This document summarizes a lecture about Creative Commons and the digital economy given by Professor Anne Fitzgerald at Queensland University of Technology Law Faculty. It discusses the application of Creative Commons licensing to public sector information and government copyright materials. It provides background on how Creative Commons has come to be applied to public sector information in Australia over time, through various government reviews and reports recommending more open access and reuse of public data and content.
8. Understanding the Creative
Commons licences
a standardised system for licensing the use of
copyright materials
a suite of 6 standardised licences
available in 3 forms: plain english (summary); legal code
and machine-readable code
Each licence grants baseline permissions to users to
use copyright material
that is, to copy, publish, distribute in digital form,
publicly perform
whether the whole or a substantial part of it
on specified, standardised core conditions
10. Baseline Permissions
Fundamental baseline rights granted by all CC licences:
Reproduce
Distribute
Publicly perform
On condition of Attribution
Additional baseline permission granted in four of the six
CC licences to create derivative works and
Reproduce
Distribute
Publicly perform
the derivative work
11. Core Conditions
Attribution (BY) – attribute the author, and no false attribution
This applies to all CC licences
Non Commercial (NC) – no “commercial use” (as defined)
No Derivatives (ND) – no changes allowed to original work
Share Alike (SA) – changes allowed, but new work is to be
distributed under the same licence as the original work
* ND and SA cannot be used together
13. CC BY
Core condition:
Attribution (BY) – attribute the author, and no false
attribution
Baseline Rights:
Reproduce
Distribute
Publicly perform
Create derivative works (and reproduce, distribute and
publicly perform the derivative work)
14. How CC came to be applied to PSI
in Australia – a chronology
• 1990s: Cutler, Wainwright – digital content strategy proposals
• 2001: Office of Spatial Data Management (OSDM) access and reuse policy
• 2004: Launch of Creative Commons in Australia
• 2004: Launch by Queensland Government of Spatial Information Licensing Project (GILF)
2005: Unlocking the Potential: Digital Content Industry Action Agenda, Strategic Industry Leaders Group report to the
Australian Government
• 2005 – 2006: Queensland Government’s Government Information Licensing Framework (GILF) proposed use
of Creative Commons licensing for PSI
• 2007 – 2010: GILF project continues as a Queensland Government-QUT collaboration, developing knowledge
about and models for use of CC on PSI
• 2007 on: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Geoscience Australia (GA), Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)
implement open access and adopt CC licensing; National Library of Australia; Australian Broadcasting
Corporation; various State and local government initiatives
• 2008: OECD Ministerial Seoul Declaration on the Future of the Internet Economy - OECD Recommendations on
publicly funded research (2006) and Access to PSI (2008)
• 2008: Venturous Australia report on National Innovation System (Cutler Report)
• 2009: Australia’s Digital Economy, Future Directions (Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital
Economy)
• 2009: Victorian Parliament Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee (EDIC) report (Government’s
response 2010)
• Government 2.0 Taskforce (2009), Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0 (December 2009)
• 2009: New Zealand (draft) Government Open Access Licensing Framework (NZGOAL); UK Power of Information
report
• 2009 – 2010: Freedom of Information/Right to Information reforms – State and Federal legislation
• 2010: Government response to Government 2.0 Taskforce report, accepting key recommendations and
stating that CC BY should be the default licence for PSI; Declaration of Open Government; Commonwealth
Government IP Principles 2011: Queensland Government’s IP Principles – CC BY as the default licence
• 2012: Attorney-General’s revised Intellectual Property Manual - CC BY as the default licence
15. I love
A sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains.
