Creative Commons Global Summit 2017 - Toronto, Canada

CC is embarked on a process to reimagine its global network. As part of this process, the strategy for a new network model will be presented at the Summit. One of the goals of the new model is to enable and better serve the network and broader community to achieve their shared goals through coordinated, collaborative work. This session will be focused on discussing "big picture" ideas and issues about what have been defined in the strategy as "Platforms" or shared areas of work: the way we will work together in the future.

In this session we will discuss how Europe, Australia and Canada are addressing changes to their copyright laws with the aim to fit education to the modern age.

Europe is discussing an update of its copyright laws that has the potential to address some of the limitations placed on education. However, the proposed changes fail to embrace the fact that education is now conducted by a multitude of institutions, and even learners themselves, and leaves behind multiple initiatives that use the open internet to provide education to learners with different backgrounds and literacies. Unless we are able to change the proposal, Europe will be stuck with inflexible rules.

Copyright reform is a significant issue for Australian schools, as Australia’s outdated copyright laws currently stand in the way of teachers using the most modern teaching methods in the interests of Australian students. The issue of whether Australia should adopt a flexible copyright exception like fair use has been extensively examined in Australia, and a fair use style copyright exception has now been recommended by seven independent review committees over almost 20 years of in-depth consideration.

Canada is often held out as a great example of successful copyright advocacy leading to a more balanced law. After more than a decade of debate, the law was overhauled in 2012.  It features some innovative limitations and exceptions such as exceptions for Internet materials in education and non-commercial user generated content. There is also a cap on statutory damages in non-commercial cases and a privacy-friendly approach to intermediary liability. Moreover, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that fair dealing is a user’s right that should be interpreted in a broad and liberal manner, leading to results that affirm a balance to copyright. The reforms have had a significant impact on educational uses, providing a potential model for others to adopt.

16h00 Introduction
16h05 - 16h25 EU Copyright Reform: obstacles and possibilities, Teresa Nobre (CC Portugal/Communia)
16h25 - 16h45 Tales from the Australian Copyright Law Reform Debate, Delia Browne (CC Australia/Australian National Copyright Unit) 
16h45 - 17h05 Fair For All: How Canada Crafted a Balanced Copyright Law, Michael Geist (University of Ottawa)
17h05 - 17h30 Debate

Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/cgreen/open-education-un-sustainable-development-goals

The world’s nations have adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and committed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG4 is about “Education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” This session will explore how and why the global open education community can work with their national governments to mainstream Open Educational Resources (OER) in support of achieving SDG4.

The Faces of the Commons Global Report brought a set of recommendations to be put forward by CC. These recommendations were drawn upon the comments, insights and perspectives of the current affiliates to the network. One of the strongest concepts that appeared was the need for CC “to build a culture of appreciation”. Although there were some ideas outlined (such as highlight the role of the language inside the network), we want to discuss further with current and potentials members of the network in which way this “culture of appreciation” could be put together. This session will focus on finding the mechanisms and the ways in which we could build a more inclusive community and establish a platform for action.

Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand is a tiny but mighty CC affiliate at the bottom of the world. We share the lessons we've learned in building up an affiliate organisation with national reach and impact.

Sean Flynn and Mike Palmedo of American University Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) will present initial products of their ongoing research project on the impact of open, general and flexible user rights in copyright law -- followed by a roundtable discussion of copyright reform advocates on the ways and means of achieving open copyright user rights in domestic and international law.
This session was independently organized by Mike Palmedo and Lisette Kalshoven. It is sponsored by Re:Create Coalition.