Sharing_OA_CC

toc =About=
 * This is the August 10, 2010 version of this section on Open Access and Creative Commons, from the general revision of the handbook that preceded translations. In the French version of the handbook, there were some further minor changes indicated here in footnotes (there are no footnotes in the handbook version of this chapter).
 * For previous versions - some of which contain more links - see the history http://cc4dice.wikispaces.com/page/history/Sharing_OA_CC of this page, in particular the last version before this one, http://cc4dice.wikispaces.com/page/diff/Sharing_OA_CC/153266155.

=2.6 Pubblicare e utilizzare contenuti Open Access (OA) e/o sotto licenza Creative Commons (CC)= = =

This section 2.6 is under an "Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Switzerland Creative Commons license [].

Open Access repositories and Creative Commons licenses serve the same goals as libraries have served since the Alexandria one: preserving, sharing and advancing knowledge. Since 2002, when MIT started publishing its course materials online in its OpenCourseWare program and the first version of CC licenses was released, countless scholars and researchers all over the world have been using OA repositories and CC licenses. The legal permissions that must be granted when publishing a work in an OA repository, and which can be met easily by using some types of CC licenses, also ensure its visibility. This visibility is a better protection against unauthorized reuses than so-called digital protections and legal measures prohibiting their circumvention, which have impressively failed so far to even slow down unauthorized copying and sharing, because the more people have access to a work, the greater the likelihood that unauthorized uses be spotted and exposed. Moreover, as an increasing number of authors and of serious publishers are realizing, this visibility is also a far more efficient publicity in ROI terms than older means like excerpts of articles published in scientific/scholarly journals and review copies sent to journalists.

In Switzerland, many higher education institutes and most academic and research decision-making bodies have adhered to the 2003 Berlin Declaration on Open Access. This means that OA publication is anyway an obligation for well-nigh all researchers and scholars. OA repositories are easy to use, and so are Creative Commons licenses that allow authors to meet the permission requirements of OA publication. However, attention must be paid to the proper way of using OA and CC: hence this section.

= =

= = = =

= =

2.6.1 Open Access
The main Swiss higher education authorities have signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access. This is a great progress for research. It also means that all publications by teachers and researchers - and all theses by students - of Swiss academic and higher education institutions must be made available in Open Access repositories, following the rules stated in by the Berlin Declaration:
 * The author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship (community standards, will continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published work, as they do now), as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
 * A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, **including a copy of the permission as stated above**, in an appropriate standard electronic format is deposited (and thus published) in at least one online repository using suitable technical standards (such as the Open Archive definitions) that is supported and maintained by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving. ..."

(our bold: it is important to include this permission in the work itself, and not only in its Repository description)

Ask your higher education institution which Open Access repository you must use for your publications, and how.

Finding Open Access works
In spite of the Berlin Declaration requirement that a copy of the Open Access permissions be included within Open Access works, this is not always the case: some Open Access repositories – particularly Swiss ones – contain a high proportion of works with an improper strict copyright declaration, or without any copyright/permission declaration, which is the same as strict copyright. Therefore check permissions carefully before re-using a work you find in an "Open Access" repository.

2.6.2 Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which enable authors to grant automatically some rights they have under copyright law while reserving other rights, are a very useful tool towards implementing the rules for Open Access works mentioned above.

2.6.2.1 Four main modules
A creative commons license results from a combination of some of four possible modules:
 * BY - attribution to the author/s** - is compulsory because attribution is required by copyright laws (though see the paragraph about the CC0 module below).
 * NC - No commercial use** - means that the author/ do/es not automatically authorize commercial uses, for which - as with traditional copyright licenses - permission must be requested.
 * ND - No derivative works** - means that the author/ do/es not automatically authorize modifications, for which - as with traditional copyright licenses - permission must be requested.
 * SA - Share Alike -** means that if others want to diffuse the work, they must do it under the same CC license that was chosen by the author.

2.6.2.2 No "ND" for Open Access
The 2003 Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities specifies that Open Access contributions must bear a declaration by which: > ...the author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly **and to make and distribute derivative works**, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship .... .

Therefore, if authors decide to use a Creative Commons license for this declaration, they cannot include the ND module in this license.

CC0 module
The CC0 module, by which all rights are waived ("No rights reserved") can be used by authors who want to waive their copyrights.

Finding works under Creative Commons license
The advanced search options of Google (and of some other search engines) enable you to look for works under a given Creative Commons license: be they web pages, videos or images. Flickr offers the same possibility for pictures.

2.6.3 Further information
You can find further resources about Open Access and Creative Commons:
 * in the relevant sections of the "Online Resources" document (downloadable from the "Reports" page of the DICE site) : http://dice.elearninglab.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DICE_onlineResources_20100305.pdf
 * under __[]__.