Introduction
This week in Commons Notable News we have something of a grab-bag of stories. From a new translation of the CC license, to licensing open hardware projects, to applying Creative Commons as a means to open participation scientific and cultural fields.
Creative Commons Licences Translated into Te Reo Maori
Maori is one of the native, recognized languages in new Zealand. Unlike the United States where we seem to try to stop any language from being recognized as an official language. Interesting to read some of the challenges facing this translation. The Polynesian languages have been around so long that it becomes tricky trying to make modern concepts fit the language.
Does your open hardware project need a license?
This is one of the times where it is nice to see an explanation of how Creative Commons licenses are limited. In this case, they can be applied to things like documentation and schematics as an alternative to copyrights. However, the hardware itself would not be something that could be copyrighted, so applying a Creative Commons license would not be appropriate.
Instead the author of this article goes on to talk about several alternative open licenses that can be used for open hardware projects. Excellent.
Distributing Music Outside The Box
Well, KMUW’s Mark Foley appears to have been sincere with this two minute radio piece about Creative Commons and the music industry. Unfortunately with such a small time slot he really glosses over many of the aspects of Creative Commons licensing that is important, and in some ways does more damage than good by equating CC with “free” music, and using Nine Inch Nails CC releases as his primary example.
Copyright Policy and the Right to Science and Culture
In a report authored by the Special Rapporteur, the right to science and culture is examined. The report maintains the right to authorship is a separate consideration from the application of Copyright. The paper makes the argument for expanding participation in cultural and scientific fields. One of the ways which is suggested this can be accomplished is through using Creative Commons licenses.
Conclusion
It seems like every week I think there isn’t a lot of news about Creative Commons. However as I have been doing this column for a bit over a month, I find that there are certainly quite a few more stories than I initially thought. But more importantly, look at the range of stories. Most of us know of Creative Commons from the musicians, artists and authors that release their works using a CC license. However, there are so many more areas were the licenses are being applied, from science and cultural studies, to open hardware projects. And, now we are seeing how the license itself is transcending into more cultures through translations like Maori.