Eduserv launches study into Open Licence use by cultural organisations
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The study will investigate how open licences, including those created by Creative Commons (CC), are used by cultural heritage organisations.
Open licensing is designed to generate public goods through a balanced and moderate copyright licensing system. Unlike the default 'all rights reserved' copyright status, Creative Common's 'some rights reserved' approach enables organisations and individuals to use, share and copy texts, images and other materials easily and legally if they follow certain simple guidelines.
The study will provide insight into the use of alternative approaches to copyright licensing by assessing the use of CC and other open licensing regimes in the cultural heritage community. 'Museums and libraries are continually looking into different ways to fulfil their public service mandate by making more resources available online as a way to complement physical access to their collections,' states Jordan Hatcher, a legal consultant and principal researcher on the study. 'Creative Commons and similar licences enable museums and libraries to share their collections with the public whilst retaining certain and important rights over their materials. They are also a way for the public, including students, teachers and artists, to use the materials held by these organisations legally and safely for their own websites and other projects.'
Andy Powell, Head of Development at the Eduserv Foundation, adds: 'We are launching this study to raise awareness of the potential of CC to liberate cultural heritage organisations and individuals from thinking first and foremost about protecting and restricting content and to focus on sharing, which is essential to learning and research.'
Several public sector organisations, including the BBC and the Open University, already use CC or similar licences to make resources more easily available to the public.
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The project can be found at this link
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