My Country, Dorothea McKellar (1904)
… ‘ ‘Uluru at sunset’ by Richard Fisher, http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardfisher/3114503461/
16. Cyclone Larry – Far North
Queensland (March 2006)
Adoption of open content
licensing (Creative Commons)
as the default position for
distribution of government
copyright materials
17. Licence logjams after Cyclone Larry
Problem of access to data held by different government departments
(State/Federal) and government-owned utility companies (power/gas)
Governments traditionally relied on Crown copyright to control access to
information (to restrict flow of information or to preserve commercial
rights)
Survey of Queensland government departments found that the
majority of government business units did not use any formal
licensing
For those that did, the legal frameworks varied significantly -
“standard” approaches were outdated - many derivatives of licences
Often, there was no licence, so access/use/reuse rights are unknown
– high transaction cost of negotiating new licences
Where licences existed, terms were vague or inconsistent
No standard approach towards data access for users
Complexity for anyone outside dealing with multiple
agencies
Potentially more difficult for Gov agencies to deal with each
other than to get same information from outside Government
26. Towards the digital economy
Emergence of digital online economy since mid-1990s
and, introduction of fast broadband online
innovation and expansion of commercial activity
Surging demand for new (digital) information/content
products and services
New online business models emerging
Creative Commons (CC) lawful remix and re-use of
innovative content and services
27. Towards an information policy
From 2005 on –
reviews of government information access and reuse practices
Queensland Government Information Licensing
Framework (GILF) report (2006)
Cutler review (2008)
Victorian Parliament review of access to PSI (2009)
Government 2.0 Taskforce (2009)
Lawrence (UK Ordnance Survey) reviews of spatial policy
and practices (2011)
reform of Freedom of Information (FoI) schemes –
introduction of Right to Information (RTI) proactive
disclosure principles and practices (2009 on)
28. Review of the National Innovation
System (Cutler review) 2008
Information flow is a central part of the innovation
agenda
The value of information/content is in its use/re-use
29. Venturous Australia (Cutler
report, 2008)
•Australia should establish a National Information
Strategy to optimise the flow of information in the
Australian economy. The fundamental aim of a National
Information Strategy should be to:
•maximise the flow of government generated
information, research, and content for the
benefit of users (including private sector resellers of
information).
•A specific strategy for ensuring the scientific
knowledge produced in Australia is placed in
machine searchable repositories be developed and
implemented using public funding agencies and universities
as drivers.
•Information, research and content funded by
Australian governments – including national
collections – should be made freely available over
the internet as part of the global public commons,
to the maximum extent possible.
Open gate by chelmsfordblue (Nick)
30. Venturous Australia (Cutler report,
2008)
Recommendation 7.8
Australian governments should
adopt international standards
of open publishing as far as
possible. Material released for
public information by
Australian governments should
be released under a creative
commons licence.
32. OECD PSI Recommendation
the “Openness” principle states:
“Maximising the availability of public sector information for use and re-use
based upon presumption of openness as the default rule to facilitate
access and re-use. Developing a regime of access principles or assuming
openness in public sector information as a default rule wherever possible
no matter what the model of funding is for the development and
maintenance of the information. Defining grounds of refusal or limitations,
such as for protection of national security interests, personal privacy,
preservation of private interests for example where protected by copyright,
or the application of national access legislation and rules.”
the “Access and transparent conditions for re-use” principle states:
“Encouraging broad non-discriminatory competitive access and conditions
for re-use of public sector information, eliminating exclusive arrangements,
and removing unnecessary restrictions on the ways in which it can be
accessed, used, re-used, combined or shared, so that in principle all
accessible information would be open to re-use by all. Improving
access to information over the Internet and in electronic form. Making
available and developing automated on-line licensing systems covering re-
use in those cases where licensing is applied, taking into account the
copyright principle below.”
36. Office of Australian Information Commissioner -
Principles on open public sector information
(2011)
Principle 1: Open access to information - a default position
Information held by Australian Government agencies is a valuable national
resource. If there is no legal need to protect the information it should be open
to public access. Information publication enhances public access. Agencies
should use information technology to disseminate public sector information,
applying a presumption of openness and adopting a proactive publication
stance.
Principle 6: Clear reuse rights
The economic and social value of public sector information is enhanced when
it is made available for reuse on open licensing terms. The Guidelines on
Licensing Public Sector Information for Australian Government Agencies
require agencies to decide licensing conditions when publishing information
online. The default condition should be the Creative Commons BY
standard, as recommended in the Intellectual Property Principles for
Australian Government Agencies, that apply to agencies subject to the Financial
and Management Accountability Act 1997. Additional guidance on selecting an
appropriate licence is given in the Australian Government Open Access and
Licensing Framework (AUSGOAL).
http://oaic.gov.au/publications/agency_resources/principles_on_psi_short.htm
l
38. Chapter 9 – IP Manual - Sharing and
Granting Public Access to IP (2012)
Part of the Commonwealth’s response [to the
Government 2.0 Taskforce’s report Engage: Getting on
with Government 2.0 (2009)] is to make PSI available
under the default Creative Commons BY licence
(otherwise known as an attribution licence) which
allows the greatest access to potential users.
