The following is a summary of “GLAM Collections on Social Media: Navigating Copyright Questions—a conversation with Aleksandra Strzelichowska, Mikka Gee Conway and Anne Young” published on 31 May 2020 by Scann (licensed CC BY). 

How often do you debate whether to share an openly licensed work on social media? If you do share a work, how often do you fret over whether you’ve provided proper attribution? I’ll answer first: All the time!

Sharing openly licensed works (e.g. images, GIFs, videos, etc.) on social platforms can feel like a fraught space to venture into—and as we’ve learned over the last few years, this is especially true for GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums). To answer some of the recurring questions these institutions have about sharing openly licensed works on their social media platforms, including works from their own collections, the copyright community at Europeana, Open GLAM, and the Special Interest Group on Intellectual Property at the Museum Computer Network organized a digital panel featuring Aleksandra Strzelichowska (Senior Online Marketing Specialist at Europeana Foundation), Mikka Gee Conway (General Counsel, the Getty Museum), and Anne Young (Director of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Property at Newfields) on 30 April 2020. 

In this post, I briefly summarize a few notes from this discussion to help inform your decisions on what and how to share on social media.

Copyright policies and guidance for sharing on social media accounts

Europeana follows a four-page document that includes clear guidelines for sharing content online. Essentially, the organization only shares media that is deemed “freely re-usable,” which means it’s in the public domain (e.g. through CC0) or licensed CC BY or CC BY-SA. If a piece of content has a “no reuse statement” then Europeana will seek individual permissions from the copyright holder—but that’s a rare occurrence. The Getty Museum’s general policy is to only share copyrighted content if Getty holds the copyright license or if it can make a strong “fair use” case. Otherwise, Getty tends to focus on sharing material found in the public domain. Finally, Newfields follows a similar policy as Getty. In particular, it focuses on seeking permission for reusing works from donors, affiliated artists, and/or estates. 

Policies in practice: Attribution on social media

Due to the nature of social media platforms, including the limited character counts, it can be difficult to provide detailed attribution for shared media. However, it’s important to make a concerted effort, particularly if the content being shared is done so under a “fair use” claim. On Twitter, for example, the best practice is to utilize the “reply” function to provide detailed attribution when necessary. On Instagram, it’s more difficult to provide proper attribution since there is no linking function in the description of posts, therefore it may be best to stick with content that is in the public domain or that the organization holds the copyrights to. To overcome this issue, Europeana created a landing page that is linked to in its biography description on Instagram. This page houses all of the images the organization posts on its Instagram account, providing source and attribution information.

For editorial pieces, like blog posts, that are housed on a website and then shared through social media, it’s important to provide attribution for openly licensed works in the body of that post. For example, the caption of an image can contain the attribution information and/or it can be added to the image’s metadata. If the image is in the public domain, it’s best practice to also identify provenance—where the work is stewarded—this includes listing the GLAM the image was sourced from. For more guidance, check out this page.

CC licenses and terms of service: What about NC-licensed content?

This can be a sticky issue for GLAM institutions, complicated by the terms of service for each individual social media platform. Some assume that if a social media platform’s terms require or indicate that a user gives the platform the license to use their content for commercial purposes (like marketing) then the spirit of the NonCommercial (NC) license is violated. Thus, the conservative approach is to avoid posting NC-licensed content. 

However, there is some basis for thinking otherwise. CC Legal Counsel Sarah Pearson explained that CC licenses don’t allow sub-licensing so uploaders are not granting the platform any rights directly to content that isn’t theirs under copyright. Most social media terms of service require that a user either a) owns the copyright to their posted content or b) has the right to use that content. When that’s the case, openly licensed content is appropriate to share on the social media platform as long as the license requirements are followed by the uploader. As for NC-licensed content specifically, so long as the uploader is sharing the content for noncommercial purposes, the NC restriction is likely more of an issue for the platform, if at all, to the extent the platform must rely on the NC license. 

