Wikimania 2016, Esino Lario, June 25, 2016 - User digest: Licenses, open policies

1. User digest
Licenses, open policies
Federico Morando
Nexa Center for Internet & Society, Politecnico di Torino – fellow
Creative Commons Italia – public lead
Wikimania 2016, Esino Lario – June 25, 2006

2. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 2
copyright 101
● from Wikipedia
● “Copyright is a legal right [...] that grants the creator of an
original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution”
● copyright “default rule”:
● full protection (“all rights reserved”)
– maximum duration (typically: life + 70 years)
● no formality required (not even the ©)
● generalised by Berne Convention
● and enforced via WTO trade agreements
● the “iron law of default inertia” works toward “all
rights reserved”

3. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 3
corollary to © 101
● copyright default rule = all rights reserved
● “copyright” in a broad sense
– droit d'auteur
– sui generis database right, etc.
● without a clear statement to “opt out”
● content and data locked data
– unless exceptions and limitations apply
– unless content and data in the public domain
● assumption that everything is forbidden
● wrong, but reasonable

4. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 4
open licensing 101
● open content and data “require” open licenses
● otherwise, risk of legal uncertainty
● “license” ↔ give permission
● a promise (by the licensor) not to sue (the licensee)
– as long as certain conditions are respected
● “open” in the sense of the Open Definition
● “Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and
share for any purpose (subject, at most, to requirements
that preserve provenance and openness).” or
– “Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared
by anyone for any purpose”

5. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 5
choosing a license
● when institutions develop an open policy, a lot of
discussions concern the choice of the best license
● suggestion:
● “legal interoperability” as guiding principle
– possibility of (legally) mixing content and data coming from
different sources (e.g. government data, UGC, corporate data)
– and using them within a broad range of projects and business (and
community) models

6. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 6
a view on license interoperability complexity
● given the original license (on the lines)
● can I use a given standard license (on the columns) for a
“derivative” work/DB?

7. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 7
zooming on license interoperability

8. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 8
most open licensees OK to feed Wikipedia...

9. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 9
more challenging task with Wikidata...

10. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 10
universal donors
● Creative Commons Zero (CC0)
● Public Domain Dedication or License (PDDL)
● tagging of public domain content with the PDMark

11. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 11
do we have universal
receivers?
● strictly speaking, no
● (rectius: keeping the data within you firm's secret
datacenter)
● amongst open licenses, CC BY-SA is arguably the
best candidate
● could safely be used to publish derivative works of any
Public Domain or Attribution waiver/license
● considering the amount of available content and data is the
first candidate for any “interoperability clause” in other SA
licenses
– Art Libre License
– GNU FDL (temporary) interop.; IODL 1.0

12. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 12
non-commercial reminder
● the NC debate characterizes the first phases of
most “re-use friendly” initiatives
● de facto, the NC licenses are only compatible with other NC
licenses
● always remind (to your institution) some basic
things
● Non-Commercial → no (standard) business models
● NC also → no (open) communities
– impossible to re-use for non-profit groups including Wikipedia and
Wikimedia projects, OpenStreetMap, etc.
● Non-Commercial → NO Wikipedia (DBPedia) &
NO OpenStreetMap

13. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 13
rights clearance
the “serious” problem is not
choosing a licence
being sure that one may lawfully apply it to a
piece of content is the actual challenge
nemo plus iuris transferre potest quam ipse
habet

14. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 14
Case 1: Open Data in Italy
● public servants manage our own assets
● most of the time, they are in good faith
– personally, they frequently like the idea that their work is made
more useful → pro openness and re-use
● yet, they may need to be reassured
– going step-by-step may work (OR not: keep “leave” as option)
● Italian Open Data License
“psychological evolution”
● IODL Beta version: like CC BY-NC-SA
● IODL 1.0 version: like CC BY-SA
● IODL 2.0 version: like CC BY

15. June 25, 2016 User digest/Licenses, open policies 15
Case 2: Open GLAM in Italy
● Italy (as Greece and Turkey) has a peculiar
Cultural Heritage Law
● creating a kind of intellectual property right on cultural
heritage goods extending to their pictures
– applies also to monuments (no “panorama freedom”)
● the Internet/digital revolution, together with much
lobbying in public interest, achieved some results
● liberalizing personal reproduction, but also publication
(online), as long as commercial reuse is prevented
● current goal
● let the Ministry understand that reciprocity (SA) is nicer
and more productive than non-commercial (NC)

16. Grazie!
presentation available and re-usable
under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.it