Group items tagged

An interesting article arguing for the creation of open licenses for data. They make the point that the use of creative commons licenses is mistaken as these are designed for creative work not data or data bases. Unfortunately the argument - which is repeated several times - is not very thoroughly presented. The Talis Community License is mentioned as a possible alternative. The paper dates from 2008 and is thus - apart from the forceful argument for open licenses as the more viable alternative to the public domain - primarily of historical interest. Much progress has been made in the field with Open Data Commons Licenses now being an accepted standard as well as well as country specific licenses such as Open Government License UK, Open Government License Canada or Data License Germany (cf. http://opendefinition.org/licenses/).

Local Contexts is a new forum for applying Traditional Knowledge licenses or labels to materials from Indigenous communities. They work a lot like Creative Commons licenses. There are often different categories of Indigenous knowledge meant only for the community, or only for women, or only for leaders, and these licenses offer a way to label materials accordingly. These labels and licenses are added onto existing copyright, which is often held by the person who made a tangible material rather than the community where the idea comes from (an anthropologist who filmed a traditional ceremony owns the copyright on the film, and the community has no copyright). These TK labels are asking people who come across materials like this to think about how they are using the materials, and to think about whose intellectual property they are. This is a very new initiative, but a really valuable tool. This is part of a different conversation that challenges how we normally talk about copyright and intellectual property.

Report outlining how libraries deal with database licensing, how they negotiate with vendors, what conditions libraries negotiate for, how much money libraries spend on database licenses, etc. This information would be really helpful to libraries considering shifting more towards open access sources. You can see a few key points here, but of course this report is not open! Your library might have a copy from past years.

A paper that gives an introduction or tutorial to the Free/Open Source Software. Relevant to our discussion for module 1 are part II and III. Part II gave a brief history for such a movement. Part III explained in brief four components of F/OSS: the license (yes even something open needs a license), the community, the development process and only lastly is the software itself

Josh Woodward is one of the most prolific musicians in the Creative Commons community. His songs have been downloaded six and a half million times. His songs are all licensed under CC's most open license for maximum sharing, commercial or noncommercial. And he presents instrumental and lyrical mixes for most of his songs, allowing for easy reuse in video.

For fun -- and to demonstrate the power of the creative commons -- CC has created a new Tumblr that features random content from artists using creative commons licensing. Each day features a new "thing," putting subscribers (via email or bookmark) and artists in contact.

© 2010 Carolina Rossini. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 45, no. 4 (July/August 2010): 60-68 Carolina Rossini ( carolina.rossini@gmail.com), a Brazilian lawyer and law professor, is currently a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University, and Coordinator of OER-Brazil ( http://www.rea.net.br).

"...we need to recognize you can't kill the instinct the technology produces. We can only criminalize it. We can't stop our kids from using it. We can only drive it underground. We can't make our kids passive again. We can only make them, quote, "pirates." And is that good?" - Larry Lessig This is a great talk about the free use of materials to make something new. The crux of Mr Lessig's argument is that every time a "kid" remixes a song with a video they are committing a criminal act. By doing this the law is making their free expression criminal. He shows three great examples of this starting at 8:29 in the video. He suggests that by using Creative Commons materials, we can avoid being criminals, and by doing this we can break the cartel of the RIAA and others. He uses the example of BMI causing the downfall of ASCAP. You can see this at 4:55 in the video. Here is the quote: "Finally. Before the Internet, the last great terror to rain down on the content industry was a terror created by this technology [Shows a picture of a broadcast radio antenna]. Broadcasting: a new way to spread content, and therefore a new battle over the control of the businesses that would spread content. Now, at that time, the entity, the legal cartel, that controlled the performance rights for most of the music that would be broadcast using these technologies was ASCAP. They had an exclusive license on the most popular content, and they exercised it in a way that tried to demonstrate to the broadcasters who really was in charge. So, between 1931 and 1939, they raised rates by some 448 percent, until the broadcasters finally got together and said, okay, enough of this. And in 1939, a lawyer, Sydney Kaye, started something called Broadcast Music Inc. We know it as BMI. And BMI was much more democratic in the art that it would include within its repertoire, including African American music for the first time in the repertoire. But most important was that BMI took public domain works a

Any form of Reproduction, which includes Photocopying, is infringement of Copyright under the Copyright Act, 1957. IRRO's Licenses allow Licensee to evade infringement of copyright with certain Limitations. For detail you can see Benefit of License and Limitations of IRRO's License.

A source of some open text books with a interesting back story that should act as a warning about open--they are all now ex-open text books. After 2012 the publisher decided to abandon the CC/open textbook model and shifted the licensing on all their books. However, you can not revoke a CC license retroactively, so copies of the books downloaded prior to the change are still CC. But if the publisher no longer provides access to them, they disappear from CC circulation and access--luckily in this case, some one saved the CC versions and makes them available on this website. thanks!

Seriously useful! Indeed!

