On January 18, 2012, the web went dark in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two bills introduced into the United States House and Senate in the last quarter of 2011.

Why are we talking about this day ten years later?

The fight for a global internet, access to information, and better sharing that benefits public interests are far from over. Because there are still many threats and SOPA-like provisions in other bills. Because many of the feared outcomes of the bill proposed in 2012 – website shutdowns, censorship to free speech, and domain seizures – are happening today.

Here is a simplified overview of SOPA/PIPA.

SOPA and PIPA aimed to tighten U.S. laws to curb copyright infringement and counterfeiting, particularly focusing on illegal copies of media – films, TV shows, music – hosted on foreign servers. The bills aimed to block sites and order financial services to shut off anyone associated with a site. 

If passed, the U.S. Department of Justice and rights holders could use court orders to take down entire websites based upon a single piece of content, or linked content, on that site. Internet service providers (ISPs) would block users using Domain Name System (DNS) blocking. 

While the bills intended to stop piracy, they were vaguely written with disastrous consequences. For example:

• DNS blocking sets a global precedent and disrupts internet architecture.
• Cybersecurity, and the possibility of Americans opting to use foreign DNS services to reach sites, was concerning.
• Ideologically, the bills undermine the foundational structure of the global internet, cultural communication, free speech, economic innovation, and how people create, find, discuss, and share information lawfully online.

Dubbed the Internet Blacklist Bill, Creative Commons (CC) joined other like-minded organizations in 2012 to raise awareness about the dangers and fight the bills.  As Congress continued to debate before the Jan 24 vote on SOPA, organizer Fight for the Future, watchdog groups, content creators, activists, and millions of American citizens participated in a more aggressive communication strategy to get the attention of Congress – a symbolic internet blackout and messaging protest.

On January 18, 2012:

• 50,000 websites went dark including Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, and Craigslist.
• 162 million people visited Wikipedia.
• 115,000 sites, including Creative Commons, altered web pages with banners and messages opposing SOPA and PIPA with links to Congress.
• Google blacked out its logo and generated over 7 million signatures on its petition.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation reported more than 1 million emails were sent to congress using their site.
• MSNBC reported over 2.4 million Twitter messages about SOPA/PIPA.
• 887,000 people phoned congress.
• Time reported that before the day had ended, “the political dominoes began to fall…then trickle turned into flood.”
• The Washington Post said, “This is what happens when you make the internet mad.”
• The New York Times said this sent “an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet.”

As a result, SOPA was tabled, and PIPA was postponed.

January 18 is an historic marker of solidarity, a public interest victory. 

As so, ten years later, Creative Commons again joins many organizations to reflect and continue the work. Please join us, and many others, by attending a series of SOPA Plus 10 events starting January 18, 2022. Our goal is to promote the values of free and open internet, build a better internet, improve access to information, and generate better sharing of news information.

community events
COMMEMORATING #sopa plus 10

This list will be updated as new events are added, and registrations become available.

DATE

EVENT/RECOGNITION

ORGANIZER

DETAILS

January 17 (ongoing)	10 years of what SOPA/PIPA’s demise made possible	Re:Create
January 17-21	Copyright Week	Electronic Frontier Foundation	Agenda

January 18 11:00 a.m. -12:30 p.m. EST	Regulating the Internet Ten Years after the SOPA/PIPA Blackout	Georgetown Law and Wikimedia Foundation	Info and Registration
January 18 (ongoing)	Better Internet Conversation and Articles	Public Knowledge	PK Website Link
January 18 (ongoing)	Better Internet Series	Creative Commons and Global Summit Partners	CC Series Link
January 18 1:00 p.m. PST	Privacy event with Library Freedom Project, George Christian of the Connecticut Four, and Sarah Lamdan of CUNY	Library Futures	More Information

January 19

Event: A look back on SOPA. A look ahead for what’s next

COPIA

January 20	Public Domain Day Observed: Celebration of Sound	Internet Archive Creative Commons Other Leaders from Open World	Three ways to celebrate Public Domain in 2022
January 20 7:00 p.m. UTC 2:00 p.m. EST	Better News: Open Internet and Journalism (webinars aimed at journalists)	Creative Commons	Google News Initiative and CC will reflect on the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of technology, journalism, and social power.

January 21

SOPA 10 Years Out: Startups and User Generated Content

Engine Advocacy

Will discuss intermediary liability frameworks aimed at Hill staff and members of the public interest and technology policy communities.

