For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of the Creative Commons Global Network and the broader open community to ask them to share their personal stories, ideas, and insights by responding to five questions. The result is this five-part blog series called, “Her Story.” Throughout this series, we’ll also be highlighting the work of women artists who submitted pieces to Fine Acts’ Reimagining Human Rights challenge. 

Our hope is that these conversations will inspire you to reflect on your own stories and ideas. We also hope it will motivate you to think about how you can help make open sharing more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. Put simply, we want to make sharing better—to do that, we need your help.

In part one of this series, participants responded to the following question: What motivated you to join the open movement and become an advocate for open access to knowledge and culture?

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• Florence Devouard | Co-Lead, Wiki Loves Women; Wikimedian for 19 years; Former Chairwoman, Wikimedia Foundation

J’ai rejoint le mouvement libre il y a 19 ans, lorsque j’ai découvert l’encyclopédie Wikipédia. Je n’avais pas la moindre idée du fait que je rejoignais le mouvement libre ! Je n’en avais en fait jamais entendu parler. Wikipedia m’a séduite par sa vision, l’accès à la connaissance au plus grand nombre, ainsi que par les valeurs que professent sa communauté, en particulier le fait que tout le monde puisse y participer et le positionnement éditorial ferme que nous appelons “la neutralité de point de vue”. Mais tout comme Mr Jourdain faisait de la prose sans le savoir, je faisais la promotion du mouvement libre sans le savoir. Par exemple, je n’ai commencé à vraiment comprendre les particularités des “licence libre” qu’au bout de 2 ans de contribution. 

EN: I joined the free movement 19 years ago when I discovered the Wikipedia encyclopedia. I had no idea that I was joining the free movement! I had never actually heard of it. Wikipedia seduced me with its vision, access to knowledge to as many people as possible, as well as the values ​​professed by its community. In particular, I like the fact that everyone can participate and the firm editorial positioning that we call “point of view neutrality.” But, just as Mr Jourdain was doing prose without knowing it, I was promoting the open movement without knowing it. For example, I only started to really understand the specifics of “open licenses” after two years of contribution.

• Hildah Nyakwaka | Community Coordinator, Center for Digital Resilience

My long time friend Simeon Oriko encouraged me to find a way of sharing the knowledge and skills I had accrued with students from less-fortunate backgrounds here in Kenya and who aspired to the same things in life as I did. While building on this work, I realized that a lot of the content we consume erases the work done by women—especially Black women—and did not encourage learners to create projects that would preserve their communities’ histories, culture, and knowledge.

• İlkay Holt | Representative to the CC Global Network Council, CC Turkey

I joined the open movement a long time ago. Although I can’t remember my initial motivation, what keeps me in it is the public good. It doesn’t matter which area of “open” that you work in or advocate for, doing something good for the public and acting like it are the most rewarding aspects. Acting collectively for the public good motivates me to do more. 

• Irene Soria Guzmán | Representative to the Global Network Council, CC México; feminista; académica y activista de la cultura libre

Me motiva que todas las personas del mundo puedan acceder al conocimiento y la cultura para tomar las mejores decisiones en su proyecto de vida, sobre todo a quienes menos acceso tienen, y no solo unas cuantas personas privilegiadas.

EN: That all people in the world can access knowledge and culture to make the best decisions in their life—especially for those who have less access, not just a few privileged people.

• Isla Haddow-Flood | Chair and Advancement Lead, Wiki In Africa; CoProject Lead, Wiki Loves Women

I was first introduced to the open movement when working in the arts and culture scene in Cape Town. It just felt right. It encapsulated all the ideals I hadn’t yet given a voice to: sharing, collaboration, equity, openness, transparency. These were all incorporated within the movement and were easy to contribute and benefit from. My main contribution has been to activate, drive and support the WikiAfrica movement across the African continent, ensuring that Africa’s voices, cultures, and knowledge were given an equal opportunity within the Wikimedia movement. So, I guess it was a combination of personal beliefs and the passion to ensure the voices, cultures, and knowledge of Africa were heard—not only globally, but more importantly by those in Africa. This passion led to Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Women and multiple education projects and offline tools through Wiki In Africa.

• Mariana Valente | Director, InternetLab; Professor, Insper University; 2019-2020 CC Brazil lead
  

I was a law student at the University of São Paulo when I first learned about Creative Commons in 2009. I was thrilled! I was interested in cultural policies, had begun studying copyright law on my own and was developing a critical perspective. I remember quite well how it felt to find that there were people all around the world actually using the law to produce very concrete, transforming results in access to culture and knowledge.