Agencies are now required to make licensing
decisions about whether to use Creative Commons
licences (or other open content licences) when
publicly releasing their PSI. Australian Government
agencies subject to the FMA Act are expected to comply
with this default, with CAC Act agencies asked to
consider this position as an expression of good practice.”
[emphasis added] (at p 183)
39. Chapter 9 – IP Manual - Sharing and Granting
Public Access to IP (2012)
“There is detailed information on the Creative
Commons Australia website about Government use
of Creative Commons licences:
http://creativecommons.org.au/sectors/government .
The international Creative Commons website also
includes a simple tool to help select an appropriate
Creative Commons licence:
http://creativecommons.org/choose/ - note however
that you must specify Australia as the relevant
jurisdiction in order to generate an Australian
version of the license in question.” [emphasis added]
(at p 187)
53. ABC “80 Days that Changed our Lives”
To celebrate ABC’s 80th anniversary , ABC released 22 files capturing
historic moments on Wikimedia under CC BY-SA
first collection of broadcast “packaged” footage released to Wikimedia
Commons under a free license
56. NZGOAL
NZ Government Open Access and Licensing
framework (NZGOAL)
approved by Cabinet in 2010
standardises the licensing of government copyright
works for reuse under CC licences (CC BY as the
default) and recommends the use of a ‘no-known
rights’ statement for material not protected by
copyright.
provides a Review and Release Process online tool to
assess whether PSI can be released for re-use and under
what conditions
57. NZGOAL Policy Principles
“Open access to copyright works with Creative
Commons Attribution (BY) licence as default
[Unless a restriction applies] State Services agencies should
make their copyright works which are or may be of interest or
use to people available for re-use on the most open of
licensing terms available within NZGOAL (the Open
Licensing Principle).
To the greatest extent practicable, such works should be made
available online. The most open of licensing terms available
within NZGOAL is the Creative Commons Attribution (BY)
licence.”
http://nzgoal.info/
58. NZGOAL and CC
Application of CC to geographical information by
government agencies
At the national level,:
Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) licences information
on the Ocean Survey 20/20 web portal (which covers New
Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Continental Shelf
and the Ross Sea Region) under a CC BY licence.
Minister for the Environment has released its Land Cover
Database and Land Environments NZ classification under CC
BY through web portal Koordinates.
Local government bodies have also released geographical
datasets on Koordinates under a CC BY licence (covering
subject matter from flood hazards to passenger transport
information). http://www.os2020.org.nz/copyright-
attributing/.
Wellington City Council,
Northland Regional Council; and
Auckland Regional Council
59.
60.
61. Christchurch Earthquake 2011
Through the standardised review and release process, government
agencies rapidly released CC-licensed information eg LINZ’s aerial
photographs of the city’s damage.
‘Post-quake imagery of Christchurch carries CC licence’, CC NZ News, 2
April 2011, available at
http://www.creativecommons.org.nz/news_and_events/news/post_quake_
imagery_of_christchurch_carries_cc_licence.
A non-government project, the Christchurch Recovery Map, an open
ad crowd-sourced map application recording the damage and relief
reports through the city, was licensed under CC BY.
http://eq.org.nz/ (note that the map is no longer available).
Various projects documenting the devastation and recovery efforts (by
organizations such as the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority,
the Defence Force, and the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency
Management) have been released under CC licences.
See Ross Becker Photos at http://cera.govt.nz/ross-becker-photos and on
Picasa at https://picasaweb.google.com/RossBeckerNZ/.
See Flickr Collection: Christchurch Earthquake February 2011, available at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzdefenceforce/collections/721576261436107
31/.
See ‘VIDEO: Central Christchurch, two weeks after the quake’, National
Business Review, 19 March 2011, available at
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/video-central-christchurch-two-weeks-after-
quake-ck-88665.
Copyright interests may co-exist independently in components contained within the database and in the database itself, and may be owned by different parties.