1. Creative Commons licensing for game content creators Jessica Coates Project Manager Creative Commons Clinic
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part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

2. Standard copyright law says that you can’t reproduce or communicate creative material (eg movies, books, music etc) without the copyright owner’s permission, except in very limited circumstances
The problem with this in the digital era is that every use of material makes a reproduction. This includes just viewing
This means that, under the default copyright laws, printing out a webpage, ing a picture to your friend, making a digital collage or remix work etc will all generally infringe copyright
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

3. Standard copyright law says that you can’t reproduce or communicate creative material (eg movies, books, music etc) without the copyright owner’s permission, except in very limited circumstances
The problem with this in the digital era is that every use of material makes a reproduction. This includes just viewing
This means that, under the default copyright laws, printing out a webpage, ing a picture to your friend, making a digital collage or remix work etc will all generally infringe copyright
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

4. …music, script, lyrics, art, sound recording, film…
Code v content
Open Art Museum by el_aguacil under CC Attribution v2.0
Copyright protects all works separately – film, script, music, artwork in the background
In same way, content contained in a program is protected separately from the program
While it isn’t always completely clear-cut legally, the standard rule is that just because the two are linked, or used together, doesn’t mean they are the same work, or you have the same rights to use them
The simplest way to think about this is about a standard office program – microsoft owns the copyright in the program, but it doesn’t own the copyright in the material produced by the program, the material stored within the program.
While it is possible, and even common, to apply the same licence to all material in a work, this isn’t the default – it depends on the wording of the licence
And most open software licences aren’t worded so as to apply to creative material, or even well suited to it
Taking the GPL as an example – its language all refers to source/object code
As the FSF themselves say, while it’s possible to apply the GPL to creative content, you need to be able to determine what source code is
This is why they created the GFDL for their documentation
…music, script, lyrics, art, sound recording, film…
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

5. Why license content?
Practical – need to be able to distribute etc whole product, not just code
Collaboration and innovation – user generated content, machinima etc.
Clarity – remove any uncertainty as to rights
Principle – sharing is good (for your players and your pocket)
Non-profit
Founded in 2001
These academics became concerned that the default copyright laws that applied in most countries were restricting creativity in the digital environment by preventing people from being able to access, remix and distribute copyright material online
Taking inspiration from the open source movement, they decided to develop a set of licences that creators could use to make their material more freely available without giving up their copyright
They wanted to replace the standard “all rights reserved” model with a new, more flexible, “some rights reserved”
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

6. Enter Creative Commons
Aims to make content more freely available by providing free licences that creators can use to give permission in advance
Non-profit
Founded in 2001
These academics became concerned that the default copyright laws that applied in most countries were restricting creativity in the digital environment by preventing people from being able to access, remix and distribute copyright material online
Taking inspiration from the open source movement, they decided to develop a set of licences that creators could use to make their material more freely available without giving up their copyright
They wanted to replace the standard “all rights reserved” model with a new, more flexible, “some rights reserved”
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

7. Licences 4 licence elements: Noncommercial – no commercial use
Attribution – attribute the author
Noncommercial – no commercial use
No Derivative Works – no remixing
ShareAlike – remix only if you let others remix
The first CC licences were released in 2002
The central to each of the CC licences are the four licence elements – Attribution, noncommercial, no derivative and sharealike
These represent restrictions that copyright owners may want to put on how people can use their material.
As you can see, each of the elements has a symbol that can be used to ‘represent’ each of these elements
this makes the licences easier understand – in theory, once a person is familiar with the CC licences, they should be able to recognise what uses are allowed simply by looking at the symbols
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

8. Licences creators mix and match these elements to make a licence:
Attribution
Attribution-NonCommercial
Attribution-NoDerivatives
Attribution-ShareAlike
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Users can mix and match these elements to set the conditions of use for their material
So, for example, an author may be happy to allow private uses of their work, but may want to limit how it can be used commercially.
They may also want people to remix their work, but only so long as that person attributes them and makes the new work available for others to remix
So they can choose the Attribution-noncommercial-sharealike licence
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

