{"id":29639,"date":"2011-11-03T12:25:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T19:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/?p=29639"},"modified":"2023-09-29T00:02:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T00:02:54","slug":"copyright-experts-discuss-cc-license-version-4-0-at-the-global-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/2011\/11\/03\/copyright-experts-discuss-cc-license-version-4-0-at-the-global-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Copyright Experts Discuss CC License Version 4.0 at the Global Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> CC General Counsel Diane Peters addressing affiliates \/ DTKindler Photo<\/a><\/span> \/ CC BY<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/p>\n

The Creative Commons 2011 Global Summit<\/a> was a remarkable success, bringing together CC affiliates, board, staff, alumni, friends and stakeholders from around the world. Among the ~300 attendees was an impressive array of legal experts. Collectively, these experts brought diversity and depth of legal expertise and experience to every facet of the Summit, including knowledge of copyright policy across the government, education, science, culture, and foundation sectors. We designed the Summit\u2019s legal sessions<\/a> (pdf) to leverage this expertise<\/a> to discuss our core license suite and the 4.0 license versioning process.<\/p>\n

The 3.0 License Suite<\/h4>\n

The current 3.0 license suite has been in service since 2007<\/a>, and is faring extraordinarily well for many important adopters. Notably, government adoption and promotion of the licenses<\/a> for releasing public sector information, content and data has increased in the intervening four years, predominantly leveraging the 3.0 licenses. From the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing Framework<\/a>, to the explicit acceptance of CC BY by the Australian government as the default license for Australian government materials<\/a>, to the official websites of heads of state<\/a>, to numerous open<\/a> data portals,<\/a> governments are increasingly looking to and depending on CC licenses<\/a> as the preferred mechanism for sharing information.<\/p>\n

As robust as the 3.0 continues (and will continue) to prove for many adopters, we also have learned that limitations exist for other would-be adopters that inhibit use of our licenses. These limitations set the stage in some instances for the creation of custom licenses that are at best confusing to users and at worst incompatible with some of CC’s licenses. One of the more compelling limitations driving the need for versioning now is the existence of sui generis database rights throughout the European Union, and the treatment of those rights in CC’s 3.0 licenses. But other limitations also exist for important categories of those would-be adopters. For example, although 55+ jurisdictions<\/a> have ported some version of the CC licenses to their jurisdictions, there remain many others that want to leverage CC licenses but are without necessary resources to undertake the time-intensive process porting demands, and do not wish to use the international (unported) suite however suitable those licenses are for adoption worldwide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So as well as our 3.0 licenses operate for many, we recognize as license stewards there exists room to improve if we are to avoid risking a fragmentation of the commons. Of course it bears emphasizes here and throughout the versioning process that 3.0 license adopters can continue to count on our stewardship and support for that suite, just as we have done with all prior versioning efforts<\/a>. We are committed to remaining alert to revisions that might undermine or compromise pre-4.0 license implementations and frameworks, and will now more than ever look to the expertise and dedication of our affiliates to assist us with the process and the subsequent adoption efforts.<\/p>\n

Beginning the 4.0 Process<\/h4>\n

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<\/a> Michael Carroll \/ Kalexanderson<\/a><\/span> \/ CC BY<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, Professor Mike Carroll, CC board member and founder, led a discussion around CC’s plans for beginning the versioning of its licenses from the current 3.0 version<\/a> to 4.0. His remarks provided a detailed explanation of the reasons leading CC to version in 2012, given the limitations for several adopters in the existing suite, the many opportunities at hand, and the current environment of accelerating adoption by governments and others.<\/p>\n

CC\u2019s goals and those of our affiliate community for 4.0 are ambitious, and include:<\/p>\n