Progress in 2007

In 2007 the Clinic team took significant steps towards establishing a research foundation for the understanding and application of Creative Commons licensing as a legal tool designed to facilitate creative innovation. This was successfully supported by the team’s strategic training and engagement activities, to the point where we are now seeing a rapid increase in the uptake of Creative Commons in Australia for social, cultural, educational and economic reasons.

Training, Consultation, Engagement and Presentations

As part of its role as a ‘think tank’ on the Creative Commons, the ccClinic continued its extensive work on industry consultation, engagement and training during 2007. Following the success of the CCau Industry Forum in November 2006, the ccClinic, in conjunction with its sister research project, Open Content Licensing, produced Unlocking the Potential through Creative Commons: an industry engagement and action agenda. This report evaluates and responds to the outcomes of the Forum and presents a strategy for the Clinic’s continued research into Creative Commons in Australia. The report has been extremely well received, and widely distributed throughout the international commons community.

One of the strategic goals it sets out is a series of follow-up industry forums aimed at specific sectors. The first of these, the CCau Music Industry Forum, was held in November 2007 as part of the Apple University Consortium’s Createworld event. It was attended by some 35 musicians and industry representatives from the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), and focused on clearing roadblocks to the broader implementation of Creative Commons licensing in the area of music. The forum has led to a proposal for a pilot program on the implementation of CC licensing for APRA members; we expect this to be launched in 2008.

As part of its industry engagement strategy, the Clinic was also involved in a number of training and consultation activities which target creators and users not accessible through the usual research channels; one example is our co-hosting of the Open Channel Screen Resource Centre’s Video Slam. Team members also provided a broad range of workshops, presentations and advice for organisations such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), State Library of Queensland, Australian Teachers of Media (Queensland), La Trobe University, Queensland Government, Dictionary of Sydney Project and the Anglican Church Boys Grammar School, and participated in industry forums including the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), the Emerging Writers Festival, Independent Publishers’ Conference, OurMedia VI Sustainable Futures, the Online Publishing Forum run by Arts WA, Vibewire’s NewConnections conference and the Melbourne Writers’ Festival.

Over the course of the year the Clinic team collaborated with industry bodies on a number of implementation projects. One of the most significant is the development of the licensing model for the Beta site of the ABC social media service, Pool. Pool manager John Jacobs says of the Clinic’s work on the project:

We see collaborative content creation as an important part of the future of public media. Flexible and open rights frameworks are needed to enable these social media flows. We have found the advice from QUT’s Creative Commons Clinic invaluable in developing and fine-tuning our use of CC. They are on the cutting edge of this fast-growing body of legal knowledge. They have kept us informed as new rights frameworks are developed by the CC community and have been able to advise us what are the best ones for our purposes.

We continue to work with ABC on Pool and other licensing projects. Other industry groups with which we worked closely in 2007 include the Institute for Creative Innovation’s 60sox, a showcase and portfolio site for Australian and New Zealand creators; Vibewire, a youth media and arts network; and arts sites Artabase and Artcast.

One key audience we have sought to engage with is young creators. We partnered with Vibewire’s e-Festival of Ideas to co-host an online discussion panel called Mama always taught me to share which was focused on CC and other OCL models. Guest speakers on the panel included Anna Helme and Andrew Lowenthal of EngageMedia, DJ Spooky, and Clinic staff Jessica Coates and Elliott Bledsoe. The panel was the most popular at the 2007 eFestival.

As part of our international networking and engagement, Professor Fitzgerald and Jessica Coates presented at the annual international forum on open culture – the iCommons Summit – held in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in June 2007.