The Creative Commons Global Summit 2013 concluded on
Saturday, with a full day (literally – not even a break for lunch!) of talks on
a wide variety of subjects. Favorite subjects seem to be CC as applied in the
real world – in the creative industries, in open government, and in open
educational resources (OER).
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| With CC Summit concluded, it's time to celebrate! Van Der Helst, Celebration of the Peace of Münster, 1648 |
Also notable were discussions about copyright reforms and
copyright developments around the world. One speaker provided a fascinating
review of 22 Arab countries and their varied approaches to copyright
exceptions. For example, most Arab countries provide some form of compulsory
license to translate documents into Arabic (i.e., with or without the consent
of the author). Some of the countries extend this to anybody with a desire to
do the translation, whereas other countries restrict the license to specific
translators (e.g., libraries or government) or to specific documents.
CC licensing activities by a group of Egyptian short film
makers provided a welcome indication that, despite (or in some cases because
of?) the turmoil in that country, creative industries continue to create.
Finally, closing remarks by the CC Argentina affiliate gave
a good indication just how much work went into preparation for such a
substantial and successful Global Summit. There has been talk of hosting a
future Global Summit in Africa, which would certainly be welcome, but this
blogger’s head spins at the thought of organizing visas and other travel
documents for 200 attendees from every continent!
Immediately after the formal ending of the conference,
African delegates took the opportunity to gather and discuss CC’s activities on
the Continent. In attendance were delegates from (in no particular order)
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana. Although this blogger was forced to leave
early so as not to miss his departing flight, the discussion was lively and
informative. With the addition of CC Kenya this year, and with CC Ghana
seemingly just around the corner, the footprint of CC in Africa is rapidly and
deservedly growing.
And so, a final thought. This CC Global Summit was,
reportedly, the best attended Summit to date in terms of number of Affiliates.
Indeed the diversity of attendees was quite impressive. In this age of
ever-expanding copyright protection, it is comforting to have seen the varied
and tireless efforts by CC and CC affiliates to push for open content.
