Open Licence Literacy: Given to Know, Give to Grow

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Licensing spans areas of library work such as promoting open access, helping people navigate publication rights, advocating for open infrastructure, and the technological elements of research and learning.

When used well, open licences can underpin a lot of possibilities for finding, accessing, creating, and preserving scholarly work.

I’ve noticed however, that often people aren’t very confident in their knowledge of how open licence rights work. I think our (librarians and others) work in the realm of information literacy provides a useful approach to that problem. We need to improve understanding of information rights and restrictions in order to help people enculturate their own their practices with open scholarship.

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Creative Commons Certificate Program

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If you have an interest in learning more about the Creative Commons and open access licensing issues. This year, the Creative Commons began offering an online certificate program, which helps you learn about all things CC. It started as a sort of beta offer but has matured. The certificate originally targeted educators and librarians, which got my interest so I signed up certificates.creativecommons.org

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Briefly, about Copyright Law & CC Licences

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Copyright gives the people that create various works, certain legal controls over those works. As the name suggests, it limits copying (thus various forms of usage) to those authorized to do so. Depending on jurisdictions, it also codifies things such as moral rights.

The Creative Commons licences simplify an author’s ability to authorize copying and use of their work. CC licences leverage the control that copyright establishes and an author can use these licences to, in a sense, automate control. Rather than negotiate requests from every party that wants to use, derive new works, or copy the work, an author can clearly state what they’d like to be able to happen with the work upon expressing it to the public. Then anyone can use it as the author has intended.

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First Take on the Public Domain Manifesto

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Communia published its Public Domain Manifesto. The manifesto identifies the public domain concept with respect to historical development and more urgently, its relevance to culture today.

I think it makes an important statement, in terms of offering a level, common understanding that could be used widely across society, government, and business. Early in the manifesto, it says the public domain Continue reading “First Take on the Public Domain Manifesto”