Wow, this collection is extensive, and the content seems good too! I'm so glad that someone was motivated enough to make these available according to their original licenses -- but it feels a bit bittersweet as well they had to resort to guerilla tactics to keep them available. It does make me wonder -- why did the publishing company decide to start charging for their textbooks? Was the previous model unprofitable?

If you're taking this course out of Canada, the Copyright @ UBC website has a lot of really good information available to you. Guides specifically relevant to this course include the Creative Commons Guide (where you can find information about using CC licensed work, applying CC licenses to your own work, and several lists of websites where you can find CC licensed work) and the Public Domain Guide (where you can find information about how to determine if something is in the public domain in Canada). The entire site is CC BY-SA (except where otherwise indicated) though, so the entire thing is a resource for copyright questions in Canada.

It's unquestionable that Research4Life has had a significant impact in improving access to research information for communities in developing countries. I do have a number of criticisms about how the program is organized and delivered, however. 1. Publisher participation in the program is 'entirely voluntary', without 'a single contract (being) signed between any of the partners' (Aaronson, 2004), meaning that publishers can opt out at any point. This issue was highlighted in 2011 when Elsevier, Lipincott Williams & Wilkins, Springer and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, publisher of Science Magazine) withdrew access to over 2500 journals through the HINARI system. Following international attention, and widespread condemnation, publishers restored access, with Elsevier announcing that they were in discussions with the government in Bangladesh to transition towards a paid licensing scheme (Wise, 2011). 2. Countries that meet the eligibility criteria of the program (which are based on the World Bank's listing of Lower and Lower Middle Income Countries) are sometimes excluded. Take for example India or Pakistan- although these countries are in the lists of eligible countries, the publishers deliberately exclude participation to protect whatever business they may have in these countries. So although hundreds of institutions could benefit, they exclude access to protect the business they receive from a handful of institutions. 3. Access to content is delivered through a single username and password for each institution. This is problematic for librarians, as they are unable to ensure the security of the password (a well-meaning researcher may share the password with a colleague in another institution, violating the license agreement). Abuse of institutional accounts has severe consequences, and librarians are sent messages from Research4Life threatening to not only cut off the institution, but all institutions in their country if they

Research4life is a great program by committed government and non-government organizations dedicated to produce valuable researches that will improve the life of people. Librarians play an important role in assisting researchers find valid, current, relevant information in order to produce a reliable output or results that will help humankind's betterment of living.

This blog is especially great because it talks about the motivation and mindset behind adopting an ope approach. Open is not simply about making or using open resources but open as a 'way of being'

Filed by on Recently published by The Primary Research Group. The Survey of Library Database Licensing Practices, 2014-15 Edition: The report looks closely at how libraries organize their database procurement and processing bureaucracy, pinpointing the number of positions devoted to digital information, and staff time spent on tasks such as procurement and invoice processing.

Interesting open text book created by the Free Technology Academy that outlines the history, culture, and use of free software. "Free Software" is ambiguous in English and not the commonly used terminology. However, in Spanish and French it is possible to make a distinction between "Libre software" and "gratis" software. The authors argue that the term "open source" is too technical focused, while "libre software" better focuses on the rights of the users and community. Interesting and worth skimming for reference. Available in English, Spanish, Catalan, and Italian. Authors: Jesús M. González-Barahona, Joaquín Seoane Pascual, Gregorio Robles Coordinators: Jordi Mas Hernández, David Megías Jiménez Licenses: GNU Free Documentation License, Creative Commons Attribute ShareAlike License Information: 291 Pages; 3.2Mb Free software is increasing its presence in mainstream media and in debates among IT professionals, but it is still unknown for many people.

Introducción al software libre, en Español: http://ocw.uoc.edu/informatica-tecnologia-y-multimedia/introduccion-al-software-libre/materiales/view?set_language=es

Muy buenos aportes @koobreader

© 2010 David Wiley. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 45, no. 4 (July/August 2010): 14-20 David Wiley ( david.wiley@byu.edu) is an Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology in the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University.

En el repositorio utilizamos Creative Commons para proteger las obras de los autores de la facultad donde trabajo.

Creative Commons began providing licenses for the open sharing of content only a decade ago. More than 400 million CC-licensed works are now available on the Internet, varying from music, photos, research findings to entire courseware. Creative Commons provides the legal and technical infrastructure that allows effective sharing of knowledge, art and data by individuals, organizations and governments. Millions of creators world over are taking advantage of that infrastructure to share work that enriches the global commons for all humanity. The book The Power of Open collects the stories of those creators, some such famous creators are like ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative news organization or the nomadic filmmaker Vincent Moon. The breadth of uses is as great as the creativity of the individuals and organizations choosing to open their content to the rest of the world.

"School of Open is a global community of volunteers providing free online courses, face-to-face workshops, and innovative training programs on the meaning, application, and impact of "openness" in the digital age. Through School of Open, you can learn how to add a Creative Commons license to your work, find free resources for classroom use, open up your research, remix a music video, and more!"

Really good resource for CC licensed images.