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  • From: Jessica Coates <j2.coates AT qut.edu.au>
  • To: "cc-au AT lists.ibiblio.org" <cc-au AT lists.ibiblio.org>, "cc-community AT lists.ibiblio.org" <cc-community AT lists.ibiblio.org>, "cci AT lists.ibiblio.org" <cci AT lists.ibiblio.org>, "cc-asia-pacific AT googlegroups.com" <cc-asia-pacific AT googlegroups.com>, "cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org" <cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ccAustralia] Australian v3.0 licences go live
  • Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 10:32:42 +1000

Creative Commons Australia is pleased to
announce<http://creativecommons.org.au/version3> the release of v3.0 of the
Australian Creative Commons licences<http://creativecommons.org.au/licences>.

The new licences bring Australia in line with the most current CC licence
standards being used internationally by adding changes to clarify the
operation of the licences and increase their compatibility with other open
licensing systems. They also incorporate simplified formatting and language
designed to align the licences with Australian conventions and increase their
readability.

About the versioning process
For those unfamiliar with the Creative Commons versioning process, every few
years Creative Commons updates its core licences to ensure they are keeping
up with developments in the world of open access and copyright law. These
developments may be the result of, for example, legal decisions, new
technologies, or changes in community norms or expectations. The changes to
the licences represent a ‘refining’ of the Creative Commons model to ensure
it provides the best and most up-to-date tools for creators and users alike.

When new versions of the licences are released they become the new default
standard for the region. The older versions remain accessible on the Creative
Commons website<http://creativecommons.org> but are no longer available
through the Creative Commons licence
chooser<http://creativecommons.org/choose/>. Works already licensed remain
under their original licence, unless the creator chooses to transfer them
across to the new version.

About the v3.0 licences
The third versions of the Creative Commons international licences were
released in 2007, and introduced three major changes:

· The addition of new ‘no endorsement’ language, which states that a
person should not use the attribution required by all CC licences to
improperly assert or imply an association or relationship with the licensor
or author. This has been implicit in the Creative Commons licences from the
start, but we thought it was worth making it explicit. For a more detailed
explanation, see here<http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_3#MIT>.
· The inclusion of language in the
BY-SA<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/au/legalcode> licence to
make it possible for derivatives to be relicensed under a “Creative Commons
Compatible License<http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses>.” This
change is an important first step towards CC’s long-held
objective<http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5709> of increasing
interoperability between different flexible content copyright licences. It is
this language, for example, that allowed Wikipedia to be
ported<http://www.creativecommons.org.au/node/235> across to the BY-SA
licences in May last year. More information about this change is provided
here<http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_3#BY-SA_.E2.80.94_Compatibility_Structure_Introduced>.
· The clarification of how moral rights and collecting society
royalties are dealt with under the Creative Commons licences. You can read
more about these changes
here<http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_3#International_Harmonization_.E2.80.93_Moral_Rights>.

About the Australian licences
The Australian v3.0 licences port these changes across to an Australian legal
context. They have been developed over the last few years via a public
consultation process<http://creativecommons.org.au/v3draft>. We thank all of
those who provided feedback on the licences, particularly our colleagues at
CC Aoteoroa New Zealand and within the Australian government and non-profit
sectors.

Our main aims during the Australian v3.0 drafting process were to ensure the
new licences:
- complied with Australian legal requirements and conventions;
- aligned with the rights and restrictions of the
Unported<http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7249> (ie non-country
specific) licences provided by Creative Commons<http://creativecommons.org/>;
and
- were clear and easy for creators and users alike to read and
understand.

Based on these aims, we made the following changes to the licences:
- adapting the Unported formatting and language to bring them more
in line with Australian law and drafting conventions – mainly by using
localised definitions and introducing lists and headings;
- simplifying some of the language, where this would not affect
the legal interpretation of the licence – many of these simplifications were
adopted from the recent version put together by our friends in New
Zealand<http://www.creativecommons.org.nz/>;
- a few minor additions to clarify the operation of the licences
in the Australian context, in response to feedback from our consultation
process – these included clarifying how the licences operate with respect to
sublicensing and adding language to ensure that the licences comply with the
requirements of Australian consumer protection law.

We are happy to release these licences, which we believe provide clear,
reasonable and legally sound options for creators and users alike and
represent a new best practice standard for the CC licences in Australia. If
you would like any more information about the licences please feel free to
contact us at
info AT creativecommons.org.au<mailto:info AT creativecommons.org.au>. For more
information on the versioning process
contact<http://creativecommons.org/contact> the Creative Commons head office.


Jessica Coates
Project Manager
Creative Commons Australia
Queensland University of Technology




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