January 27 4:30 p.m. UTC 11:30 a.m. EST

Better News Series: Addressing Misinformation and Disinformation Campaigns: A Community Led Approach

Creative Commons

This conversation will highlight Wikimedia Foundation’s technical perspective and community lead approach to addressing mis/disinformation campaigns.

February 8 2:00 p.m. UTC 9:00 a.m. EST

Better News Series: Risks with Digital Platforms, Language and Narrative Power

Creative Commons

Speakers will explore risks of digital platforms: further marginalizing languages, spreading disinformation, and perpetuating power structures in India and globally.

February 15 2:00 p.m. UTC 9:00 a.m. EST

Better News Series: Gunfire and Ground truth, Investigative Journalism Using Creative Commons

Creative Commons

Cecília Oliviera (Investigative journalist and founder of Fogo Cruzado) will discuss developing and using crowd-sourcing on an open platform as an investigative tool in journalism focused on drug and arms trafficking.

March 1 TBC

Better News Series: CC licenses and combatting disinformation campaigns through better sharing

Creative Commons

This discussion will explore how CC licenses increase better information sharing in global journalism.

March 23 2:00 pm-6:00 pm UTC 10:00 am-2:00 pm EDT

Better News Series: Free Online Training

Creative Commons

Creative Commons staff will provide free training on the basics of copyright for journalists, how to best find and reuse openly licensed resources such as research, photos, videos, music, and more!

 

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On December 14, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) of the European Parliament adopted its position on the Digital Services Act (DSA) proposal, under the leadership of IMCO DSA Rapporteur MEP Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Denmark).

What is the Digital Services Act?

The Digital Services Act aims to update the current EU legal framework governing digital services in the wake of rapid technological, business and societal changes and the challenges brought by the increased use of services online. It intends to “create a safer and trusted online environment” and to set out the liability rules for online platforms in the EU. It plans to force online platforms to clamp down on illegal content and improve content moderation mechanisms. It is the most important reform of platform governance legislation in the EU since the 2000 e-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) was adopted 20 years ago. 

Creative Commons’ reaction to the IMCO report

While the DSA IMCO report presents positive outcomes, it does leave many causes for concern. 

On the positive side, within its “notice and action” mechanism, it maintains platform liability exemptions (safe harbors) and provides stronger safeguards to ensure the non-arbitrary and non-discriminatory processing of notices and respect for fundamental rights, including freedom of expression. It also sets standards to enhance the accountability and transparency of algorithms, and establishes limits on content removal. Finally, it protects users’ possibility to challenge censorship decisions.

On the concerning side, we warn against the use of upload filters, which absent human moderation are highly prone to error. We also do not want to see a version of the internet where sharing occurs on proprietary platforms designed to keep users within their own, non-interoperable, systems. These “walled gardens” impose strict legal terms and use technical functionality that undermine better sharing and permissive copyright licensing, as well as sharing of Creative-Commons-licensed content. When content does move across platforms, widespread norms have emerged that have reduced creator autonomy and impeded on users’ freedom to share. We also support Wikimedia Deutschland’s views that the DSA’s rules ignore that community-based platforms geared towards the public good are different from commercial platforms and should not be harmed by such rules.

Lastly, we are very concerned about any media exemption (a content moderation carve out) requested by press publishers. Such an exception would prevent platforms from removing content produced under editorial control of a media entity, even in cases where the content is inaccurate and spreads disinformation. This raises concerns around disinformation and the interrelation with press publishers’ rights (Article 15 of the DSM Directive). MEPs must not succumb to the pressure by press publishers and broadcasters; they must continue to fight against disinformation. 

Creative Commons’ work on platform liability

Over the course of 2021, the Copyright Platform of the Creative Commons Global Network, via its Working Group (WG) on Platform Liability, developed a policy paper entitled Freedom to Share: How the Law of Platform Liability Impacts Licensors and Users. Taking a global approach and through a freedom to share lens, the WG assessed current trends and produced five recommendations: 

What’s next? 

The European Parliament now has to adopt the IMCO DSA report as its final negotiation position, before it can start trilogue negotiations with the Council under the French Presidency in the first semester of 2022. A plenary vote is likely to take place in January 2022. We at CC will be observing these developments with great interest as we work towards better sharing for a better internet.

The post Digital Services Act — Is the EU legislative train on the right track? appeared first on Creative Commons.

Dear CC Community,

It’s a very special day — today marks the 20th Anniversary of Creative Commons’ founding!

