[Clipart] Free Cultural Works definition & buttons

Tue Feb 20 18:27:30 PST 2007

On Wed, 2007-02-14 at 00:46 +0100, Erik Moeller wrote: 
> Hi,
> 
> Mako Hill and I, with the help of many others, have written a
> "Definition of Free Cultural Works" which is meant to apply and extend
> the principles of free software to all works. See the announcement
> below.
> 
> I'm not here to spam you though. I have a couple of specific requests
> for the artists on this list:
> 
> * We would like to develop alternative buttons that people can use to
> identify Free Cultural Works. Buttons that say, with a single look,
> that a work is CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, PD, or whatever. Buttons that don't
> say "Some rights reserved" -- buttons which communicate freedom. They
> could link to a page on freedomdefined.org which explains both the
> license in question, and the general principles of freedom as
> elaborated in our definition.

CC prefers the links to go to the deeds for licenses, as I'm sure you
have been made aware on the cc-community list. Also, it is a violation
of trademark and policy I believe to not use the CC logo and trademark
without clearing with CC. But since you are not using the CC logo, this
doesn't seem to be a problem.

We are very protective about using these things right with Open Clip Art
Library.

In another note, I wonder why you all want to create yet another license
button? I think it would be better to just create another button that
could supplement the current cc licenses and that could link to your
definition.

> If you feel this is a worthwhile endeavor, please see the URLs below
> and help us come up with some cool designs (I've made some concept art
> but it's really just that).
> 
> * I would like to open a discussion with as many interested
> participants as possible about the need of a non-profit organization
> that, as broadly as possible, positions itself to facilitate the
> creation of free artistic works. I'm on the Board of Wikimedia, which
> is all about free knowledge. I think there is a need for an
> organization that uses similar methods, but is all about art. A Free
> Art Foundation, if you will -- restricted to music, pictures, sounds,
> and so on under the licenses which can be reasonably called free as
> per the definition.

Is that what your project is doing? Why not CC, iCommons, etc?

This community would be interested in the artwork and ideas, but really
is dependent on what sticks with the community members.

> For now I've set up a Google Group where we can begin this
> conversation, and also other discussion related to the definition; the
> link is on the definition site below. If there are other forums where
> this discussion is already happening, please let me know.

The Open Font Library www.openfontlibrary.org and Create Project
(http://create.freedesktop.org).

Is this effort coordinated with the www.freeculturefoundation.org and
other similar threads of trying to be placed as the larger org. to
encompass all free and open source culture?

Jon

> Your comments would be much appreciated. I'll be on the list for a
> while.
> 
> - - - -
> 
> 
> ''The Internet, February 14, 2007.'' -
> A diverse group of writers has released the first version of the
> "Definition of Free Cultural Works." The authors have identified a
> minimum set of freedoms which they believe should be granted to all
> users of copyrighted materials. Created on a wiki with the feedback of
> Wikipedia users, open source hackers, artists, scientists, and
> lawyers, the definition lists the following core freedoms:
> 
> * The freedom to use and perform the work
> * The freedom to study the work and apply the information
> * The freedom to redistribute copies
> * The freedom to distribute derivative works.
> 
> Inspired by the Free Software Definition and the ideals of the free
> software and open source movements, these conditions are meant to
> apply to any conceivable work. In reality, these freedoms must be
> granted explicitly by authors, through the use of licenses which
> confer them. On the website of the definition,
> <http://freedomdefined.org/>, a list of these licenses can be found.
> Furthermore, authors are encouraged to identify their works as Free
> Cultural Works using a set of logos and buttons.
> 
> The definition was initiated by Benjamin Mako Hill, a Debian GNU/Linux
> developer, and Erik Möller, an author and long-time Wikipedia user.
> Wikipedia already follows similar principles to those established by
> the definition. Angela Beesley, Wikimedia Advisory Board Chair and
> co-founder of Wikia.com; Mia Garlick, general counsel of Creative
> Commons; and Elizabeth Stark of the Free Culture Student Movement
> acted as moderators, while Richard Stallman of the Free Software
> Foundation and Lawrence Lessig of Creative Commons provided helpful
> feedback.
> 
> As more and more people recognize that there are alternatives to
> traditional copyright, phrases like "open source," "open access,"
> "open content," "free content," and "commons" are increasingly used.
> But many of these phrases are ambiguous when it comes to
> distinguishing works and licenses which grant all the above freedoms,
> and those which only confer limited rights. For example, a popular
> license restricts the commercial use of works, whereas the authors
> believe that such use must be permitted for a work to be considered
> Free. Instead of limiting commercial use, they recommend using a
> clever legal trick called "copyleft:" requiring all users of the work
> to make their combined and derivative works freely available.
> 
> Möller and Hill encourage authors to rethink copyright law and use one
> of the Free Culture Licenses to help build a genuine free and open
> culture.
> 
> == Links ==
> 
> * http://freedomdefined.org/ - Official homepage of the definition
> * http://freedomdefined.org/Licenses - Information about specific
> licenses
> * http://freedomdefined.org/Logos_and_buttons - Logos and buttons for
> identifying free cultural works
> 
> == Contact ==
> 
> * Erik Möller - eloquence (at) gmail (dot) com - +49-30-45491008
> * Benjamin Mako Hill - mako (at) atdot (dot) cc
> 
> 
-- 
Jon Phillips

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USA PH 510.499.0894
jon at rejon.org
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