Tower Bridge view at dawn, by Colin, CC BY-SA

Tower Bridge view at dawn. Modified to censor buildings that require Freedom of Panorama, by Colin, CC BY-SA

Over the last several months, Creative Commons has been following the review of the European Union copyright directive. One issue that has remained contentious is freedom of panorama. Freedom of panorama permits taking and publishing photographs and video of buildings, landmarks, and artworks permanently located in a public public place, without infringing on any copyright that might rest in the underlying work. For example, anyone may take and publish a photograph of the Torre Agbar in Barcelona without having to get permission from the rightsholder of the physical building. While some countries such as Spain, Poland, and the Netherlands enjoy freedom of panorama, others such as Italy, France, and Greece require that a photographer get permission for taking and sharing images of works in public spaces.

German Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda has been tasked with developing a report that will make recommendations for potential legislative changes to EU copyright law. Reda’s report has been discussed widely, and last month the legal affairs committee of the European Parliament voted on amendments to her report, which resulted in a compromise text. On July 9, this report (and any amendments to it) will be voted on in the full EU Parliament.

The outcome of the legal affairs committee vote produced some positive actions for copyright reform in support of users and the public interest. For example, the compromise text introduced exceptions to copyright in the EU for libraries to digitize collections and lend ebooks, and for scientists and others to conduct text and data mining without needing an extra license to do so. The report also called on the European Commission to protect the public domain by clarifying that “once a work is in the public domain, any digitisation of the work which does not constitute a new, transformative work, stays in the public domain.”

Reda’s original proposal contained a provision that would have granted freedom of panorama throughout the EU. But an amendment passed by the legal affairs committee says that anyone who wants to take and share photography or video of public buildings and landmarks can only do so for non-commercial purposes. Reda calls the rule “absurd”:

This would restrict existing rights in many EU member states, introduce new legal uncertainty for many creators and even call the legality of many photos shared on commercial photo sharing platforms like Instagram and Flickr into question. Documentary filmmakers, for example, would have to research the copyright protection status of every building, statue or even graffiti on a public wall depicted in their movie – and seek the permission of each rightholder.

The consequences of adopting copyright rules that limit freedom of panorama to only non-commercial uses could make every vacationing photographer a criminal in the eyes of the law. The change would also be damaging to the commons, especially for a community like Wikipedia, which requires that photos and videos uploaded for use on the site be made available under free licenses that permit commercial use. As the Wikimedia Foundation notes, “the version of freedom of panorama now under consideration is not compatible with Wikimedia’s goal to broadly share knowledge. If this amendment became law, it would be more difficult for users to freely share photos of public spaces. It would be a step backwards in revamping the EU’s copyright rules for the digital age.” If this provision goes into effect, thousands of photos on Wikimedia Commons likely would have to be removed.

But you can help! Sign the Change.org petition to bring bring the freedom of panorama to all member states of the EU. Citizens of the EU can also contact their MEPs to let them know how you would like them to vote. Owen Blacker says there are two things to ask of MEPs:

1) Please support amendment A8–0209/3 by Marietje Schaake, to restore the meaning of the original text which extends liberal freedom of panorama to all EU member states;

2) Should Schaake’s amendment fail, then please vote to remove paragraph 46 from the report altogether.

The public should have the right to use photographs, video footage and other images of works permanently located in public spaces. Let’s support, extend, and protect the freedom of panorama across the European Union.

Last year several organizations highlighted the situation of Colombian graduate student Diego Gomez, who had a criminal complaint filed against him for sharing a research article online. Gomez is a student in conservation and wildlife management, and for the most part has poor access to many of the resources and databases that would help him conduct his research. He shared an academic paper on Scribd so that he and others could access it for their work. If convicted, Diego could face a prison term of 4-8 years. Gomez will appear in court on June 30.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation sums up Diego’s situation well:

He posted the paper online because he was excited that he found it, because he wanted to share that knowledge with others who shared his passion. Copyright should not turn students like Gomez into criminals for reveling in their quest for knowledge nor for helping others to do the same.

As Gomez goes to trial this week, we must ask again: why are we prosecuting students for sharing knowledge? We know that this type of draconian leveraging of copyright law is not uncommon. From suing a student for downloading scholarly journal articles to issuing a takedown of a dancing baby video to pushing through secret international trade agreements that will extend the term of copyright and harm the public and the commons, large rights holders organizations continue to wield copyright law to punish those who attempt to do what comes naturally for them–sharing.

At the same time, with the dedicated work of individuals and organizations advocating for a sensible balance to copyright, there is hope that laws, regulations, and norms can be changed to support users and the public interest. For example, universities are adopting open access policies that preserve and make accessible the research of their faculty. The copyright reform debate in Europe has finally dropped a potentially dangerous provision that would have permitted rights holders to control how linking operates on the web. And WIPO adopted a treaty to increase global access to copyright-protected materials for the blind and visually impaired.