The thrill never left me. I became more interested and wrote my master’s dissertation about Free Software and Creative Commons at the University of São Paulo. When I was finished in 2012, I had the chance to join the team that then represented CC Brazil—the Center for Technology and Society at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. I jumped right in, started joining CC international meetings, developed several collaborations, and made good friends in the community. Over the years, my interest only grew for the other subjects CC introduced me to, including internet policy and human rights. Both of which I currently work on.

• Primah Kwagala | Executive Director, Women’s Probono Initiative (Uganda)

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by limited access to knowledge goods and resources. Finances are traditionally in the hands of men in our society. There are more men than women on the internet. The inability to access resources for women and girls intersects with the inability to access knowledge and culture outside their traditional environment. The desire to bring knowledge goods closer to women who cannot otherwise afford them when copyrighted spurred me to become an advocate for open access to knowledge and culture in Uganda and Africa as a whole.

There’s more! You can now read the next part of our “Her Story” blog series here. Part three, four, and five will be published Monday mornings (EST) throughout the month of March. Stay tuned!

The post Her Story: Becoming an Advocate for Open appeared first on Creative Commons.

Developments in artificial intelligence (AI) raise several questions when it comes to the use of copyright material and Creative Commons-licensed content in particular.¹ One of them is whether CC-licensed content (e.g. photographs, artworks, text, music, etc.) should be used as input to train AI. To get a sense of the various views on this question, we launched a Twitter poll where nearly half of respondents said, “it depends.” We agree and here’s why: while we generally support broad access to content to train AI, we also aim to increase our understanding of the ethical concerns that may constitute barriers to open sharing by creators.

CC supports broad access to content in the public interest

CC is dedicated to facilitating greater openness for the common good. We believe that the use of openly accessible content can lead to greater innovation, collaboration, and creativity. We also believe that the limitations within copyright law, which generally privilege the reuse of the facts and ideas embodied in creative works, contribute to a rich and generative public domain. CC thus supports, in principle, broad access and use of copyright works, including openly licensed content, to train AI in the public interest. Such access can, for instance, help reduce bias, enhance inclusion, promote important activities such as education and research, and foster beneficial innovation in the development of AI.

Does the training of AI implicate copyright?

Whether one has to comply with the copyright regime (and hence with the CC license terms) depends on whether the type of AI training activity is an exercise of a right reserved to the rightsholder.

There is no consensus on whether the use of copyright works as input to train an AI system is an exercise of an exclusive right.

There remains significant legal uncertainty about whether copyright applies to AI training, which means it may not always be clear whether a CC license applies. In other words, there is no consensus on whether the use of copyright works as inputs to train an AI system is an exercise of an exclusive right (e.g., reproduction, adaptation, etc.). The situation is likely to vary across jurisdictions, as countries progressively regulate the copyright-AI nexus. In the US, the use of works to train AI is likely considered fair use. In the EU, Article 3 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM) provides an exception for non-commercial text-and-data mining (TDM, a form of AI) by research and cultural heritage institutions, while Article 4 offers an exception regime for commercial TDM, from which rightsholders may opt-out.

At CC, we believe that, as a matter of copyright law, the use of works to train AI should be considered non-infringing by default, assuming that access to the copyright works was lawful at the point of input. For example, TDM in the context of research or education should be allowed under an exception to copyright, following the adage that “the right to read is the right to mine.” As one commentator stated in our abovementioned Twitter poll: “Copyright should not be used as an instrument to stop data mining and AI research.” Regarding the use of CC-licensed content, a short refresher about how the licenses operate is in order.

CC licenses refresher

Our licenses do not restrict reuse to any particular types of reuse or technologies, so long as the attribution (BY), share-alike (SA), no-derivatives (ND) and non-commercial (NC) terms are respected. Therefore, strictly from a copyright perspective, no special or explicit permission is required from the licensor to use CC-licensed content to train AI applications to the extent that copyright permission is required at all.² In addition, our licenses do not override limitations and exceptions, such as fair use. If a use is not one that requires permission under copyright or sui generis database rights (e.g. text and data mining allowed under an exception), one may conduct the AI training activity without regard to the CC license.