The important role of digital asset management systems

Many organizations, especially GLAM institutions, have digital asset management systems (DAMS) that contain object metadata, including rights information, that everyone within the organization has access to. At Getty, for example, the DAMS is directly supported by a Rights and Reproduction team member that is responsible for entering objects into the system and ensuring the rights information for each object is included. Their system also includes separate folders that specify what an object can be used for, whether it’s for a blog post or a social media post. In some cases, objects are approved for use on the website or for distribution by the media but not for social media platforms, so the DAMS is crucial for ensuring those objects are not used improperly.

Newfields, which also has a DAMS, and Getty offer training to team members on how to use the system since the metadata can be complicated to read and interpret. This is particularly true when other, non-copyright issues come up for a particular object, such as privacy and/or publicity considerations. Since Europeana aggregates data, its process is more straightforward. Put simply, if the object is on the website then it should be OK to use for any purpose by the marketing and communications team.  

Guidelines and strategies on how users can reuse shared content

Europeana has been educating users on reusing its content through engagement initiatives. For example, during the annual GIF IT UP! contest, it routinely educates people on open licensing and attribution requirements. If someone submits a GIF based on a work that is not openly licensed, they receive an email explaining why their submission wasn’t accepted and are given instructions on what they can do to rectify the situation. At Getty, following the launch of its open content program in 2013, the organization published a clear set of terms of use and provided additional educational resources on its website. Today, it’s looking at dedicating many of its open content to the public domain using CC0 so that there’s less confusion for users. 

Open access in the age of COVID-19

The panelists agreed that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a conversation around copyright has emerged that feels especially urgent as it’s tied to this moment—specifically regarding what GLAMs should and shouldn’t do. In some cases, boundaries are definitely being pushed. However, the panelists urged institutions to take a more cautious and measured approach when embarking on new digital projects and initiatives. “I definitely feel that it’s important to be measured about all this, and think about what it is exactly about our changed situation that might merit pushing boundaries of copyright?,” Mikka argued. “That is absolutely true,” Anne replied, “…at the end of the day, while there might be pushing some boundaries we still need to proceed cautiously because the laws [themselves] haven’t changed.”

P.s. I highly recommend reading the full conversation for more insights and examples from Europeana, Getty, and Newfields—and bookmarking it for future reference! 

Our friends over at Open GLAM want to hear from you! How do you attribute openly licensed works on social media? What challenges are you facing in this area? What training or education are you looking for? Let them know by sending an email, tweeting at OpenGlam, or joining their monthly calls! 

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We are very excited to announce the publication of the official translations of the CC License Suite 4.0 and CC0 into Slovenian. These legal code translations are the products of years of painstaking work by a team of volunteers at the Intellectual Property Institute in Slovenia, led by Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič. The first drafts were finished in November 2018, and the public comment period for the translations was held in April 2019. Once the substance of the translations was finalized, the team then worked closely with the internal team at CC to perfect the HTML versions of the translations. 

During this time, Matija Šuklje translated all of the deeds associated with these legal tools. 

We want to give a special thanks to Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, Saša Krajnc, and Tilen Zonta for their persistence and patience throughout this lengthy process. 

You can see the translations here:

Version 4.0:

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.sl
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.sl
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.sl
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode.sl
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode.sl
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode.sl

CC0: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.sl

 

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Creative Commons offers solidarity and joins the millions around the world who are mourning the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. We recognize that they are the latest victims of systemic racism and institutionalized violence not only in the United States but globally, prompting anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests in over 30 countries; from Australia to Mexico to Turkey. CC stands with those grieving and protesting against these injustices against Black people, and with those fighting for justice, representation, and equality around the world.

Our community continually challenges us to be more critical of the social, political, legal, and economic systems in which we work. At last year’s CC Global Summit, open community members Adele Vrana and Siko Bouterse encouraged us to ask, “Whose Knowledge?” This simple yet important question challenged us to face the persistent injustices and inequalities that have infected the internet since its creation, leading to some voices being raised and others being silenced. Of course, this digital world is a reflection—and sometimes a magnification—of our physical world, and the issues and barriers people regularly encounter online often mirror their realities offline. 

