As part of Creative Commons’ key strategic goal of Better Sharing, today we have joined six other organizations spanning the globe to launch the Movement for a Better Internet, a diverse community of advocates, activists, academics, and civil society groups working together to promote policies that create a better internet for people everywhere. The movement is a collaborative effort seeking to drive policy change based on a public interest vision for an internet that benefits us all.

For two decades, Creative Commons has worked tirelessly to facilitate the sharing of content across the planet and support an internet guided by public interest values — including privacy, openness, diversity, and equity. As part of this movement, we are committed to collaborating with other members to promote these and other values that we will determine together.

“It’s inspiring to see what started over a year ago in so many different conversations now take shape as a rich, organized movement to work toward a better internet for all,” said Catherine Stihler, CC CEO. “From governmental initiatives like over 60 nations signing the Declaration for the Future of the Internet just in April, to the new policies we now see taking shape in the EU and the USA, we can already see work for a better internet gain new momentum. This movement will bring together everyone who is dedicated to making sure the public interest shapes the future of the remarkable global network that connects us all.”

By joining the movement, we can ensure an internet shaped by our shared values — an internet for the people that puts our communities first. We encourage academics, activists, and advocates working at organizations passionate about creating this better internet to join us in this movement. Together, we can achieve a better internet for us all.

As an organizing partner, Creative Commons also joins in launching a digital hub at movementforabetterinternet.org to facilitate connection and communication among those striving to build a better internet. The full list of organizing partners includes: Association for Progressive Communications; Creative Commons; Derechos Digitales; Internet Archive; Niskanen Center; Public Knowledge; and Wikimedia Foundation.

To join the movement and learn more, visit the Movement for a Better Internet digital hub. 

Check out CC’s Better Internet blog post series to learn more about how the idea for the movement came about and the early groundwork that led us to this launch today.

The post A Better Internet for Better Sharing: Join the Movement for a Better Internet appeared first on Creative Commons.

Beginning in 2021, the European Union has been considering a new AI Act, which would regulate certain uses of AI. In particular, it seeks to ban certain uses of AI, such as broad-based real-time biometric identification for law enforcement in public places, and it seeks to ensure that certain precautions are taken before deployment of uses deemed ‘high-risk,’ such as the use of AI for access to education, employment, financial credit, or other essential services.

Creative Commons has proactively worked with policymakers and other key stakeholders, creating a constructive dialogue to inform both the content of the text and the context of the debate. We agree with the objectives of the Act: ensuring AI systems placed on the Union market are used in a way that respects fundamental rights and Union values; providing legal certainty to facilitate investment and innovation in AI; and facilitating the development of a single market for lawful, transparent, and trustworthy AI applications to prevent market fragmentation.

While the proposal covers a broad range of topics, we have focused on two areas that are pertinent to our strategy, better sharing.

First, we have advocated for the benefits of supporting open data, open source, and interoperability as means to support a healthy marketplace for and robust competition in the development and use of AI.

Harmful uses of AI are best addressed through a contextual approach, based on clear principles that can adapt to new developments in how AI is designed and implemented for different use cases based on their risks to society. Such a tailored approach can and should avoid overbroad restrictions on general purpose artificial intelligence (GPAI) and the sharing and use of open source tools.

The European Commission’s original draft proposal did not directly address GPAI, and we agree that this is an appropriate approach. Requirements on GPAI creators are unnecessary because the follow-on developers of high-risk systems will already be covered by this Act. To the extent GPAI creators wish to serve that market, they already have incentives to cooperate with high-risk users to ensure broad compliance.

We also recognize that the EU legislators are currently considering ways to address responsibilities related to GPAI, including open source tools. If that moves forward, we recommend adding language to ensure that GPAI regulations are tailored and proportionate. These regulations should not constrain open source tools, and should focus on ensuring cooperation between GPAI creators and users with whom they have an ongoing relationship.

