee, which was chaired by Dr O’Dell, published its proposals for change in Ireland in October 2013 (see http://www.djei.ie/press/2013/20131029.htm). O’Dell said his committee’s report had provided the first legal definition of metadata, which particularly aimed to protect the rights of digital photographers. The report also proposed that parody and linking should be allowed without any infringement of copyright, as well as a nine-point ‘fair use’ doctrine. Kristina Alexanderson of CC Sweden spoke about how she uses CC licences in her work and her work has been accessed by very large audiences as a result.

Alek Tarkowski, European Policy Advisor, CC, discussed open policies for user rights and freedoms, and highlighted a Polish project for providing open education textbooks. Gwen Franck, CC Regional Co-ordinator, highlighted the work of CC Affiliates throughout Europe. Professor David Post, of Temple Law School, Philadelphia, USA said there were between 400 million and 800 million Creative Commons licences in use today, and Creative Commons represented people “taking the law into their own hands.” He said copyright law had “run amok,” with copyright protection running for too long and being too wide. The event was chaired by Darius Whelan and Louise Crowley of CC Ireland and the Faculty of Law, University College Cork. Photos, videos and slides are available at www.creativecommonsireland.org.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/114281612@N04/
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/creativecommonsirl
Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/cc-ireland

David Post

Gwen Franck

Eoin O'Dell

Adrian Acosta

Alek Tarkowski 

Marie McFeely

Antoin O Lachtnain

Denis Parfenov

Kristina Alexanderson

Aidan McCullen