Many people can benefit from open access to cultural heritage in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes — from creators seeking inspiration to researchers discovering new interpretations, all the way to cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) connecting with more audiences, and the general public making sense of the world we live in. In our report What are the Benefits of Open Culture? A new CC Publication, we show how, by removing any distance between people and heritage, openness gives rise to a multitude of connections with, about, or through cultural heritage. 

The CC licenses and public domain tools are a simple and effective way for CHIs, such as museums, libraries and archives, to make heritage materials (and associated metadata) open so that they can be shared widely for the broadest possible access, use and reuse (including commercial use and modification), free of charge, and with no or few copyright restrictions. 

Navigating the right license or tool can be tricky, as CHIs may share a wide range of different types of materials. But if you remember only one thing, it’s that faithful digital reproductions of public domain materials must stay in the public domain — no new copyright or related right applies to the digitized version. Public domain materials are materials that are no longer or never were protected by copyright.

This is a position that Creative Commons (CC) has been championing for years as part of our Open Culture Program. In other words, no new copyright (or related right) should arise over the creation of a digitized “twin.” Europeana and the Communia Association, among many other open culture organizations, share this position. It is also aligns with Article 14 of the 2019 EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which states that: “when the term of protection of a work of visual art has expired, any material resulting from an act of reproduction of that work is not subject to copyright […]”.

It’s also important to remember that digital reproductions of public domain works cannot be CC-licensed, since CC licenses can only be used with in-copyright content. Instead, we recommend using a CC public domain tool, putting the digital reproductions squarely and unequivocally into the public domain. This not only conveys clear information about the public domain status of the materials, it also contributes to the thriving, blooming commons of knowledge and culture that we need to address the world’s most pressing problems.

Some CHIs might want to get credit for sharing heritage from their collections. It is not good practice to use a license in this case. Instead, there are different ways to encourage users to refer back to CHIs, as we explain in Nudging Users To Reference Institutions When Using Public Domain Materials. The guidelines offer a fresh and innovative approach to prompting users to reference the institution when using public domain materials and present various design ideas to instigate behavioral change. They address key questions, including:

• How can institutions nudge users to reference them?
• What information should be included in a reference statement?
• What would a nudge look like in practice?
• How to organize the data needed to implement these ideas?

Regarding metadata, we strongly encourage that it be dedicated to the public domain using the legal tool Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0). Data is largely made of highly factual content that is considered uncopyrightable, but uncertainties might remain. The CC0 waiver places all data squarely and unequivocally in the public domain worldwide and clarifies that data reuse is not restricted by copyright, related rights or database rights — those rights are all surrendered. CC0 can support maximizing the reuse of data, with benefits including: 

• enabling others to validate, replicate and put the data to new uses
• facilitating enhanced collaboration and enrichment
• increasing transparency 
• speeding the discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

For materials created by the CHIs and protected by copyright, we recommend CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY 4.0 or CC0 1.0 to enable maximum dissemination and reuse.

For different types of content, we recommend different CC tools or licenses to achieve optimal engagement and reuse, as summarized in this table: 

Using CC licenses and public domain tools to share cultural heritage materials unlocks vast potential for open culture to blossom in the cultural heritage sector. By offering enhanced legal certainty, CHIs have the ability to engage more deeply in the open culture movement and make their vast collections openly accessible to everyone.

For more information:

• Download this information
• Learn more about our license stewardship
• Join the CC Open Culture Platform
• Join the TAROCH Coalition 
• Take our CC Certificate online training

Contact us at info@creativecommons.org  

The post Recommended Licenses and Tools for Cultural Heritage Content appeared first on Creative Commons.

