Creative Commons
Background:
The digital revolution and the Internet have made it possible to: distribute works in a variety of formats; work collaboratively across contexts; and create new, derivative, or collective works on a global level and at comparatively low cost. This is particularly critical in the South Caucasus, where challenges in achieving economies of scale inhibit the development of a robust publishing industry. The downside is that the new technologies can also be used to violate the rights of copyright owners, a problem that is particularly prevalent in the South Caucasus. In response, major right holders have developed mechanisms to control intellectual property rights that may stifle the potential for digital technologies to be used widely to encourage creativity and for problem-solving and collaboration. If creators and licensors have to negotiate not only complicated legal rules, but also burdensome technical barriers, many will either ignore the rules or not create.
Creative Commons International (CCi) has developed a web-based application that helps people open their creative works to the public domain or retain their copyright while licensing them as free for certain uses, on certain conditions. The result is not only an increase in the sum of raw source material online, but also cheaper and easier access to intellectual materials. CCi has expressed interest in exploring cooperation with Eurasia Partnership Foundation to establish the licensing framework in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The eventual aim of the initiative would be to align behavior with legal practice in the South Caucasus. If successful, the Creative Commons application has the potential to foster further intellectual activity in the South Caucasus, provide a new mechanism for economic activity, and, at the same time, enhance opportunities for cross-border collaboration among creative communities.
Goal:
To explore possibilities for implementing a consistent, robust and internationally accepted framework for intellectual property rights for web-based materials in the South Caucasus.
Impacts:
The program commenced in May 2008 with EPF announcing a regional grant competition titled Support for the Adoption of the Creative Commons Licensing Framework in the Countries of the South Caucasus. The competition identified local organizations in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to officially house the CC project in their respective country. The Center for Information Law and Policy (Armenia) and the Young Lawyers Union (Azerbaijan) were awarded grants through the competition to implement 12-month projects in collaboration with the Germany-based Creative Commons International (CCi). In Georgia, a team of local legal experts representing Business Intelligence and Valuation GROUP – BVG, Ltd. was contracted by EPF/Georgia to implement the Georgian portion. All three local partners signed MoUs with CCi to agree upon several policies and expectations regarding their particular collaboration and the technical aspects of the program. In July, 2008, the three local partners started the base-line assessment of the current national copyright frameworks in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia respectively. By mid-September 2008 partners produced the first drafts of the base-line assessment of the current national copyright frameworks in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Each analytical paper includes: a) a brief history of copyright law and intellectual property rights in the particular country; b) outline of and links to major legislation and international treaties that affect copyright and intellectual property rights in the particular country; c) how the Creative Commons (CC) licensing framework might fit into the current legislation; d) changes (if any) that need to be made to the current national legislation and policy to accommodate the CC license; and e) other issues.
In addition, each partner produced initial drafts of a national CC license for their respective countries. Following this, EPF and partners conducted in-country stakeholder discussions to encourage commentary and criticism from their respective local expert communities. This significantly improved the partners’ understanding of the current national copyright framework and of the possible modifications that need to be introduced to better align the CC licenses to national frameworks. The analytical reports and the local stakeholder community recommendations were further discussed at a regional workshop in October 2008 in Tbilisi.
The draft national Creative Commons licenses are available for public discussions on the web sites for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Invitation to the Conference: The EU and Civil Society in the South Caucasus: a Common Effort to Build Sustainable Peace
Grant Competition for Social Enterprises
Call for Participants: Getting Involved!
Public Discussions: European Integration and Eastern Partnership: Challenges and Opportunities
