Six [tag]Creative Commons[/tag] licences were launched for NZ users last Saturday. Each country likes to tweak the international or basic CC licences to conform with their own laws, and NZ has now joined 40 other nations who have done so. Any day now our licences will appear online so we can use them officially.
CC licences seem to give "creators" (ouch) even stronger protection for their work, if they want it, plus a flexibility that recognises the reality of online publication.
At Saturday's seminar Catharina Maracke (Creative Commons International) said that six governments had adopted CC licences, if I heard her aright. For governments, CC licensing can automatically grant the same sharing opportunities and restrictions as "Crown Copyright" did — without the kerfuffle and nuisance.
Leigh Blackall was applauded when he told us that Otago Polytechnic uses CC BY licences by default for all their teaching material. CC BY is the most open and free licence available. If you want to use other people's material for teaching, select the material with the appropriate CC licence, says Leigh. There's plenty of choice now, with MIT's OpenCourse lectures available in text, video and audio.
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