Twenty years ago, Creative Commons started with a simple, radical idea: to save the internet from “failed sharing” and create a world where everyone has access to knowledge and creativity.

What began as a simple idea and dream is today a reality worldwide. Over the past 20 years, Creative Commons has powered a global movement spanning 86 countries, developed and stewarded legal tools and licenses, and unlocked over two billion works that can be openly and freely shared.

But we didn’t get here on our own — as we’ve grown and evolved over the last two decades, we’ve built a vibrant global CC Community of advocates, activists, scholars, artists, and users working to strengthen the Commons worldwide. In 2017, we established the CC Global Network to help coordinate and provide leadership in the global Creative Commons movement. And today there are 48 CC Chapters around the world!

While we stay grounded in the vision of our founding, we also look toward the future. And for us, and many others, the future includes Better Sharing – the type of sharing that serves the public interest, creates the world the internet promised, and one where everyone has access to culture, science, and knowledge. We invite you to support our Better Sharing campaign below.

And the good news is that the celebration isn’t over yet! The 20th Anniversary of CC licenses is December 16, 2022. So throughout the year, we will continue conversations with influencers who are adding to the open movement, share insights and innovations from CC staff and partners, and host special events of celebration for our global community. Keep an eye on the CC Blog, our monthly newsletters, and on social for exciting announcements and new content.

To the entire CC Community, CC staff and board members (past and present), our 20th Anniversary Committee, CC friends, partners and donors — I thank you for your continued commitment to Creative Commons and our mission. Simply put, we wouldn’t be celebrating 20 years of CC without you.

Here’s to another 20 fantastic years! 

Sincerely,

Catherine Stihler,
CEO of Creative Commons
On behalf of the CC Team

 

Check out our special 20th Anniversary episode of CC’s Open Minds podcast, featuring Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig! Lessig reflects on how CC began, what it has accomplished, and what he hopes to see in the next twenty years and beyond. 

 

The post A message from our CEO to the CC Community on Creative Commons’ 20th Anniversary appeared first on Creative Commons.

Hi Creative Commoners! We’re back with a very special episode of CC’s podcast, Open Minds … from Creative Commons. Today marks the 20th Anniversary of Creative Commons!

On this milestone episode of CC’s Open Minds podcast, join us as we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Creative Commons’ founding on December 19, 2021. We take you back to Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig’s keynote from the 2021 CC Global Summit (watch the recording here), originally held in September 2021.

 

“Let me say thank you, 20 years is forever, and 20 years is just a beginning. The first 20 were extraordinary, but I think the next 20 could be so much, much more. Thank you so much for gathering to celebrate, and thank you for the inspiration and ideas that will make the next 20 even more important than the first.”

Lawrence, fondly referred to by many as Larry, reflects on how CC began, what it has accomplished, and is later joined by Creative Commons CEO, Catherine Stihler, for a fireside chat where he shares his hopes for CC for the next twenty years and beyond. A distinguished attorney, political activist and incredible visionary, Lawrence is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Lawrence is a Board Member Emeritus of the Creative Commons board.

• Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, 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: Creative Commons’ 20th Anniversary Special feat. Lawrence Lessig appeared first on Creative Commons.

Creative Commons’ statement on the Opt-Out Exception Regime / Rights Reservation Regime for Text and Data Mining under Article 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is now available here. We’re grateful to everyone who contributed their many thoughtful comments during the public consultation period, which has now come to an end. 

We especially want to take the opportunity to thank our contributors to this statement:
Ana Lazarova (CC Bulgaria), Thomas Margoni (KU Leuven), Ariadna Matas (Europeana), Sarah Pearson (CC), Julia Reda (Shuttleworth Foundation), Brigitte Vézina (CC), Kat Walsh (CC), and Stephen Wyber (IFLA). 

Here is Creative Commons’ summary position: 

The terms of the Creative Commons (CC) licenses cannot be construed or interpreted as a reservation of a right in the context of Article 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (EU 2019/790) or any of its national transposition instruments. CC licenses do not operate as an opt-out of an exception or limitation to copyright. Both the language (legal code) and purpose (spirit) of the licenses prohibit such an interpretation:

1. The language in the licenses specifically makes clear that they are not intended to impose any restrictions beyond what copyright imposes, and that they do not override exceptions and limitations. 
2. The licenses are designed to permit more uses than the default all-rights-reserved, so any interpretation that they do reserve rights in the context of Article 4 runs contrary to the overall design and purpose of the licenses. 

Read Creative Commons’ full statement here.

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