The UK
The UK team, in partnership with iCommons, has now completed a survey of artists who have thought about the relationship of their work to the traditional © model.
Although our Survey is an investigation into the use and comprehension of Creative Commons licences is a distinctive part of the project it is closely related to the goals of the wider project. The survey will offer insights into the ways that we, as creative individuals, react to and interact with the existing © framework, as well as how we are beginning to make use of Open licences.
Release of Report on ‘UK Artists, Copyright and Creative Commons’
The Arts Council England and OpenBusiness.cc announce the release of a report, which represents the results of a six-month study into artists’ attitudes towards copyright, creativity and alternative licensing practises, in particular Creative Commons (CC). Although the number of UK artists using open licensing has been growing for the last decade there had been no investigation into how or why such licences were being used.
This is a timely report which tells us something about how artists are increasingly using the law in innovative ways to distribute their work. It flags up the need for further research into the increasing use of open content licences not just by individuals but also by organisations and agencies worldwide and we are delighted to have provided some funds to allow Open Business to begin this analysis.
Bronac Ferran, Arts Council England
The focus of the report is twofold:
- to investigate how artists working in a digital environment view copyright, which structures many commercial relationships, but often prohibits sharing, copying and the easy adaptation of existing artistic works.
- to examine why some artists use Creative Commons licences, which, in contrast, facilitate sharing, copying and, depending on the terms of the particular licence used, allow derivative use for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
The report suggests that one key reason for artists’ using CC is that they perceive standard copyright as too complex and costly. CC licences are an effective and practical tool for new media artists, who adapt existing work. Artists are also using CC to exploit network effects and to better market their creative work. CC is still used by an avant-garde of mainly rather young artists; more than 140,000 websites in the UK make use of such licences.
The survey points towards a possible confusion between evolving working practices that involve re-use and remix and an individual caution about their own work. In general it can be summarised that artists are in need of simpler and more appropriate guidelines, which might be provided not only by the law, but also through funding and policy bodies such as Arts Council England.
Thanks to everybody who took part in the Art Survey!
