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FAQ
'Some Rights Reserved'
Frequently Asked Questions
Regarding Hong Kong Creative Commons (HKCC)
March 25, 2008
Frequently Asked Questions
Regarding Hong Kong Creative Commons (HKCC)
March 25, 2008
NOTE: For full information about Creative Commons and all related global projects, please see: http://creativecommons.org
Updates about the effort to bring Creative Commons to Hong Kong can be found at: http://cchk.wetpaint.com
Updates about the effort to bring Creative Commons to Hong Kong can be found at: http://cchk.wetpaint.com
What problem does the Creative Commons (CC) Licenses intend to solve?
Founded by Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig in 2001, Creative Commons is best known for a set of six copyright licenses.
The goal of these licenses is to provide a "middle ground" that did not previously exist in most copyright regimes. On one side is the traditional "all rights reserved." At the other extreme is "public domain" - viewed by many as an anarchic free-for-all in which creators have no control over the use of their work. Creative Commons enables creators to opt for "some rights reserved."
Creative Commons licenses are not intended to replace traditional copyright licenses. Many creators will always choose to retain all rights to their works. However many others prefer to release their works under a more permissive license so that their works can be re-used, republished, remixed, or shared freely and broadly by a wider public. The CC license provides an internationally-recognized vehicle through which to do so.
Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. Our licenses help creators keep their copyright while inviting certain uses of their work — a “some rights reserved” copyright.
Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request. 
Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only. 
No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it. 
Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work. How do you compete with existing licensing schemes used in Hong Kong?
Creative Commons licenses are not intended to compete with any other existing licensing schemes used in Hong Kong or elsewhere. Rather, they are intended as an extra option, in addition to existing licensing schemes.
How do these licenses encourage users to respect the rights of creative rightsholders?
Used correctly, CC licenses will broaden the scope for legal usage of creative works in Hong Kong.
Correct use of the license by Hong Kong creators will broaden the pool of creative works that can be legally shared.
Meanwhile, knowledge about how to find and use Creative Commons-licensed works will provide legal alternatives for people who like to share and remix freely.
Educators in jurisdictions where CC licenses have already been localized report that students who learn about Creative Commons gain a greater awareness of copyright issues in general. Not only do they gain a better understanding of what is illegal under copyright law; they also gain awareness of alternative legal sources: CC-licensed music, photos, and other creative works which they are permitted to share legally, which can be found through the search engines on creativecommons.org and other online sources.
Thus, we hope that if CC licenses are widely used and understood in Hong Kong, this will contribute to a reduction in copyright violations by Hong Kong's young people, amateurs, and creative artists.
Why are you trying to localize these licenses under Hong Kong's Copyright Ordinance?
Creative Commons has a generic international version of the six licenses. Thousands of Hong Kong people are already using this international "un-ported" version. However in order that local Hong Kong rights-holders can go to court if necessary in the event of a dispute, the license must be "ported" into Hong Kong copyright law. This process is currently underway: our legal team is working on English and Chinese versions of the license which they are endeavouring to make fully compatible with Hong Kong's Copyright Ordinance.
As of this writing, the CC licenses have already been ported to 44 different jurisdictions around the globe. Asian jurisdictions that have already "ported" the CC licenses include Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, The Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are currently under development. As Asia's "World City," Hong Kong can benefit from a movement that aims to broaden the scope for creative innovation by Asia's diverse and richly creative people.
Who is responsible for localizing these licenses?
Creative Commons Hong Kong is currently a project under the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre, where Assistant Professor Rebecca MacKinnon serves as Project Lead. Our Legal Team is led by Professors Yahong Li and Alice Lee of Hong Kong University's Faculty of Law.
Supporting and eagerly awaiting localization of the CC licenses is a growing community of Hong Kong people: business owners, artists, software programmers, writers, lawyers, academics, educators, community leaders, and students who believe that CC licenses will enable Hong Kong's many talented people to create and disseminate their works more broadly and legally. Several dozen community members have volunteered to help promote CC licenses in their communities, assist with the creation of educational materials and organize a launch event in October. Ben Cheng is CC-HK's Community Coordinator.
In the months leading up to the CC-HK October launch, we will be forming an Executive Committee made up of active community members as well as an Advisory Board.
Is this really necessary?
We now live in the copy-and-paste Internet age. Creative Commons is a copyright licensing option that promotes legal sharing of creative works, and whose use has been growing steadily worldwide since its launch in 2001. Its founders believed it necessary to create this option because of the impact that the Internet has had on public attitudes and approaches to intellectual property, and its use is made possible largely thanks to the Internet.
We believe that Hong Kong's copyright holders will benefit from the localization of this license - no matter whether they choose to retain traditional "all rights reserved" copyright, or choose CC's "some rights reserved" option.
Other than the licenses themselves, how does Creative Commons make it easier to release and find licensed creative works?
The Creative Commons website at creativecommons.org, makes it very easy for creators to select the license they need, and for users to find CC-licensed works.