With new publications, events, and the launch of a new coalition, the CC Open Culture Program accomplished a lot! Here are some highlights:

1. At the Open Culture Strategic Workshop in Lisbon, Portugal, we gathered nearly 50 experts from every continent to co-create a strategic roadmap for future action, charting a course for UNESCO Member States to draft an agreement (otherwise referred to as a legal instrument). This would promote open solutions to enable equitable access to cultural heritage worldwide. Read our blog post and full report for more: CC strategic workshop reveals big opportunities for open access to cultural heritage.  
2. In the wake of the Lisbon workshop, we launched the Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage( TAROCH) Coalition, a collaborative effort to achieve the adoption of a UNESCO standard-setting instrument to improve open access to cultural heritage. Read our blog post Creative Commons Launches TAROCH Coalition for Open Access to Cultural Heritage and TAROCH information brief and apply to join the Coalition now! 
3. We published Don’t be a Dinosaur; or, The Benefits of Open Culture, which distills the views expressed in our Open Culture Voices (OCV) series about the ways in which so many people can benefit from open culture. Read more in this blog post: What are the Benefits of Open Culture? A new CC Publication.
4. We released guidelines for open culture that offer a fresh and innovative approach to prompting users to reference the institution when using public domain materials: Nudging Users to Reference Institutions when Using Public Domain Materials. Read more on our blog: Where in the world is… this public domain material? Helping users refer to host institutions.
5. We published Open Culture Capsules, a video series that addresses some of the most frequently asked questions about our work in the Open Culture Program. Our blog has more details and links to all the episodes: Top Questions about Open Culture Answered in Five Short Videos.  

In addition, we published even more blog posts on a wide range of topics (check out this one for example: Moving Institutions Toward Open—Building on 6 Years of the Open GLAM Survey). We also organized training activities (watch this webinar we organized with Connecticut Humanities: Open Access Made Easy: How to Open Your Collections for Greater and Better Sharing) and offered the CC Certificate on Open Culture. We collaborated with Europeana to review their Public Domain Charter. 

We took the stage at several events to promote open culture, such as:

• WIPO SCCR meeting in Geneva, to promote exceptions and limitations for cultural heritage institutions worldwide
• AI Sauna in Helsinki
• Communia Salon: The hollowing of the Public Domain 
• Wikimania in Katowice (watch the full recording of our TAROCH presentation and panel)
• Living Heritage workshop in Brussels
• Communia’s Digital Knowledge Act event in Brussels
• UNESCO International Conference on the Memory of the World in Paris
• Towards a National Collection Conference in Manchester
• EUScreen Symposium in Barcelona
• and much more!

We also supported our community through the OC platform and its working groups and community-led activities. 

The Open Culture team is thrilled that we will once again be offering the CC Certificate on Open Culture in 2025. Learn more and register! We look forward to building on those achievements and continuing to ensure we can all access heritage to connect to our past and imagine our futures. Contact us at info@creativecommons.org for more information.

The post CC Open Culture: 2024 Year in Review appeared first on Creative Commons.

We are excited to share a new video series titled Open Culture Capsules. In this multi-series video collection, we address some of the most frequently asked questions about our work in Creative Commons’ (CC) Open Culture Program. You can preview the series below and find each episode in full on the the CC YouTube channel.

The series features insights from CC staff and facilitators from the CC Certificate Course on Open Culture. Thank you for your participation in making this series a success! 

Keep reading to find previews and overview of all five episodes: 

Episode 1 (parts 1 and 2) —  What does Creative Commons do for Open Culture? Brigitte Vézina, CC’s Director of Policy and Open Culture, talks about how the Open Culture Program is driving policy change for fair and equitable open access to cultural heritage. In this episode, Brigitte shares how capacity building and the Open Culture Platform are empowering a global network of people passionate about open culture.

Episode 2 (parts 1 and 2) —  What is open culture? Shanna Hollich, CC’s Learning and Training Manager, explains that Open Culture at CCencompasses open access to both contemporary creativity and cultural heritage, promoting sharing under permissive terms with CC licenses and tools as well as other labels and statements. 

Episode 3 (parts 1 and 2) — What are the main benefits of open culture? Revekka Kefalea, CC Certificate facilitator, shows how, by embracing open access, cultural heritage institutions (like museums, libraries and archives) can boost their digital relevance, how researchers and educators can gain new opportunities for collaboration, and how creators have increased access to resources that drive creativity.