We believe this is important to get right in part because it’s vital that the capacity to develop and use AI not be concentrated in the hands of a small number of large commercial operators. Lowering barriers to the development and use of AI — such as by supporting the availability of open data and open source tools, including as part of General Purpose AI (GPAI) — can spur innovation in services and lead to major social benefits. Empowering people to share their data among services and enabling them to move between services (ie, through data portability and interoperability) also can play a role in facilitating innovation and inhibiting user lock-in. While it is crucial to ensure commercial viability and incentives for investment, it is also crucial to ensure that this does not come at the expense of robust competition, consumer protection, and the public interest more broadly.

In addition to these topics, we’ve also taken this opportunity to ensure the intersection of copyright and AI is well understood. While copyright’s relationship to AI is not at core to this proposal, it is important that policymakers understand that appropriate limits on copyright are also core to serving the public interest. As we’ve explored in the past, AI generated content should not be copyrightable, and training AI on copyrighted works should not be limited.

The post CC’s Engagement on EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act appeared first on Creative Commons.

During 2021–2022, CC has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of our founding in 2001 and the first release of the CC licenses in 2002, successfully concluding an ambitious fundraising campaign to support programs like Open Culture, Open Climate, and Open Education, and to help ensure CC’s ongoing sustainability.

In November 2022, CC will bring the 20th anniversary celebration to an official close with both online and in-person activities. The CC Global Network and our broader community are at the heart of CC’s work to support better sharing for an open commons, so we are inviting you to be a part of marking this milestone. There are several ways you can join the celebration — pick one or all!

Attend a global CC 20th Anniversary event

San Francisco

Creative Commons invites you to a 20th Anniversary Celebration on Thursday 17 November 2022 at 7pm PST at Terra Gallery, San Francisco*. Join us for an evening of entertainment as we toast to the past and mobilize support for the future! Save your seat >

Virtual

Can’t come to San Francisco? Join a virtual 20th Anniversary Celebration on Tuesday 22 November 2022. Register for 3:00–5:00 UTC and/or 15:00–17:00 UTC >

Make a contribution to support CC

Creative Commons empowers people, institutions, and governments to share content openly to advance knowledge, equity, and creativity for everyone, everywhere. As we look ahead to the next 20 years, our focus is on better sharing, sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable. As a nonprofit, we rely on contributions from people like you. Make a contribution of any size >

Share a digital artifact showcasing your community’s open contributions

Share a digital artifact that showcases your local community’s past or future work to build the open commons. CC will share accepted artifacts with the world to illustrate the variety of activities and points of view that represent the Creative Commons Global Network and CC community.

Requirements: All artifacts must be shared with CC licenses or CC0 public domain dedications, and demonstrate CC’s better sharing values. Describe your artifact >

CC chapters: Get a grant to mark CC’s 20th Anniversary locally 

Celebrate CC’s anniversary locally in your local CC chapter with a #20CC Anniversary US$500 grant to support a local event, activity, or project to celebrate CC’s past 20 years and our shared future. 

Requirements: Grant projects should have a regional focus, be clearly supported by your local CC chapter, and coordinated by one person acting as lead. See grant program details >

Celebrate on social media

Help get the word out about CC’s 20th Anniversary celebration: Share this post with the #20CCAnniversary hashtag and what CC, better sharing, and the open commons mean to you.

Do you like what other people are sharing? Favorite and reshare #20CCAnniversary posts from other CC community members.

Questions?

Reach out to communications@creativecommons.org, or start a conversation in the #cc-community channel in the CC community slack. 

The post Join Us to Celebrate 20 Years of Creative Commons appeared first on Creative Commons.

