[Open-education] [LibOER] Open licensing vs Exceptions/Limitations

[William Cross]

I think Kathleen's point is correct: open licenses remove concerns about
differing exceptions across nations and tap into the power of the online
community and the tools it enables.  Creators also have more power to be
granular about how they would like to see use made: commercial vs.
non-commercial, use vs. remix, etc.

I'd also add that in many countries, including the U.S., exceptions like
fair use are flexible but may be grounded in equitable judgments rather
than bright line rules.  As such, an open license gives users an
unambiguous "yes" where relying on exceptions is closer to a "probably"
that requires some risk assessment that many institutions may be
uncomfortable with.

It's also worth noting that international treaties like the TPP
<https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp> may cast doubt on the long-term viability
of even popular and capacious exceptions.  An open license removes doubt
and guarantees the ability to use in the middle- and long-term, regardless
of how the political winds are blowing.

Best,

   -Will

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 12:38 PM, Kathleen DeLaurenti <
kathleendelaurenti at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Werner -
>
> I agree with you about communicating permissions to users. Being explicit
> is very important. I've been doing some research on how undergraduates
> understand copyright and those that have stumbled across open licenses have
> such a feeling of relief at not worrying if what they want to do is "ok" or
> not!
>
> I would say that the growing adoption of open licenses is going to start
> signalling that those who chose not to have open licenses want the full
> limitations of copyright imposed on their work.
>
> Two other important things:
> 1) Open licenses can be interpreted across country borders, so in
> countries where the laws are not as open as Chile, open licensed work is
> greatly beneficial
>
> 2) Putting machine-readable notices on digital openly licensed content
> makes them more discoverable to those looking specifically for
> openly-licensed material
>
> I hope this helps!
>
> Best,
>
> Kathleen DeLaurenti
> Arts Librarian
> College of William & Mary
>
> On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 11:48 AM, Werner Westermann <
> wernerwestermannj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear all, regards from Santiago.
>>
>> Working around a (open) licensing policy for my institution, the Library
>> of National Congress of Chile, I am being confronted to the following
>> issue:  why should I have a open licensing policy of my content if we have
>> a pool of exceptions and limitations in our IP law?  Indeed, the last
>> reform to IP law in Chile recognized a pretty wide range of exceptions and
>> limitations (http://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=28933).
>>
>> My answer has been:
>>
>>    - its better to have an instrument that explicits the possible uses,
>>    instead of interpreting what can or cannot be understood as a limitations
>>    to copyright
>>    - the limitations is sort of a catalogue of specific situations, so
>>    they might be situations not considered in that catalogue, and specially in
>>    a future perspective, we cannot see yet unpredicted or unexpected
>>    situations that cannot apply to that catalogue
>>
>> Surely you have more and better arguments to strengthen the need for a
>> open licensing policy.  Suggestions or comments?  Thanks for your time,
>>
>> Werner Westermann
>>
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-- 
William M. Cross, J.D., M.S.L.S.
Director, Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center
NCSU Libraries, Campus Box 7111
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
www.lib.ncsu.edu/cdsc
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