Episode 4 (parts 1 and 2) — How do you open up a collection? Sionan Guenther, CC Certificate facilitator, walks through the first steps of opening up cultural heritage and highlights what is important to consider from the get-go. 

Episode 5 (parts 1, 2 and 3) — How to mark open heritage? Evelin (scann) Heidel, CC Certificate facilitator, explains the basics of marking heritage materials with CC licenses and public domain tools,  where to place the license or tool, and how these help ensure cultural heritage is accessible, with clear conditions for use, allowing everyone to freely engage, remix, and keep cultural heritage alive.

If you would like to watch more video content from CC’s Open Culture Program, check out Open Culture Voices and the Open Culture Live webinar series.

The post Top Questions about Open Culture Answered in Short Videos appeared first on Creative Commons.

Creative Commons (CC) is proud to launch the TAROCH Coalition (Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage), a collaborative effort to achieve the adoption of a UNESCO standard-setting instrument to improve open access to cultural heritage. We are grateful to the Arcadia Fund for supporting this initiative. Below we share an overview of TAROCH and invite mission-aligned organizations and institutions to apply to join. 

TAROCH At A Glance

• TAROCH stands for Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage.
• TAROCH is a community initiative led by Creative Commons.
• The mission is to encourage UNESCO Member States to draft and adopt a Recommendation (or other standard-setting instrument) promoting open solutions to enhance access to cultural heritage in the public domain.
• The ultimate goal of the TAROCH Coalition is that cultural heritage is equitably accessible to all, in line with UNESCO’s broader mission and cultural and information policy, in particular intercultural dialog and cultural exchanges, thereby contributing to building more connected, resilient, and sustainable societies.

Who Drives TAROCH?

CC is the organization steering and funding TAROCH. The Coalition is led by representatives of a global, diverse community of organizations and institutions involved in cultural heritage and with an interest in open cultural heritage. While our individual missions differ, we all believe in the transformative power of open solutions and share a vision of fair and equitable access to cultural heritage. Meet the initial members of the TAROCH Coalition!

For a complete and up-to-date list of coalition members, please refer to the Statement of Commitment.

Why Is Promoting Open Access to Cultural Heritage Important?

We believe that culture, including cultural heritage, is the foundation of humanity and that open access can contribute to helping people around the world to:

• Exercise their fundamental rights to participate in cultural life and enjoy the arts, as enshrined in Article 27(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and Article 15 of the United Nations (UN) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).
• Preserve and access documentary heritage including in digital form, as enshrined in the 2015 UNESCO Recommendation.
• Benefit from a more prosperous, inclusive, and resilient world by advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and leaving no one behind, including the recognition of culture as a Sustainable Development Goal in and of itself.Honor, promote, and preserve cultural and linguistic diversity and cultural heritage as per the 2024 UN Pact for the Future.
• Activate the 2022 Mondiacult Declaration and enjoy culture, including cultural heritage, as well as the digital commons (in keeping with the Global Digital Compact) as global public goods.

What are TAROCH’s Key Deliverables?

We aim to achieve the following by May 2026:

• Develop and adopt a Statement on Open Access to Cultural Heritage for signature by civil society organizations and institutions.
• Widely implement an advocacy strategy and disseminate advocacy tools and materials to promote the wider recognition of open access to cultural heritage.

The delivery of these two milestones will set the stage for on-the-ground advocacy efforts by a network of local ambassadors encouraging UNESCO member states to develop and adopt a UNESCO standard-setting instrument by 2029.

For More Information about TAROCH and to Read About Our Work To Date:

• Read our 2024 report CC Strategic Workshop Reveals Big Opportunities for Open Access to Cultural Heritage.
• Read our Open Culture webpage
• Read our Resources page

Join the TAROCH Coalition

Any organization or institution supporting the mission statement of the Coalition can apply for membership in the Coalition.

• Read the Statement of Commitment.
• Submit your application through the membership application form.

For more information, contact us at info@creativecommons.org.

The post Creative Commons Launches TAROCH Coalition for Open Access to Cultural Heritage appeared first on Creative Commons.