As a leader in the open internet and open access movement, we recognize our responsibility to counter discrimination and racism within ourselves, our organization, our global network, and the communities in which we participate. We must do more to lend our allyship and resources to help end the centuries of injustice that have led to the murder and oppression of Black, Indigenous, and people of color across the globe.

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COVID-19 has changed many things about how we all learn, work, and play. In fact, it has drastically changed how we lead our lives. But in these exceptionally distressing times, one thing that hasn’t changed is the dynamism and resilience of the Creative Commons (CC) community. In this blog post, we’re thrilled to share some of the work that the amazing individuals and organizations that are part of the CC Network have been up to, upholding CC’s values and pursuing our goals in the face of COVID-19.

Over the past months, we’ve talked on the Creative Commons blog about the effect of the pandemic on science and education and asserted how important it is to share knowledge and culture as openly as possible, now more than ever. We also launched the Open COVID Pledge, a groundbreaking initiative founded on the idea that relevant scientific resources and intellectual property owned or developed in relation to COVID-19 should be made freely available to anyone in the world to use and build upon to end the pandemic.

Members of the CC community launched remarkable initiatives across the globe to support open education, open science and open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums). From New Zealand to Poland, from Brazil to the Netherlands and Italy, all over the world they have been leading inspiring actions to ensure the public interest continues to be promoted and protected in the midst of this global crisis.

We asked our community members to share what they were doing so we could contribute to Wikipedia’s effort to document the impact of the pandemic on different aspects of everyone’s lives and the measures taken to mitigate that impact.

You can read about the activities carried out in the field of:

• Education – for example, several initiatives were taken to facilitate access for students and teachers to openly licensed educational resources, and many organizations helped clarify how to navigate copyright rules related to teaching and learning activities (especially online) under such exceptional circumstances. 
• Science – for example, we shared different projects that highlight how open access to scientific research resources is key to quickly finding a cure for the disease. 
• Culture – for example, some of our network members carried online training workshops and webinars for cultural heritage professionals to learn about relevant risks and exceptions to copyright when providing online services. Other organizations, e.g. in Australia, organized fact sheets to provide libraries and archives with basic guidance on how to deal with copyright challenges. 

Truth be told, the global health emergency triggered by the spread of COVID-19 brought into stark relief the belief that Creative Commons has been holding all along: by openly sharing knowledge and culture, we can better support scientists, researchers, teachers, students, cultural institutions, and society at large. The crisis also magnified the power of CC’s thriving community members, who continue to spin on a dime and quickly and directly support practitioners on the ground.

Interested in joining or supporting the CC Global Network? Learn more here. To support our work more generally, please donate here. 

 Stop the spread of COVID-19 by taking these steps outlined by the WHO, including washing your hands for at least 20 seconds and social distancing.

The post Our Community is Reducing the Impact of COVID-19 on Science, Education, and Culture appeared first on Creative Commons.

This post was written in collaboration with Jan Gondol, Ebba Ossiannilsson, Karolina Szczepaniak, and Spencer Ellis.

Currently, we face both a swell of support for open educational resources (OER) and devastating upheaval of our traditional education systems. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 1.5 billion youth are out of school, countless teachers and parents are pivoting to online teaching and education systems face immense financial strain. While OER is not a magic cure for the current education crisis, there are opportunities to work with open education efforts to build greater resiliency within our learning ecosystems and also support cross-national partnerships. 

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities. OER is one facet of open education, or efforts to make education more affordable, accessible, and effective—providing unfettered access to learning to as many people as possible. Open education involves open practices, open policies, and open educational resources.

Today, we have a stronger need and established international frameworks to use OER to fuel our education efforts and collective commitments. This pandemic highlights the effects closing access to information and communication has on communities; conversely, it demonstrates how essential open practices (e.g. free sharing of information, unfettered access to education materials, etc.) are to our collective human security.

Examples of leveraging OER in COVID-19 response efforts

OER offers a more agile solution to our contemporary times of flux. OER enables educators to adapt learning resources to meet the needs of the growing populations of online learners, whether those needs are for translation into first languages, accessibility, or lower cost. 

