A cornerstone to always reference when speaking of digitization.
Cf.
http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Consultazione_europea_sul_diritto_d%27autore#…
Chapters and other affiliates are probably interested in subscribing the
Public Domain Manifesto to join their peers.
Nemo
-------- Messaggio originale --------
Oggetto: COMMUNIA policy paper on digitization agreements
Data: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 19:16:45 +0000
Mittente: <Primavera De Filippi
<http://www.communia-association.org/2014/06/13/communia-policy-paper-on-dig…>>
COMMUNIA policy paper on digitization agreements
The aim of this policy paper
<http://www.communia-association.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/COMMUNIA-dig…> is
to make policy recommendations for cultural institutions to preserve the
Public Domain when using digitization services provided by private
entities. This becomes particularly relevant in the context of the 2013
Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive which adds Museums, Libraries
and Archives in the list of Public Sector Bodies (PSBs) that have to
make their information reusable.
The Public Domain ensures the free dissemination of knowledge and
provides everyone with the potential to access and create new works
based on previous works. Thus, all Public Domain works should be free
for everyone to use and reuse. Yet, as many cultural heritage
institutions are entering into contractual agreements with third parties
for the digitization of Public Domain works, there are serious concerns
regarding the conditions of access, use and reuse of the resulting
digitized copies.
Ideally, digital copies of Public Domain materials would be made
immediately and freely available to the public. However, in practice,
many of these public-private partnerships impose contractual
restrictions that limit access and re-use of Public Domain materials.
These restrictions have the same effect as introducing a new proprietary
right over the digitized copies of Public Domain material, thereby
substantially limiting the use and reuse of content that belongs to the
common cultural heritage by subjecting it to a requirement of prior
authorisation.
This risk is further increased with the introduction of the PSI 2013
regime, which allows the conclusion of exclusive agreements between
private entities and PSBs under restrictive terms and with a potential
perpetual validity.
A work in the Public Domain should have the same legal properties,
regardless of the format or medium it is in. Hence, /*works that are in
the Public Domain in analog form [should] continue to be in the Public
Domain once they have been digitised*/ (see the Europeana Public Domain
Charter
<http://pro.europeana.eu/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=d542819d-d169-4240…>,
Principle #2, and Communia Public Domain Manifesto
<http://www.publicdomainmanifesto.org/manifesto>, Recommendation #5).
Contractual agreements as regards the digitization of Public Domain
works should acknowledge and respect the fundamental properties of these
works, and not attempt to subvert Public Domain principles through
contract and other legal mechanisms.
To ensure the broadest availability and long-term accessibility of
Public Domain works, their digital copies should be made available to
the public in a format and medium allowing for easy identification,
retrieval and modification, while ensuring the maximum interoperability
of these works. The use of metadata and open formats constitutes an
important requirement to ensure that the value of the Public Domain is
properly understood and that the works belonging to the Public Domain
will always remain freely (re)usable.
In view of this, we make the following recommendations:
*No copyright protection*
*
*over the digitized version:*
All parties to the partnership should expressly state that they do not
claim copyright nor sui generis rights in the digitized copies of the
Public Domain material.
* The digitized version should be marked as in the Public Domain using
a tool such as the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark
<http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/>, or,
alternatively, if digitization itself gave rise to new related
rights, these should be waived by applying a Public Domain
dedication tool such as CC0
<http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
* Up-to-date metadata and the database (if protected by sui generis
rights) should be made available and dedicated to the Public Domain
using tools such as the CC0 Public Domain Dedication
<http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/> following the
model of Europeana, the Digital Public Library of America, Harvard
Library and the British Library.
* *for newly published works:*
In countries where copyright law grants an additional term of protection
to the publishers of Public Domain works that have never been published
before, the rights holder should dedicate the work to the Public Domain
by means of tools such as the CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
*No contractual restrictions*
*
Access and reuse to Public Domain works should be unrestricted, both
on premises and on the Internet for any type of use and reuse,
including for commercial purposes.
*
No exclusive agreements should be made between the cultural
institution and the commercial vendor that would preclude another
vendor or institution from digitizing or distributing the same
Public Domain material.
*Openness & Transparency*
*
The institution should use standardized, open technological formats
and request the contractor to transfer digitized material and
metadata in standardized open technological formats.
*
Bidders’ offers should be made publicly available. Transparency
should prevail in the decision-making process affecting public
access to our common cultural heritage collections.
The Communia International Association calls for cultural institutions,
such as libraries, archives and museums to observe the following
guidelines, and to promote them in their negotiations with contractors,
donors and legal owners of materials.
(Posted also on the Wikimedia Blog:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/06/10/israels-ministry-of-education-wikimed…
)
An agreement was met in a meeting between Rabbi Shai Piron, Israel’s
Education Minister, Jan-Bart de Vreede, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees, Itzik Edri, Chair of the Wikimedia Israel Board and
Michal Lester, Executive Director of Wikimedia Israel, regarding a shared
cooperation with Wikimedia Israel in the framework of the ministry’s school
curricula in the coming years. Through the planned cooperation, history,
geography and science teachers will receive special professional training
to instruct students on how to contribute to new or incomplete Wikipedia
articles for which information is lacking or inadequate.
The Education Ministry will also examine the possibility of integrating
Wikipedia writing assignments in the teaching of research and community
involvement. They will also consider having students who speak additional
languages (primarily English and Russian) write Wikipedia articles about
Israel in those particular languages.