With CC considering new ways to engage with generative AI, we are excited to share highlights from the conversation that demonstrate some of the complex considerations regarding open sharing, cultural heritage, and contemporary creativity.

Suzanne Duncan, Chief Operating Officer at Te Hiku Media, New Zealand, said that her organization was born out of the Māori rights movement. It is collecting an archive of Māori language samples on its own platform to maintain data sovereignty. Te Hiku Media is now working to use AI tools to teach the language to heritage language reclaimers. Suzanne recommended that the best way to ensure diverse representation in AI outputs is to have communities involved in the building and testing of AI models, ideally by communities, for communities.

Minne Atairu, interdisciplinary artist and doctoral student in the Art and Art Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, shared examples of her works using the Benin Bronzes, artworks from Nigeria stolen by the British in the 19th century, and the changes that happened in the visual representation of art after the looting took place. Using images of the stolen items, she used models to explore visuals and materials and convert text to 3D models. Minne hopes that better ways of attribution and compensation can be re-envisioned, and that the wealth generated by AI and other technologies should be spread among creators, not just tech executives.

Bartolomeo Meletti, Head of Knowledge Exchange at CREATe, University of Glasgow, Scotland, spoke about copyright law and copyright exceptions in the UK, EU and US, focusing on what one can do with AI and copyrighted works without permission from the copyright owner, especially for purposes of research and education. He works to create guidance about how to navigate those permissions with generative AI in mind.

Michael Trizna, Data Scientist at the Smithsonian Institution, has explored how generative AI can help to speed up processes like providing “alt text” (text descriptions of visual materials) to images, without compromising the accuracy of the audio or visual description of works. He has also worked on an AI values statement, including labeling AI generated content as such and mechanisms for the audience to provide feedback. Mike raised concerns about the fact that only a few large cultural heritage institutions are resourced to engage with generative AI responsibly.

Overall, panelists conveyed a need for greater AI literacy to enable people to interrogate AI and ensure it can be used for good.

Watch the recording here.

CC is a non-profit that relies on contributions to sustain our work. Support CC in our efforts to promote better sharing at creativecommons.org/donate.

What is Open Culture Live?

In this series, we tackle some of the more complex challenges that face the open culture movement, bringing in speakers with personal and professional expertise on the topic.

• Back to Basics: Open Culture for Beginners 
• Respectful Terminologies & Changing the Subject 
• Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution
• Maximizing the Value(s) of Open Access in Cultural Heritage Institutions

The post Recap & Recording: “Open Culture in the Age of AI: Concerns, Hopes and Opportunities” appeared first on Creative Commons.

On Wednesday, 8 May  2024, at 2:00 pm UTC, CC’s Open Culture Program will be hosting a new webinar in our Open Culture Live series titled “Open Culture in the Age of AI: Concerns, Hopes and Opportunities.”

At CC, we promote better sharing and open access to cultural heritage to help build and sustain vibrant and thriving societies. With generative AI entering the scene, what are some of the issues to consider to ensure institutions make the most of this new technology and avoid its pitfalls as they fulfill their missions? In this panel we will discuss some of the opportunities and risks that come along with embracing generative AI in cultural heritage institutions, and some ideas for engaging in this new technology for the benefit of institutions, creators, as well as curious visitors and learners.

Firstly, looking inwards,  what are some of the ways in which cultural heritage might implement the use of AI to automate and improve labor-intensive processes as well as explore and enrich their data?

Secondly, looking outwards, when it comes to sharing their cultural heritage collections and related data online, potential use as AI training data is on the minds of many institutions. On the one hand, collections can offer important and useful training data for beneficial projects. Indeed, more diverse inputs to training datasets could aid in countering bias and ensuring outputs are more representative. On the other hand, especially in the age of AI, sharing collections needs to be done responsibly, respectfully and ethically, and institutions must remain guided by their public service missions. With generative AI here to stay, how can these considerations be adequately balanced? How can cultural heritage institutions play a role in contributing to the development of responsible AI?

