Cc-au mailing list

[Jessica Coates <j2.coates AT qut.edu.au>]

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