Creative Commons has a broad vision that imagines a world that is substantially different from the current situation:
Our vision is nothing less than realizing the full potential of the Internet — universal access to research and education, full participation in culture — to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity.
CC’s organisational mission is focused on providing tools for sharing:
Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.
It is evident that the activities covered by the mission statement can only be a partial contribution to realizing the overarching vision of the organisation. But Creative Commons’ updated strategy (January 2016) identifies advocacy as one of the three main pillars of its work over the next five years. CC’s organisational strategy explicitly ties advocacy efforts to the Creative Commons Global Network:
Advocacy is about CC’s vital role in advocacy and policymaking. Creative Commons has a powerful and respected voice which can be used to advocate for positive reforms. We are frequently called upon to lend our voice to important open policy debates, and to explain the impacts for the public good of particular policies, while identifying areas where new or existing policy impacts the ability of users to apply or rely upon CC licenses. However, the fight for copyright reform is a global one, and will only be won if we activate the power of many interconnected global communities. CC does not have the capacity or expertise to manage copyright reform campaigns globally, but the CC affiliate network can, if properly supported and engaged. CC will put collaboration at the centre of our approach, as we have been successful at supporting and collaborating with connected communities that advocate for policies that strengthen the commons, like the Open Policy Network and Communia.
Creative Commons is committed to copyright policy advocacy, and it makes sense that advocacy efforts rely on collaboration with the members of the Creative Commons Global Network.
This means that the Creative Commons Global Network should include a platform for copyright reform. CC affiliates have been vocal in their desire to engage within copyright policy discussions to influence law reform in the area. The Creative Commons copyright reform statement was initiated by affiliate network members and adopted by Creative Commons in 2013 at the Global summit in Buenos Aires. And several individuals and organisations are already actively involved in copyright reform activities.
There are three main reasons why copyright reform is an issue that Creative Commons should focus on:
- Copyright provides the legal basis for the tools offered by Creative Commons, and changes to copyright can affect how these tools function,
- Creative Commons is perceived to be a stakeholder in discussions about copyright policy (both by our friends as well as our enemies), and
- Copyright is the most important regulative framework that shapes the digital commons, and thus directly influences the ability to realize our vision.
The primary mechanism for achieving the Creative Commons vision is growing and strengthening the commons. As discussed above, copyright is the primary regulatory structure affecting the digital commons.
Over the past decades there has been an extension of copyright both in duration and scope. This expansion of copyright has taken place to protect the interests of a minority of copyright holders and to the detriment of users and the commons. The CC copyright reform platform recognizes the positions and legitimacy of both authors' and users' rights. We support copyright system that better balances the rights of creators and the rights of users and the general public.
The Creative Commons Global Network should advocate for changes to international and national copyright frameworks that ensure that copyright does not needlessly limits access to culture and information, that strengthens the rights of users and that preserve the ability of authors and creators to control the exploitation of their works within a system that balances these varied interests.
The CC copyright reform platform concerns itself primarily with advocacy efforts that attempt to influence legislation or bring about legislative change in the field of copyright. This means that advocacy aimed at promoting open policies, while clearly an important area of engagement for Creative Commons, is out of scope for this platform.
Derived from this general principle we can identify a number of concrete objectives that can guide the copyright policy advocacy of the members of the Creative Commons Global Network:
- The term of copyright protection is too long and should be reduced (either to the minimum requirement of the Berne convention, or further).
- The scope of copyright protection should not be extended. Efforts to extend the scope of copyright and related rights should be opposed.
- The sharing of works under Creative Commons licenses—or dedicating works to the public domain—is a legitimate exercise of copyright, and should be the norm for all publicly funded resources.
- Exceptions and limitations to copyright, including fair use and fair dealing, must be actively protected and maintained to ensure the effectiveness of the balance of author’s rights and the public interest.
- There is a need for flexible exceptions and limitations that ensure that copyright can adapt to new technologies and social practices.
- Copyright should not interfere with noncommercial transformative uses. Users need to have a right to remix, and share remixes and transformative works.
- Copyright should not interfere with teaching and learning activities. There needs to be robust exceptions and limitations enabling education.
- Copyright should not lock away works in the collections of public institutions that are no longer actively managed by their rightsholders. There should be exceptions and limitations that ensure that out-of-commerce works and orphan works can be made available online by such institutions.
- Contracts or technical protection measures must not restrict access to and re-use of public domain works, or uses permitted under exceptions and limitations to copyright.
- Works that have entered the public domain must remain in the public domain. The digitization of public domain works does not create new rights over them.
- The system of liability limitations for intermediaries established by the DMCA, eCommerce Directive, and similar mechanisms should be preserved.
- International copyright agreements should be reviewed to reintroduce commonsense formalities to mitigate overprotective copyright. Countries should explore options under existing obligations to do the same.
- Copyright policymaking must be conducted transparently and include all stakeholders, especially the public.
With regard to some or all of these issues we can imagine defensive and offensive advocacy efforts. If we want to achieve our overall goals it is imperative that the copyright policy advocacy efforts of the Creative Commons Global Network are not limited to defensive efforts alone. Preventing legislative changes that would damage the commons is a priority, but we must also develop credible offensive efforts that push for positive legislative changes to strengthen and expand the commons.
Copyright policy is formulated and implemented on a number of different levels. We can distinguish the following (sometimes overlapping) policy arenas:
- Global (e.g., WIPO)
- Supranational (e.g., the European Union)
- Multilateral / multi-regional (e.g., trade agreements such as TPP)
- National
Considering the above areas of engagement, we can identify several potential copyright reform platform activities that could be explored.
Reboot participation at WIPO
The Creative Commons organisation is a registered observer at WIPO, but over the years has only been minimally involved in the copyright discussions in Geneva. This role could be filled by members of the CCGN who use the observer status as a conduit to express the policy positions of the Network at WIPO. CC HQ should facilitate this by providing (travel) budget and making staff available to participate in WIPO sessions. WIPO also presents a good opportunity to coordinate with other global NGOs that work towards strengthening the commons.
Participate in national (and supranational) copyright reform opportunities
The Creative Commons Global Network should identify opportunities for policy engagement and provide domain experience where appropriate. CC HQ should provide communications and policy assistance, and facilitate collaborations between CCGN members who wish to intervene in policy processes and discussions, run issue-based campaigns, and attend relevant events.
Organize around trade agreement negotiations regarding copyright and user rights
Since copyright policymaking is taking place increasingly within regional and multilateral trade agreements (TPP, NAFTA, TTIP, RCEP, etc.), the CCGN should track and identify opportunities for intervention and education around protecting user rights, expanding the commons, and promoting transparency and public participation in negotiations. The CCGN can draft and publish joint statements, coordinate with other civil society organisations on actions, and participate in events.
Develop and maintain copyright reform resource page on CC website
The Creative Commons Global Network should coordinate with CC HQ to create and maintain a website with information and resources relevant to our policy work and copyright reform activities.
- Decision-making guidelines [tbd]
- Communication guidelines [tbd]
- Mailing list
- Slack: https://slack-signup.creativecommons.org/ and then search for the channel: #cc-copyrightreform
- Monthly teleconference ~30 minutes. Included should be updates from the secretariat and members [tbd]