We will be joined by a panel of experts including:

• Suzanne Duncan, Chief Operating Officer at Te Hiku Media, New Zealand
• Minne Atairu, interdisciplinary Artist, and doctoral student in the Art and Art Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
• Bart Meletti, Head of Knowledge Exchange at CREATe, University of Glasgow, Scotland
• Michael Trizna, Data Scientist, Smithsonian Institution, USA

Register here. 

CC is a non-profit that relies on contributions to sustain our work. Support CC in our efforts to promote better sharing at creativecommons.org/donate.

What is Open Culture Live?

In this series, we tackle some of the more   challenges that face the open culture movement, bringing in speakers with personal and professional expertise on the topic.

• Back to Basics: Open Culture for Beginners 
• Respectful Terminologies & Changing the Subject 
• Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution
• Maximizing the Value(s) of Open Access in Cultural Heritage Institutions

The post Webinar: Open Culture in the Age of AI: Concerns, Hopes and Opportunities appeared first on Creative Commons.

Today we in the Open Culture Program are releasing a new publication: Don’t be a Dinosaur; or, The Benefits of Open Culture.

Following in the footsteps of open culture pioneers, many institutions are taking the leap to open their collections online, partly as a way to celebrate a sense of (re)connection with cultural heritage collections in the digital space. While the road to OC is strewn with barriers, its benefits are well worth the journey. 

This report distills the many views expressed in our Open Culture Voices (OCV) series about the ways in which so many people can benefit from open culture. In short: 

• Openly shared cultural heritage: 
  • is easier to find
  • reaches broader and more diverse audiences
  • can be preserved, safeguarded and refined in digital form
  • can be (re)used with more legal certainty
• Open cultural heritage leads to: 
  • More resilient and relevant collection holders
  • More vibrant research and more participatory education
  • More dynamic cultural creativity
  • More just, democratic, diverse, free, and equitable societies

To find out more:

• Read the full report
• Take a look at the one-page summary
• Watch the OCV series’ introduction video
• Check out each expert’s individual blog posts with links to their videos

→ To stay informed about our open culture work:

• Sign up for our open culture mailing list
• Join the open culture platform
• Visit our website on open culture
• Sign up for our Open Culture Matters newsletter

The post What are the Benefits of Open Culture? A new CC Publication appeared first on Creative Commons.

Creative Commons is proud to announce the launch of “Introduction to Open Educational Resources,” our first professional development microcredential course and partnership with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, commencing on 31 May.

This microcredential pilot started with one CC Certificate alumnus’s enthusiasm for open education. Craig Finlay, OER and STEM Librarian at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Libraries, took the CC Certificate course for Academic Librarians in September, 2021. Since then, he’s advocated for open education in a variety of capacities: managing UNO’s biannual campus Affordable Content Grants, which largely fund converting courses from using all traditional textbooks to using at least one open educational resource; hosting regular CC workshops for faculty on campus; and co-authoring a white paper exploring OER’s positive impact on student success. Co-creating the microcredential course offered the next step in applying his CC Certificate expertise and passion for open education. Craig was intent on bringing CC licensing expertise to more learners, seeking professional development, and UNO granted a pathway for this.

Over the course of the last several months, CC and UNO have developed the “Introduction to Open Educational Resources.” The course remixes Certificate lessons in open licensing, copyright, open education, fair use and the public domain.  Content targets the ecosystem of scholarly and academic publishing and explores growing and managing open education efforts in these domains. Learners enrolling in this 9-week course will engage asynchronously, but should expect to work five hours per week to complete course work; successful completion will result in a microcredential for non-credit and professional education. 

Beyond the course announcement, we wanted to share a few crucial elements that made this partnership successful: 

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which outlined the goal, key roles, responsibilities and timeline for our work. 
• A mutually viable financial model, which ensures this work can be sustainable for both institutions. 
• Adaptability. Because this project involved multiple stakeholders, we needed to remain flexible to meet differing needs. 
• Trust. Working together has been easy because of our basis in trust.

