CUNY IT Conference: Hacking Copyright

YOU DON’T NEED MY PERMISSION:

FREEING SCHOLARSHIP

BY HACKING COPYRIGHT

Alycia Sellie

Brooklyn College

asellie@brooklyn.cuny.edu

CUNY IT Conference

December 2, 2011

I AM NOT A LAWYER.

WHAT IF I DON’T WANT THE

WORK THAT I CREATE TO BE

RESTRICTED FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE

+70 YEARS AFTER MY DEATH?

PERMISSION CULTURE

With standard copyright, you can allow others to

use your work—but only when they ask

permission, and after you grant each person

specific rights.

Lawrence Lessig: Free Culture vs. Permission

Culture:

“The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened in

a world in which creation requires permission and creativity

must check with a lawyer.” (173)

HACKING COPYRIGHT

What I’m calling “hacking copyright” here refers

to the ways in which we can license our work

to allow wider use—without requiring that

others ask permission, and without the

intermediation of copyright experts and

lawyers.

A FEW FREE CULTURE LICENSES:

Gnu Public License (GPL)

• “a free, copyleft license for software and

other kinds of works.”

Creative Commons Licenses

• “licenses and tools [that] forge a balance

inside the traditional “all rights reserved

setting that copyright law creates.”

WHAT RIGHTS DO CC LICENSES GRANT USERS

THAT STANDARD COPYRIGHT DOES NOT?

Free licenses can grant the right (without

asking permission) to:

• The right to read/view/copy

• Share or redistribute

• Remix and create new works

• Restrict only specific uses (i.e. noncommercial use—

but noncommercial licenses are not seen as free licenses by many)

FREE LICENSES ARE STILL COPYRIGHT

Free Licenses are not outside of copyright law.

Even with a free license, copyright law still

governs the use of your work.

“Every Creative Commons license works around

the world and lasts as long as applicable

copyright lasts (because they are built on

copyright).”

ARE FREE LICENSES THE SAME AS OPEN

ACCESS?

Yes and No: Definitions of Open Access and problems therein

Peter Suber’s definition of OA includes “free of most copyright

and licensing restrictions.”

But as we’ve seen, Free licenses=a form of Copyright.

Usually, OA definitions=the right to view, but maybe not the right

to redistribute, remix, etc.

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO INSURE THAT MY

WORK WILL BE USED (EVEN WHILE I AM STILL

ALIVE)?

Nina Paley’s mimiandeunice.com

FREE YOUR WORK!