It’s also important to recall that our licenses operate within the copyright system. Privacy, personality, publicity and other types of rights or ethical considerations are not covered by the licenses.³ We do our best to ensure that those releasing their creations under our licenses understand the scope of the copyright rights that are managed under our licenses. For example, while a CC license may offer users permission to reuse a photo, it would not offer the permission users would need to make use of the personal likenesses of other people in the photo, which may be governed by image or personality rights.

Uncertainty around AI can raise additional barriers to sharing

Beyond the framework of freedoms that the licenses provide, there are concerns on the part of creators that their CC-licensed content can be used for problematic purposes, such as AI designed for facial recognition.

In 2019, we learned that researchers at companies like IBM were training their facial recognition AI programs by feeding their algorithms with CC-licensed photos from publicly available collections (e.g. one million photos on Flickr). IBM had not asked permission from the people photographed or the photographers. Some Flickr users were dismayed to learn that IBM had used their CC-licensed photos to train the AI, all the more so as it was done for commercial advantage. They had questions about the ethics and privacy implications of such a dataset being used for algorithmic training.⁴

The incident magnified the tension between the value of open data vs. legitimate concerns about ethical, moral and responsible use of openly licensed content. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged that “advances in artificial intelligence-related technologies, such as facial recognition software and digital identification, must not be used to erode human rights, deepen inequality or exacerbate existing discrimination.”⁵ As with any fundamental ideal, the “openness” of data is not an absolute end in itself and must be balanced with equally valid considerations to ensure sharing ultimately benefits the public.

Our thoughts moving forward: an inclusive approach to support better sharing

Beyond copyright issues, AI is likely to affect the sharing of creative content and the open community in general. The legal uncertainty caused by ethical concerns around AI, the lack of transparency of AI algorithms, and the patterns of privatization and enclosure of AI outputs, all together constitute yet another obstacle to better sharing. Indeed, for many creators, these concerns are a reason not to share.

As one actor in a vibrant community of open advocates defending the interests of the millions of people who use CC licenses, we want to engage in rich conversations on AI’s multiple facets to promote better sharing in the public interest.

That’s why to promote the use of CC-licensed content to train AI, we need a community-led, coordinated and inclusive approach to consider not only the copyright system in which CC licenses operate, but also issues of accountability, responsibility, sustainability, cultural rights, human rights, personality rights, privacy rights, data protection, and ethics. As one actor in a vibrant community of open advocates defending the interests of the millions of people who use CC licenses, we want to engage in rich conversations on AI’s multiple facets to promote better sharing in the public interest.

To that end, the CC Copyright Platform of the Creative Commons Global Network will examine, throughout the year, the intersection of AI and open content. Through discussions and collective action, we look forward to exploring options in licensing and infrastructure, policy,⁶ norm building,⁷ and awareness-raising.

Are you interested in joining the conversation with policy experts from all over the world? Become a member of the CC Copyright Platform by joining our CC Policy Mailing List.

Notes

1. Our previous blog posts on AI include: Why We’re Advocating for a Cautious Approach to Copyright and Artificial Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence and Creativity: Why We’re Against Copyright Protection for AI-Generated Output and Artificial Intelligence and Creativity: Can Machines Write Like Jane Austen? See also our official submissions to the World Intellectual Property Organization (CC Submission to WIPO Consultation on AI and IP Policy (February 2020) and CC Statement at WIPO Conversation on IP and AI (2nd session) (July 2020)) and the European Commission (Creative Commons Submission to the European Commission Consultation on Artificial Intelligence (June 2020)).
2. For further information on our licenses and AI see our FAQ: https://creativecommons.org/faq/#artificial-intelligence-and-cc-licenses and https://creativecommons.org/faq/#can-i-conduct-textdata-mining-on-a-cc-licensed-database.
3. The licenses do, however, include a waiver from the licensor not to assert their own moral, publicity, privacy, and/or similar personality rights against reusers.
4. A tool called exposing.ai has since been developed to allow Flickr users to check if their CC-licensed photos were used to train facial recognition AI.
5. Guterres, A. (2020, Feb 24). The Highest Aspiration: A Call to Action for Human Rights. Geneva, Switzerland, UN Human Rights Council. 
6. We want our policy work to focus on global, representative and inclusive advocacy efforts, notably in the context of the UNESCO Recommendation the ethics of artificial intelligence and the WIPO Conversation on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence.
7. Lessons from the data collection practices of archives have been touted as useful guidance for developing codes of conduct and ethical guidelines in machine learning systems.