To select a license, creators simply visit http://creativecommons.org/license/ , where they select the correct jurisdiction from the drop-down menu, then select the various combinations of rights and options they would like in order to generate the correct license. If the created work in question is online, the creator can copy and paste auto-generated code into their website. This code enables the work to be found and identified as CC-licensed work by search engines. The code also links back to a web page with the original legal language and deed of the correct license for reference by lawyers and potential users. For works that are not online, a logo indicating the components of the license is generated, including a web address at which the legal language and license deed can be found. This logo can be embedded onto any visual work, CD case, powerpoint presentation, etc.
Users can easily find CC-licensed work via several search engines available at http://search.creativecommons.org/ It is CC-HK's intention to work with Chinese-language web service companies to provide more search options for Chinese-language content specifically.
What is the current state of progress?
Our legal team has taken the un-ported Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license and converted it into language compatible with the Hong Kong Copyright Ordinance.
This English-language license draft was posted online in December 2007 and is available for download and public comment at: http://creativecommons.org/international/hk/ . A Chinese language translation of the draft is also under way.
After sufficient public comment has been received, we will incorporate suggestions and comments to finalize the license. The language of the Hong Kong Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 will be the basis from which the other five licenses will be derived.
Who do you envisage using these licenses?
Anybody is free to use the Creative Commons licenses. People in Hong Kong who have expressed greatest enthusiasm to use the licenses include:
- primary, secondary, and tertiary educators
- legal music-sharing services
- internet start-up companies
- cultural entrepreneurs
- photographers
- artists
- student media and arts clubs
- independent and amateur filmmakers
- independent, semi-professional and amateur musicians
- non-governmental organizations
- public information programmes
- hobbyists
- citizen media organizations
- community organizers
We believe that Creative Commons is of great value to Hong Kong's education and public sectors, both of which have the goal of educating the public and disseminating knowledge and information as broadly and effectively as possible.
One example: The Massachusetts Institute of Tecnology (MIT) in the United States uses CC licenses to publish courseware for free global use as part of the MIT OpenCourseware project. MIT has found that publishing course materials for free public access under a CC license does not reduce public interest in obtaining an MIT degree; rather it actually strengthens the MIT brand and generates greater public interest in attending MIT.
There are also a number of for-profit businesses benefitting from strategic use of CC licenses. They include Flickr, a business based on the sharing of user-created content by its community of users; Jamendo and Magnatune are both online businesses which deal in CC-licensed music in different ways.
Is anyone in Hong Kong already using the generic CC licenses?
Yes, while we don't have exact numbers, we know that thousands of Hong Kong people are using the generic un-ported CC licenses. They include:
- Hong Kong users of Flickr, an international online photo-sharing service
- An unknown number of bloggers
- Daayu, a local internet startup based on user content sharing
- DotAsia, a Hong Kong-based Internet domain registry
- OpenRadio Hong Kong
- New Media course materials and student work at Hong Kong University's Journalism and Media Studies Centre
Will you be charging for the use of these license or the use of your online tools?
No, they are provided for free.
When will you be releasing the HK version of the 6 Creative Commons Licenses?
We plan to formally release the CC Hong Kong licenses in October 2008. The founder of Creative Commons, Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, will preside over the launch along with CC Chairman Joi Ito.
What are your next steps?
This Spring, we aim to incorporate feedback from Hong Kong's IP law community and other key constituencies and finalize our basic license draft.
Then all licenses will be translated into Chinese. Once our licenses are approved by Creative Commons International, they will be properly formatted and prepared to "go live" online in time for the October 2008 launch. Other preparation work includes:
- Creating a Creative Commons Hong Kong Education Kit for special priority distribution to schools, universities, student clubs, and other key target groups who are in greatest need of copyright education and awareness of legal content-sharing options;
- Organizing a series of public education seminars and public conversations about Creative Commons where appropriate;
- Creation of an official "Creative Commons Hong Kong" website;
- Formation of an Executive Board and Advisory Board.
Where can I find out more information about Creative Commons in general, and Hong Kong Creative Commons in particular?
For general information about Creative Commons worldwide, please visit http://creativecommons.org. The website has an "about" page as well as detailed information sections about the licenses and other Creative Commons projects.
Right now Creative Commons Hong Kong has a community wiki at http://cchk.wetpaint.com. A more formal website is under construction and will be launched in Spring 2008. Information about that website will be available at http://cchk.wetpaint.com.
Also please feel free to contact us:
Rebecca MacKinnon, Public Lead. e-mail: rmack@hku.hk; tel: 2219 4005
Pindar Wong, Chairman, Executive Committee. e-mail: pindar@pacific.net.hk
Ben Cheng, Community Coordinator. e-mail: chpapa@gmail.com; tel: 2859 1155
Yahong Li, Legal Lead. e-mail: yali@hku.hk
Alice Lee, Legal Lead. e-mail: alicelee@hku.hk
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