Education Minister Rabbi Shai Piron said, “It is important to us that the
education system in Israel leads in innovation and cooperating with
Wikipedia is a wonderful opportunity to think outside the box and enable
students in Israel to do things that make a difference from which others
can also benefit.”
Jan-Bart de Vreede, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
said, “Israel is today among the leading countries in the integration of
Wikipedia in the education system and academia. I hope our joint work model
will also serve as an example to other education systems around the world.”
In the framework of cooperation that is already in place between Wikimedia
Israel and the Ministry of education, several pilot projects are being
conducted. The projects involve teacher training in good Wikipedia usage,
article composition, Wikipedia article writing by gifted high school
students and the teaching of proper Wikipedia usage to elementary
schoolchildren. It is worth mentioning that through cooperation with
academics in a variety of universities and colleges throughout Israel,
hundreds of articles are written each year by students in courses. Thus
students write Wikipedia articles as part of their degrees, sometimes even
in lieu of exams or final papers. The Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv
University recently conducted a special 2-credit course on the subject of
Wikipedia and medicine.
Survey results published last week as part of Wikipedia Academy 2014 Israel
revealed that 84% of the Israeli public relies heavily on Wikipedia and 74%
say that it provides all the information they need. Over one third of the
population expressed interest in learning to write for Wikipedia.
*Regards,Itzik Edri*
Chairperson, Wikimedia Israel
+972-(0)-54-5878078 | http://www.wikimedia.org.il
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment!
Dear friends and colleagues,
As you know, the FDC Advisory Group met in Frankfurt at the end of May to
discuss the past two years of the FDC pilot process and to deliberate on
its future. You will be glad to know that they unanimously agreed to advise
the WMF Executive Director (ED) that the FDC process should continue, with
some suggested modifications and improvements.
Please find the main recommendations and thoughts from the Advisory Group
here.[1] The Advisory Group (AG) also decided to share an appendix with the
range of thoughts and opinions it had on some key modifications or changes
to the FDC; you will find that there was considerable diversity of opinion
with some of these ideas, but the AG felt it might be useful for Lila to
see the range!
As you know, the next steps will now be for Lila, as ED, to consult with
WMF staff and to decide with the Board on the future of the FDC. We hope
this decision will be shared with you by the end of July.
Once again, I'd like to thank all the FDC AG members for their
extraordinary work setting up the FDC and for their work on these
recommendations. As the Framework outlines, the FDC AG will formally
disband in September 2014.
The inaugural members of the AG were Richard Ames/Ariconte, Ting Chen
(former member of WMF Board), Jan-Bart de Vreede (WMF
Board), Thomas d'Souza Buckup/TSB, Peter Ekman/Smallbones, Sue Gardner (WMF
ED), Ali Haidar Khan/Tonmoy (WMBN), Crystal Hayling Philanthropy
Advisor), Christophe Henner (WMFR), Sydney Poore/FloNight, Kathy Reich
(Packard Foundation), Pavel Richter ( WMDE), Osmar Valdebenito/B1mbo (WMAR)
and Stu West (WMF Board). With Ali and Sydney on the current FDC, they were
no longer part of the AG meeting in Frankfurt, though their thoughts were
considered as part of the FDC feedback to the Advisory Group; Kathy Reich
and Thomas Buckup were also unable to attend. However, Bishakha Datta and
Patricio Lorente as the two Board representatives on the FDC, joined the AG
for its deliberations, as did I, replacing Barry Newstead.
Please don't hesitate to add your comments and suggestions on the
discussion page of the Recommendations.
Warmly,
Anasuya
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Ad…
--
*Anasuya SenguptaSenior Director of GrantmakingWikimedia Foundation*
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
Support Wikimedia <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>
Hello Everyone,
As Lila officially takes over from Sue as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation after this weekend it really is a moment to not only wish Lila a lot of succes in the coming years, but also to give a tremendous thanks to Sue for her work in the past years. Of course I did so last year in March when she announced her departure but it bears repeating that Sue took us from a small organisation in St. Petersburg Florida, which was struggling to create impact, to a mature and stable organisation which makes a huge difference. Building up a professional staff who are dedicated to our mission, incredible fundraising growth and working through complex situations to create concepts such as the FDC stand out amongst many other achievements.
It was Sue herself who indicated that it was time to find a new Executive Director, someone who was more suitable for our focus on Engineering and Grantmaking. As I mentioned more than a year ago, its hard to imagine the Wikimedia Foundation without Sue at the helm. However, due in large part to her efforts we have managed to find a new Executive Director who gives me confidence in the future of the Foundation. I am happy that we managed to find the “unicorn” that we were looking for, but that didn’t happen by accident. Most of you know that we concluded the first round of our search in early december with candidates that we did not feel were ideal for the job. We decided to change our tactics and this involved both Erik and Sue spending a lot of their (spare) time with potential candidates and making sure that we were getting the right candidates. As a result our second round had a great set of candidates, which ultimately led to the selection of Lila. On the transition team Sue has been very crucial in holding up a mirror and reminding us what we were looking for.
After a well deserved vacation Sue will be available as a Special Advisor to both the Lila and the Board of Trustees and we are grateful to her for making herself available to do this. However, what intrigues me more is what she will end up doing in the coming years. I am hoping it is in the space of Open Content or the Open Internet, as she will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact in there, and we need her! I am also happy to inform you that Sue will attend a part of Wikimania where she will for once not have an packed schedule, so feel free to take the opportunity to thank her in person if you are so inclined :)
On behalf of the entire Board and all the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation: thank you so much all that you have given the Foundation, and especially your efforts in the past year to ensure that there was both stability within our organisation and a great succesor.
Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees