Blaise Alleyne has been working on an update to the Creative Commons module as part of the Google Summer of Code program and is to the point he could use some help testing the beta. The Creative Commons module is an improvement over the Creative Commons Lite module we've been implementing as part of the Open Media Project in a number of ways.
The "full flavor" CC module is better than CC lite for a number of reasons...
- It uses the Creative Commons API to lookup the available licenses. This keeps systems updated when new license like CC Zero are added.
- It includes Resource Description Framework (RDF) version of licensing information. This doesn't change how people see the license information, but makes it easier for content in Drupal to be filtered by the Creative Commons searches on Yahoo and Google.
- It allows license defaults set per content type
- It displays and stores the regional licenses and license version with Creative Commons URI. Because there is legal language backing each CC license, the specifics of the license changes based on the region the content was licensed in.
In addition to these improvements, the Creative Commons module provides a solid framework for adding Views support and hooks for embedding CC info into file formats that except it like arthurf is doing with Media Mover and FLVTool2.
It would be really helpful if you could install the beta version of the CC module on a test site and post any issues you encounter to the Creative Commons module issues queue.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| cc.large_.png | 12.67 KB |
Comments
I installed this module on
I installed this module on our sandbox server. Installation and configuration were very staight forward.
My concerns are:
Changing module dependencies
Changing module dependencies is relatively simple and often necessary. A number of the dependencies enforced by the om_ module .info are there so we didn't forget to install items. Currently there is no dependency in the code on creativecommons_lite. To alter the dependency, open om_show.info and change...
dependencies[] = creativecommons_liteto...
dependencies[] = creativecommonsAs far as the number of fields, that's configurable in the module...
With all the fields checked it is overwhelming...
But with all of the options off, the display is actually the same...
Creative Commons Attribution - Producer or PEG station?
This might be startlingly obvious, but one of our producers just asked me a very intriguing question.
Our current Copyright policy is essentially this: "Amherst Community Television (ACTV) shares copyright ownership with the producer for any programs made using ACTV equipment or facilities."
He wanted to know how this will change with CC licensing, which effectively seems to remove the PEG station from the equation.
While it's the producer(s) choosing the Creative Commons license, what sort of role does the PEG station play with regard to this?
For instance should the station always be attributed too?
Splendid
C
CC is Not an Exclusive License
Rather than removing the PEG station from the equation, a producer using CC is actually including ALL PEG stations (including ACTV) as well any other non-profit use (school, libraries, etc).
When we start sharing between OMS using sites, the location where the content was originally added will be included in the metadata. This is a different than the producer centric approach PEGMedia.org took. PEGMedia.org tends to see PEG stations as subscribers of content. Our focus is still on empowering organizations to serve their local community, but we also want to empower local producers to extend the reach of their message beyond their local audience. The originating stations will receive credit (that may or may not be displayed) on other OMS sites based on the show metadata, but once content moves outside of an OMS using location (Miro, Tivo, iTunes, etc) only metadata embedded into the file would be available. This is why moving from CC lite to CC is important (http://groups.drupal.org/node/24686). The ability to embed info from CC licenses into file formats that support that (like MP3 and AAC ID3 tags) will be build off CC.
By using CC and defining the rights for other stations, every station can confidently broadcast the content without an additional agreement with the producer. This DOES NOT prevent locations from further defining the rights a station has with the producer. A station could require user give that location remix-like rights, but only require a CC license that allows distribution without derivatives (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
What you can't do is have a separate CC license with one organization. CC licenses are designed to be between the producer of a work and the public. Additional, station specific agreements would be more like what most stations are doing now.
I recently came across 2 modules worth looking at to add additional agreements while I was looking for a module to display to messages to users with blocked IP addresses.
Legal (http://drupal.org/project/legal) - Forces use to "resign" if agreement is changed.
Agreement (http://drupal.org/project/agreement) - Should be altered to save the text that the user "signs" in the database, but currently doesn't save that info. Not much better than a CCK checkbox because all you end up with is a 1 or 0 in the database and no way to prove what the agreement said when the user "signed" it.
Hope that helps.