The post Should CC-Licensed Content be Used to Train AI? It Depends. appeared first on Creative Commons.

February is usually the time to share virtual hugs, chocolates, and witty cards with family and friends for Valentine’s Day . (Or “Friend’s Day” in Finland!) This past Valentine’s Day, we wanted you to share something a little different: your creative work. 

In our Open Sharing is Caring challenge, we asked you to openly share an image, song, artwork, research paper, poem, GIF…whatever it may be with the world by gifting it to the public domain. By using #OpenSharingIsCaring on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, we watched as you generously gave to the public domain.

In this post, we’re sharing five of our favorite images!

Finally, we received a few touching and witty poems via email for Valentine’s Day. One of our favorites was shared by Lisanne.

Thank you to everyone who shared with us in the #OpenSharingIsCaring challenge! Check out more openly shared creative works here and please continue to give back to the public domain all year long! 

The post Thank You for Participating in Open Sharing Is Caring! appeared first on Creative Commons.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Creative Commons published an article titled, “Now Is the Time for Open Access Policies—Here’s Why” in March 2020. A lot has changed since then and it’s important to assess the progress made and take a hard look at the dangers ahead.

In this panel, we’ll examine the fields of Open Data, Open Science, and Open Source Medical Hardware with leading experts and practitioners, asking questions like: “What does “open” mean in the COVID-19 context?” “What role can open access and the open community play in ensuring there is timely and equitable access to medical and scientific research outputs and data, vaccines and treatments?” “Can open science and open data help prevent the next pandemic?” “What legal tools should be used to expedite the manufacturing of vaccines?” “How can we balance individual privacy with the need to share information about genome variation and patterns of infection?”

Panellists include: 

• Brigitte Vézina | Director of Policy, Creative Commons (Moderator)
• Dr. Tarek Loubani | Medical Director and Physician, Glia
• Dr. Tim Hubbard | Professor of Bioinformatics, Department of Medical & Molecular Genetics at King’s College London
• Dr. Uma Suthersanen | Professor of Global Intellectual Property Law, Queen Mary University of London

Date: Tuesday, 16 March 2021
Time: 11:00 – 12:20 EST/15:00 – 16:20 GMT/16:00 – 17:20 CET
Location: Anywhere and everywhere! We’ll be using a virtual platform called Hopin to host the event.

Join us as we attempt to map out the present and the future of “open” in the era of COVID-19! 

Pay-What-You-Can Registration: We’re aiming to make this event as accessible to as many participants as possible. All ticket holders receive the same access to the event. Register by Monday, 15 March!

The post Panel: A New Era of Open? COVID-19 and the Pursuit for Equitable Solutions appeared first on Creative Commons.

In two days, the Smithsonian will celebrate one year of Smithsonian Open Access. This initiative removed copyright restrictions from 2.8 million digital collection 2D and 3D images and nearly two centuries of data using Creative Commons’ public domain dedication tool (CC0). Launched just before many of us went into lockdown due to COVID-19, Smithsonian Open Access unexpectedly became an invaluable resource for parents and educators alike as traditional education was disrupted due to the pandemic. 

To mark this occasion, we reconnected with Effie Kapsalis (Senior Digital Program Officer, Smithsonian) for our new 20th-anniversary podcast, “Open Minds…from Creative Commons.”

In this episode, we talk through the history of Smithsonian Open Access, including the years of research and collaboration it took to get the initiative launched, where it’s going as new challenges have emerged (e.g. mis/disinformation on digital platforms), and Effie’s personal advice for other open advocates in the cultural heritage sector. Hint: Leverage research like this paper!

The value of open “was always to be able to include many hands in the work we have to do to make this live on into perpetuity.” 

You’ll leave this episode energized by Effie’s telling of the journey of Smithsonian Open Access, which has undoubtedly reaffirmed her belief in the power and the value of open access. “We had a class of graduate data [visualization] students from Parsons [School of Design] this last semester and they created these really delightful explorations of different pockets of our collections,” she explained, “This is the value of open—it was always to be able to include many hands in the work we have to do to make this live on into perpetuity.” 

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, and more. You can also subscribe via the show’s RSS feed.

We hope you enjoy the show. Please subscribe to it 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: Celebrating Smithsonian Open Access With Effie Kapsalis appeared first on Creative Commons.