9. Licences
. . .to the licence deed, which sets out the licence in plain english terms
You can see the licence element symbols here
By clicking on this link here, you can access . . .
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part of the Creative Commons international initiative

10. Licences
The full licence code – which sets out the licence in full legal terms
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part of the Creative Commons international initiative

11. Finding CC material AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
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12. Before using CC material
Check that you’re following the licence (ask for extra permission if needed)
Do you need any extra rights?
DRM?
Make sure your use isn’t ‘derogatory’
Use common sense
Don’t forget to attribute
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

13. Why open license? Increases reach and reputation
Facilitates collaboration
Gives new value to stagnant material
Community engagement
Reduced admin
Legal clarity
Increases sum of human knowledge, encourages innovation
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

14. Licences
To help choose the most appropriate licence, the CC website provides a “licence generator”, which asks simple questions to determine what people are happy to use
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part of the Creative Commons international initiative

15. Licences
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part of the Creative Commons international initiative

16. Licences
Selecting a licence takes you through to a page that provides you with some XHTML text that you can copy onto you website
This basically ‘embeds’ the cc licence into your work, and displays the ‘licence button’ on your site
By clicking on the button, you’re taken through. . .
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative

17. Using CC licences
As well as licence generator – also ccPublisher, plug-ins, individual, site generators
Place button/text in credits, on individual works, websites
Don’t forget to say what you’re licensing
Don’t forget metadata
As well as the CC website, you can also download the generator to your desktop, as part of the ccPublisher
This helps you automatically label your material as CC, and publish it online
In an interesting development, Microsoft has also recently released an plugin that allows you to label any work created in an Office as CC.
A number of sites also let you licence your material as cc – including flickr, and blip.tv
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

18. Before using CC licences
Do you have the rights to license the material?
Do you need extra rights yourself?
Non-revocable, worldwide?
Are you choosing the right licence?
Don’t use CC for code – GPL
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

19. CC and open source?
Some grey area – but code licences generally don’t work for code
Ease of compliance?
CC licences endorsed by FSF and Debian (some)
Compatible with GFDL?
Non-profit
Founded in 2001
These academics became concerned that the default copyright laws that applied in most countries were restricting creativity in the digital environment by preventing people from being able to access, remix and distribute copyright material online
Taking inspiration from the open source movement, they decided to develop a set of licences that creators could use to make their material more freely available without giving up their copyright
They wanted to replace the standard “all rights reserved” model with a new, more flexible, “some rights reserved”
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

20. GFDL BY-SA GNU AUSTRALIA
Text of GNU Wiki licence – yet to be released – is presumed will be worded to allow Wikipedia transition
Changes for BY-SA v3.5 - ‘Clarifying’ changes to v3.0 in response to Wikipedia community discussion – moral rights, licence deed etc
Will Wikipedia re-license under CC BY-SA v3.5 or dual licence?
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

21. Case studies AUSTRALIA
Another interesting “second generation” CC user is Revver
Revver is a free video sharing site, similar to Youtube
But, unlike Youtube, Revver aims to take advantage of the popularity of sharing videos online to provide a revenue-raising model for video makers
And as part of this business model, it requires that all people upload their material under a CC BY-MC-ND licence
Revver’s still in its early days, but it does already have a success story in the “extreme diet coke and mentos experiment” video
hopefully at least some of you have already seen this online
But just in case you haven’t here it is
By June this year this video has been downloaded more than 6 million times, and earned its makers over US$30,000 in revenue
It’s hosted a number of ads - first for the movie “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” – and then for mentos.
Strangely, coke wasn’t interested
This has encouraged other popular online videos, such as “ask a ninja”, to put themselves on Revver
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J

22. Thanks http://www.creativecommons.org
This slide show is licensed under a Creative Commons Australia Attribution licence. For more information see
AUSTRALIA
part of the Creative Commons international initiative
CRICOS No J