The Commons Opportunity

Imagine a world that anticipates the commercialization of all creative works - a world in which a three year old child’s wobbly crayon drawing would be protected to the same degree as Star Wars or Harry Potter.

The Big Question

After joining the Berne Convention most countries in the world now automatically apply copyright - the legal protections necessary to effectively commercialize a creative work - to each and every work the moment it is created. All creations are copyrighted, regardless of how personal or public they are. This is not a hypothetical future you have to imagine, it’s the actual state of affairs in the world today.

“Copyright Iain” by Iain Farrell licensed under CC BY-ND

This situation is utterly preposterous for many reasons, but one important reason is that many people create things with the goal of sharing them with others. What if a creator doesn’t want their work “protected” from copying and distribution, but wants to see it copied and shared as far and wide as technologically possible? For example, what if I’ve written a simple tutorial for purifying water after a natural disaster that I want everyone to have access to? When the law automatically copyrights my tutorial as if it were a major motion picture, how can I share it with others?

This is what open licenses were created to do. Open licenses are easy to use legal tools - copyright licenses - that allow people to share their work with others under a range of conditions. Rather than being forced to accept the default All Rights Reserved “protection” the law automatically forces on each and every creative work, a creator or author can choose to apply an open license license to their work. This allows the work to be copied and shared widely and legally. Many open licenses also grant permission to make changes and improvements to the work, like translating the tutorial about purifying water into other languages. By applying an open license to their creation, an author places that work within a broader commons of creative works.

Learning Outcomes

• Dramatize problem open licensing is solving/addressing, how it is an alternative to copyright
• Illustrate where open licensing exists on spectrum between public domain & copyright
• Explain potentials, uses of open licensing, value of sharing as a default
• Analyze the reasons for open licensing in your context
• Define opportunities / benefits of collaborative peer production

Personal Reflection / Why It Matters to You

Should all writing, images, videos, sound recordings, and other creative works be automatically protected by copyright? Think of all the things you create every day - emails, photos, videos, and more. You may have authored a million or more creative works over your lifetime. Even if you are a creative professional and earn your livelihood by selling creative works, over 99.999% of what you have created has rightly gone uncommercialized. What might be the benefit of sharing some of these works with others be? What might be the benefit of placing some of these resources in the commons?

Acquiring Essential Knowledge

Creative Commons as an Alternative to All Rights Reserved

Traditional approaches to copyright reserve all the rights associated with a work - including the rights to copy, alter, and distribute a work - for the copyright holder exclusively. Creative Commons enables a “some rights reserved” approach, allowing authors and creators to give others permission to engage in these activities under certain conditions as explained in this BYU Crash Course on Open Licensing.

The Spectrum Between All Rights Reserved and the Public Domain

Creative Commons licenses exist along a continuum from the public domain (no rights reserved) to traditional copyright (all rights reserved) as illustrated below.

“Creative commons license spectrum by Creative Commons licensed under CC BY

The Benefits of Sharing

Why would anyone want to share the creations in which they’ve invested so much time and effort? Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons, explains many of the reasons in a short video:

“Creative Commons: Remix” by Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA

Also Creative Commons Australia provides a more comprehensive list of of the Benefits of Sharing Using Creative Commons.

The Benefits of Commons-based Peer Production

Commons-based peer production is a new way of producing creative and other works. In commons-based peer production, large numbers of people voluntarily self-organize to produce and provide ongoing stewardship of resources that are made broadly available. Commons-based peer production differs from traditional production models which are typically based on centralized planning and management, paid employees, and restricted access to final products.

Application of Learning

Learner Toolkit

Select two or three resources directly relevant to your personal or work-related CC needs from the Acquiring Essential Knowledge content and add them to your personal Creative Commons toolkit. Adding them to your toolkit makes them easy to find and use when the need arises, and makes it easy for you to pass on resources you consider important to others. Annotate the resources with notes explaining why they are relevant and important for you and your work.

Community - Collaboration, Appreciation, Recognition, Gratitude

Post a story about how you benefited from someone who chose to share their creative works under a Creative Commons license in the CC Certificate social forum. Alternatively, share a description of (and link to, if applicable) a community that engages in commons-based peer production that others might not be aware of.

Applied Practice

Complete the following activity in the Quest Bank:

• How Do We Benefit? Let Me Count the Ways…