Orphan works

• Have you ever heard of the term Orphan Works?
• Are you a creator of works? This can be as a writer of a novel, play, poem, blog post; painter; graphic or game designer --> and the list can go on and on?
• Do you realise just how many works exist where the creator was never been identified?
• Or even if the name of a creator is known, no one knows what happened to the creator and therefore they can not be contacted about their work?

I am asking these questions because even though I have known for a number of years what an Orphan Work is and the problems it creates for institutions like Libraries I recently discovered I have an Orphan Work.

The simple answer to the 1st question is that an Orphan Work is a copyright work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder (reference). I will let you follow the reference to read more about Orphan Works.

How did I as a creator find myself in this situation? In 2000, as part of a portfolio assignment, while I was studying, I decided to try and publish a library related poem to the Australian Library Journal. I was accepted for publication but then never heard anything further. This is when I did something I now regret: I did not keep checking myself for when it did appear in the Journal.

In the last couple of months I have been going through my older poetry which made me think of how this poem was worth posting to my blog. I therefore wanted to double check that this poem was never published. I checked this because I was not sure what this journal's stand is on the copyright ownership of contributors, as this is an academic journal. Doing a quick search of the online version I discovered much to my shock that it had not only been published but the editor at the time, John Levett, had lost my name. My poem has therefore been published as author unknown. Though much to Mr Levett's credit he did leave a statement asking for the author to contact him. This poem is The Idealised Librarian which I have now posted to my blog of poetry.

It is that easy to have a work you have created become an Orphan Work! Understanding what Orphan Works are and what is currently happening with Copyright, are 2 of the main drivers for me to use Creative Commons. So to discover that I myself have an Orphan Work makes me realise how careful I need to be. I hope that this is also a warning about how easy it is to lose track of what you have created.

A new look & plans for the coming week

After playing with the layout for a bit I think I have gotten Behind Dreaming to where I want it to be: at least for now. This means having the same template as To Write is to Dream but I have altered the colours to suit my current mood. Like my moods I may look at this next week and want to make more changes.

My next challenge is to figure out how to refer to the online petition organized by the Creative Freedom Foundation on Monday morning. In New Zealand on February 28 a new copyright amendment to the Act is coming into force - Section 92a. Even though someone will be given 3 warnings about downloading content that is copyright protected: the kicker is really that that a person can have the internet access cut without the sort of evidence a court would require. Welcome to the age of Guilty until proven Innocent and the innocent part - well it does not seem very clear how you can prove your innocence.

Creative Freedom Foundation has some fantastic information on their site about what is happening in New Zealand. If you are not from New Zealand this does not mean it has no connection to you as there are other countries like Australia that are facing similar laws. You can bury your head and think it will not happen to you but never say never and try to remain informed just in case.

My profile picture here, in twitter and on Facebook have been blackout as a form of protest. Many others have done the same, including Stephen Fry in twitter.

On Monday there are many sites will refer people to the online petition organized by the Creative Freedom Foundation.

5 Lesser-Known Benefits to Creative Commons

5 Lesser-Known Benefits to Creative Commons is an article at the Blog Herald which covers some unsung virtues of CC licenses for bloggers.

So for the 2nd time today I found something about Creative Commons I wanted to share. I found out about both these things through Twitter - @creativecommons and @CC Australia.

Building an Australasian Commons: Case Study

"In August 2008, as part of the new CC Case Study Wiki initiative, CC Australia published the accompanying print volume Building an Australasian Commons: Creative Commons Case Studies Volume 1. Edited by staffer Rachel Cobcroft, Volume 1 includes more than 60 case studies - http://creativecommons.org.au/casestudiesvol1"

The readable PDF version is available here
(Note: this PDF is quite large so it may take some people a bit of time to download)

This Case Study "provides detailed evidence of the ways in which CC licences is being used by creators and institutions along with an explanation of their motivations"

If you use Creative Commons or have any interest in doing so then you should visit the Creative Commons wiki

Rachel, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation and everyone else that worked on this have done a wonderful job :-)

The Commons: past, present & future

In the last couple of days I have added a widget to promote Creative Commons. I have done this because as a creator who posts their work online this movement has given me tools that let me clearly communicate what I am comfortable with others doing with what I post. I wonder what the next 6 years will be like for Creative Commons: I hope they do succeed in breaking down needless barriers in science and education. The following takes well over an hour to watch - though you should not let this stop you :-)

The Commons: Celebrating Accomplishments, Discerning Futures*


*this will also link you to the video on YouTube

The Writer's Guide to the Galaxy?

The Australia Council for the Arts have created a resource for writers in the digital world called The writer’s guide to making a digital living. I am slowly working through this guide and it has already provided with food for thought. Even if you are not from Australia this guide is worth a look. The poster that you can also get from here New WRITING Universe is a brilliant snap shot of different paths for writers in the digital world.

If you want to know more about Creative Commons from an Australian perspective then I recommend following Elliott Bledsoe's Creative Commons blog. It was through this blog that I found out about The Writer's Guide to the Galaxy?

There is also the option to get updates directly from Creative Commons Australia via twitter.

What CC licences I have selected

Across this blog and my blog of poetry, I have chosen 2 types of Creative Commons licences. The second choice I made was whether I would apply a CC licence across the whole blog or on each post within a blog.

The blog Behind Dreaming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License and has been applied across the whole blog.

While the blog To Write is to Dream... has a CC licence applied to each post within the blog. Some posts have had a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License and others Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

The choice of applying a licence on a single post instead of across a whole blog comes down to the fact that almost all of the posts within my blog To Write is to Dream... are poems that I have written. These poems are each works by themselves that I have chosen to make available through a blog. I started applying a single CC licence across my whole blog of poetry but ran into problems with a few poems where I want to know if someone else wants to remix them. One of these poems that made me glad that I have more than one option when it comes to CC licences is It is not fair.... This poem was difficult to write and I posted it on the blog because I did not want to hide it away any longer as I felt it was something I had to say, especially if it takes me a few more months until I am ready to work on it again.

The last issue for me is still really a question I have to find the answer to and it is around the area of a CC jurisdiction. I am Australian who is now living and working in New Zealand and I have no idea how long I will be in New Zealand for. I posted my 1st poem on my blog of poetry on August 3 2008. The chose I made was to apply an Australian CC licence on both my blogs. My question specifically is what jurisdiction should I apply to my blogs while I am living in New Zealand if I am Australian? I will see if I can find an answer to my question about jurisdiction and will post it here.

• To read about what Creative Commons is read my post Creative Commons: Share, Remix, Reuse - Legally or go directly to the Creative Commons site.

Creative Commons: Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally

Before I go into why I have chosen to use Creative Commons (CC) on both my blogs I thought I should explain what it actually is and where to find more information about CC licences.

Creative Commons helps you publish your work online while letting others know exactly what they can and can't do with your work. This means as a creator I can define how what I create can be shared, remixed and reused legally by someone else. Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." Most of the information within this blog post has been copied directly from http://creativecommons.org/ in accordance to the CC licence they have chosen: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I think any questions you have will be answered by going to the Creative Commons site and/or contacting those responsible for CC within your jurisdiction.

• To read about why I have chosen to use Creative Commons go to the post What CC licences I have selected.