We share these key ingredients to this microcredential pilot because we expect the partnership can be replicated for a number of new communities. If you work at an institution and are interested in partnering with CC on a microcredential course related to CC Certificate course content, please contact certificates [at] creativecommons.org.

Note: The CC Certificate program was created as an investment in our open advocates around the world. CC built the training to strengthen the global communities’ work engaging in open movements in education, access and more recently, cultural heritage. 

CC Certificate courses develop peoples’ practical expertise in open licensing, copyright, and ways to engage in open knowledge and culture movements. The program has certified over 1700 people in 65 countries with open licensing expertise. Through open licensing course content, CC supports communities making derivatives of the course, from Masters level courses, faculty workshops, an audio recording, to nine language translations, and more. 

The post Creative Commons and University of Nebraska at Omaha Partner on a Microcredential Course appeared first on Creative Commons.

Last week, on 7 March, Creative Commons participated in the International Public Domain Day celebration at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Together with our partners meemoo, Europeana, Communia Association, The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision,  and the National Library of Netherlands, we hosted two lively roundtables in the afternoon; the first focused on copyright issues related to the public domain followed by another on the future of the public domain.

The event brought together advocates for the public domain and open access to cultural heritage including members of the Open Culture Platform, Doug McCarthy, who presented on the “Monetization of the Public Domain,” Emine Yildirim, who presented on how to “Decolonize the Public Domain,” and Maarten Zeinstra who previewed for the audience an update to the Europeana Public Domain Charter. On behalf of Creative Commons I was happy to present the new guidelines which were published in February: Nudging Users to Reference Institutions When Using Public Domain Cultural Heritage Materials.

In the morning the sessions focused on Belgian cultural heritage and other initiatives related to the public domain. Notably, Wikimedia Belgium announced and presented prizes to the winners of the 2023 Wiki Loves Monuments Photo contest.

The event was well attended by members of the community including from local cultural heritage institutions, academics, and policy advisors at the European level. We are looking forward to collaborating and contributing  to similar events with our partners in the future.

For more images see here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ter-burg/albums/72177720315300448/

The post Celebrating the Public Domain in the Capital of Europe appeared first on Creative Commons.

The J. Paul Getty Museum just released more than 88 thousand works under Creative Commons Zero (CCØ), putting the digital images of items from its impressive collection squarely and unequivocally into the public domain. 

This is in line with our advocacy efforts at Creative Commons (CC): digital reproductions of public domain material must remain in the public domain. In other words, no new copyright should arise over the creation of a digitized “twin.”

According to the museum’s press release, “users can download, edit, and repurpose high resolution images of their favorite Getty artworks without any legal restrictions.” The museum’s Open Content database is a wellspring of art that is bound to inspire myriad new creative reuses. It includes Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh’s Irises and many more treasures waiting to be explored. Since opening up, Getty has seen “an uptick in image downloads on our site, averaging about 30,000 per month.”

This announcement is a huge cause for celebration for CC’s Open Culture efforts, which strive to promote open access and better sharing of cultural heritage held in cultural heritage institutions, such as museums, libraries and archives. It is also a testament to the stewardship of our open, public-interest infrastructure of Creative Commons licenses and tools. These are free, easy-to-use, and standardized open legal tools that enable worldwide open access to creative content.

We salute the Getty for supporting a thriving public domain and encourage other institutions to engage more deeply in the open culture movement and make the world’s vast collections of public domain materials openly accessible to everyone. We recently released guidelines promoting CCØ and the Public Domain Mark alongside best-practice norms incentivizing users to refer back to institutions. 

Get Involved

For additional guidance on using CCØ to release cultural heritage materials and tailored support in developing or implementing open access policies or to get involved in promoting open culture around the world:

• Join the CC Open Culture Platform
• Sign up for our Open Culture Matters newsletter
• Support our policy initiative Towards a Recommendation on Open Culture (TAROC)
• Take our CC Certificate online training
• Contact us at info@creativecommons.org 

The post Getty Museum releases 88K+ images of artworks with CC0 appeared first on Creative Commons.