You can read what Diego has to say about his upcoming trial at Fundación Karisma. Fundación Karisma is the Colombian digital rights advocacy organization that is providing legal support to Gomez. And you can take action now to support Diego by signing the global declaration promoting open access to research.

Image by EFF / CC BY.

Congratulations to Creative Commons Ukraine on the completion of the Ukrainian translation of the CC 4.0 license suite!
After a draft stage and a public consultation phase, involving legal practitioners and IP experts, the licenses are published today, on June 23.

The availability of the license suite in Ukrainian is of great significance for the visibility and use of Creative Commons licenses in the region. More than 30 million people are native speakers of the Ukrainian language, and we are pleased to welcome them to our CC community. We are very grateful to the CC Ukraine affiliate team for achieving this important accomplishment: Andriy Bichuk, Maksym Naumko, Iryna Kuchma and Sergey Tokar.

CC Ukraine would like to acknowledge the additional help that was provided during the public consultation process: Oleksii Ardanov and Iryna Didushko (State Service of Intellectual Property of Ukraine), Mykyta Polatayko (Sayenko Kharenko law firm), Oleksii Stolyarenko (Baker & McKenzie LLP) and Valentyna Trots’ka (Intellectual Property Research Institute of the National Academy of Law Sciences of Ukraine). Their contributions are highly valued and have helped making the Ukrainian CC 4.0 licenses a robust legal tool, broadly supported and universally acknowledged in the language area.

CC continues to work on translating the text of the 4.0 licenses into myriad languages. Our goal is to ensure that everyone around the globe has full access to the CC licenses in their language of choice.

Please join us in our translation efforts!

 

The Creative Commons Global Summit takes place every two years bringing together our global affiliate network along with partners, activists, and collaborators in the open movement to celebrate and advance the Commons.

We’re pleased to announce the Call for Participation and Proposals for this year’s Global Summit in Seoul, South Korea, October 15-17 2015, is now open.

Seoul, South Korea by Doug Sun Beams CC BY

Proposals for talks, workshops, hackathons, panels, presentations, performances, showcases and other activities are welcome.

A logo competition for the Global Summit is also underway.
Registration is open and opportunities for scholarships to cover travel and accomodation costs available.

Submit your proposal now and join us in celebrating, working on, and building the future of the Commons.

Today we’re pushing the latest beta release of our mobile app, The List powered by Creative Commons. It’s a mobile photography app that invites users to create a list of images they want, or submit photos to help a person or group who created a list. Every image is uploaded to the archive with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, allowing anyone to use the images so long as they give proper credit to the author.

Our initial build was supported with a prototype grant from the Knight Foundation, which gave us the resources we needed to build a proof of concept. We built a team – from Creative Commons, our technical lead Matt Lee and senior counsel, Sarah Pearson – and Alexandra Bain and the team at Toronto agency Playground. We learned a lot in that process, and have shipped regular releases since then. It’s really starting to look great. We are now working to scope a consumer MVP (minimum viable product – the simplest version of the app that still meets all the core user needs) and to raise funds to bring the app to everyday users as well.

As Clive Thompson wrote in Wired, “only you can overthrow the tyranny of stock photos”. The commons is a collective creation, and we see the opportunity to create a dynamic and vibrant pool of available images from people who want to share – and to directly connect photographers and those who want images they can build upon. In the article, Thompson encouraged us to share our images with CC licenses. That will get us part of the way – but we need to be able to ask for what we want, and help users submit what’s needed. And the process needs to be engaging, fun, and rewarding.

When I read Thompson’s article, I was inspired to create The List. We see opportunities to use The List to enhance the content on platforms like Wikipedia, to share images for open journalism, to collaborate to build open textbooks, or to document observations in citizen science. And we know that users will come up with many more ideas of their own.

Why should CC build a mobile app? There are a few answers to that question:

1. Most importantly, we believe there’s a need for the app, and that it will give value to those who use it, and those who use the images.
2. Making it easier to contribute to the commons is one of our strategic goals, not only because it creates a better archive of resources to use and re-use, but also because each contribution deepens the investment and value of the commons. It grows the movement.
3. We see an opportunity to pilot new approaches to CC, including one-click attribution, embedded licensing, content analytics, and more.
4. The web is going mobile, and CC has to understand how that will impact what we do. Building on the platform is one great way to work through the issues and challenges, while supporting our partner platforms who are asking us for advice on issues they’re facing, like attribution on mobile.

We’re very grateful for the early support we received from Knight, and we’re optimistic that we can raise the funds necessary to develop the app and bring it to a mainstream audience. For now, I encourage you to try the latest build on your Android phone or tablet, give us your feedback ideas and suggestions, or even contribute some code.