Hi Creative Commoners! On this episode, we’re joined by art historians, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, the co-founders and executive directors of Smarthistory. Smarthistory is a center for public art history, with thousands of free and CC licensed videos and essays written by experts who want to share their knowledge with learners around the world. Previously, Beth was dean of art and history at Khan Academy and director of digital learning at The Museum of Modern Art. Before joining MoMA, Beth was Associate Professor of art history and director of distance learning at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she taught both online and in the classroom. Previously, Steven was dean of art and history at Khan Academy. He was chair of history of art and design at Pratt Institute, where he strengthened enrollment and led renewal of curriculum across the Institute. Previously, he was dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY and chair of art history. He has taught at The School of Visual Arts, Hunter College, and at The Museum of Modern Art.

• Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, and more. You can also subscribe via the show’s RSS feed.
• Episode transcript: Text // PDF // Doc

Please subscribe to the show in whatever podcast app you use, so you don’t miss any of our conversations with people working to make the internet and our global culture more open and collaborative.

The post Open Minds Podcast: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker of Smarthistory appeared first on Creative Commons.

This week, policymakers from around the world gather in Mexico for MONDIACULT2022, the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, a critical event that is bound to shape the future of international cultural policies worldwide. In the lead-up to MONDIACULT2002, Creative Commons’ (CC) Brigitte Vézina delivered a keynote to the international forum “Digitalizar en común: formas distribuidas de propiedad y autoría culturales” organized by Creative Commons Mexico. Watch the recording on Facebook.

It was in 1982 that the Mexico City Declaration on Cultural Policies defined a path for culture to become a fundamental pillar of development. 40 years on, culture now underpins all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and calls are being made to make culture a sustainable development goal in itself. We agree with UNESCO that “culture is the bridge between peoples and countries… and the key to unlocking mutual understanding and reinforcing global action based human rights and respect for diversity.”

Unfortunately, people everywhere are facing tremendous challenges in accessing, sharing, and (re)using culture, in large part due to unfit and outdated copyright rules. Culture is being locked away behind undue and unnecessary paywalls, entry and rental fees, or the walled-gardens of for-profit companies. Cultural heritage institutions too face difficulties in realizing their missions in the digital world. They struggle to conduct their legitimate activities, like digitizing collections to preserve them and make them available to the public. Furthermore, climate change, global health crises, and violent conflicts are posing great threats to culture and the institutions that make it accessible. 

At CC, we promote open culture and aim to help cultural heritage institutions and their users make the most out of CC licenses and tools to open up their collections online in the public interest. Many institutions have successfully harnessed CC tools to release nearly five million digital open images. But while our tools support global sharing of culture, they cannot erase all barriers. That’s why with our Open Culture Program, we work to drive global policy discussion in support of better sharing, i.e. sharing that is contextual, ethical, inclusive, sustainable, purposeful and prosocial: sharing that builds a commons of knowledge and culture that is just and that inspires reciprocity — a commons that serves the public interest. 

Today, we look to UNESCO’s leadership to build momentum for open culture and to champion better sharing. MONDIACULT offers an opportunity to rethink how policy can truly promote equitable access to culture, bolster creativity, and restore balance in a copyright system unfit for the digital age. With new technologies on the horizon, like artificial intelligence and blockchain-based conveyances, we need to build new models based on collaboration, freedom to reuse, and generative sharing of culture. 

Now, more than ever, UNESCO and its Member States need to take action to protect the public domain and recalibrate copyright to support public interests in tune with the evolving sharing possibilities of our complex world. MONDIACULT 2022 is the starting point to explore how we can empower creators, liberate and celebrate culture as a global public good, and build a sustainable future for all. As the world of culture meets at MONDIACULT, with over 160 ministers and multiple actors of culture joining forces in México, let us reiterate our call: there is an urgent need to realize open culture for all.

Want to get involved? Join us!

• Become a member of the CC Global Network
• Become a member of the CC Open Culture Platform
• Sign up to the CC Open Culture mailing list
• Join our Open Culture working groups
• Join the #cc-openglam Slack channel
• Participate in CC Open Culture Platform calls — they are announced in the Slack channel and on the mailing list

The post UNESCO MONDIACULT2022: A Starting Point for Open Culture appeared first on Creative Commons.