So how does one leverage OER in COVID-19 response efforts? Below is a list of examples.

Most examples can be initiated but not fully realized in the short term. Rather, they set the framework for realizing more resilient education practices in the future. 

• Exemplifying the benefit of open educational practices, Slovakia’s most recent Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments include mapping the available open educational resources in the Slovak language. When schools closed with the COVID-19 quarantine, the OGP Slovakia team promptly released a work-in-progress version of the resources overview through social media, which became the most popular of its Facebook posts, ever. Teachers and parents found it very helpful to immediately access, adapt, and reuse the resources freely, and the impact may last well beyond the current crisis.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international organization of government leaders and civil society advocates united to promote more transparent, accountable, and responsive governance and services for citizens. The OGP includes 78 National governments (representing 2 billion people) and additional local governments working closely with thousands of civil society organizations. Together, OGP governments and civil society members co-create two-year action plans with concrete commitments addressing a broad range of issues, which enables civil society organizations to help shape and oversee government work.

• As Poland rapidly transitioned 24,000 schools with 600,000 teachers and 4.8 million students to a distance learning model, NGOs were able to strengthen teaching efforts with open educational resources, immediately. While previously underused among teachers, the Polish Ministry of National Education’s Education Platform for e-textbooks (an OER) became an important, well-used resource, because it was available immediately and without restrictions. Lessons on the Web (Lekcje w sieci), a web service, created over 200 OER lesson scenarios in three weeks for all levels of education. 
• Wikimedia Deutschland and edu-sharing.net launched Wir lernen online (we learn online), in April. The open education platform strengthens digital infrastructure to support schools in digital home teaching and organizers welcome collaboration with stakeholders in the education sector. 
• The Norwegian government, UNESCO, UNHCR, multiple private and non-profit organizations established a collaboration supporting translation efforts of open-licensed children’s reading books (OER) into new languages. The project is called Translate a Story and aims to help children continue reading, during, and after this pandemic.

International frameworks supporting OER

Numerous countries have recognized the powerful intersection between OER and open government efforts. In the last 10 years, many countries such as Chile, Greece, and Romania have leveraged OER efforts to address OGP goals of transparency, accountability, public participation, and inclusion in their education systems, fiscal accountability, and improvement of public services. Read how nine OGP commitments are supporting OGP’s goals through open educational resources here. The 2019 OGP Global Report states that at the end of 2018, there have been at least 160 education commitments (page six of the Education section). The Education section also highlights cases made for OER (page 23), which include: potential prohibitive costs of traditional materials, the ability to keep open-source materials updated, and higher student performance.

In addition to open government work, national governments, international and local organizations recognize the potential of OER—and the opportunity to partner under international frameworks that support open education goals. In November 2019, UNESCO unanimously passed the UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation to advance the construction of open, inclusive, and participatory knowledge societies and established a Dynamic Coalition of government, civil society, and private sector experts connected to support the recommendations. The OER Recommendation dovetails with SDG4 efforts, emphasizing that open education can support “inclusive and equitable quality education” and “lifelong learning opportunities for all.” 

National government counterparts currently seek partnerships and open projects to help actualize SDG4 aims, the OER Recommendation actions, and OGP commitments. Now is the ideal time to leverage OER efforts to meet SDG, UNESCO OER Recommendation, and OGP goals at the same time. It is also time to build more resilience into education systems, in response to COVID-19.

Get involved

OER is often linked to networks of open education enthusiasts, passionate about sharing educational resources.

Open education networks have provided outreach for teachers, parents, students, and advocates—offering “how-to” webinars, supports for emotional wellbeing, and lists of open resources. View this Wikipedia article section collecting just a few of the resources and responses.  And join the Creative Commons open education listserv or Slack community or discuss opportunities for engagement in open education efforts.

 Stop the spread of COVID-19 by taking these steps outlined by the WHO, including washing your hands for at least 20 seconds and social distancing.

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