logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Creative Commons Celebrates a Big Step Forward for Open Grantmaking

James David Morgan
January 24, 2011
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

January 21, 2011; Source: Creative Commons | In the coming year, the federal government will distribute $500 million to community colleges and other higher education learning institutions across the country. The most intriguing part of this story however, is not the money itself, but what the money helps produce. All resources created using grant funds are required to be made freely available for reuse to the public under a Creative Commons license.

The money is part of the TAACCCT program, for which an acronym is necessary due to the cumbersome name given to it, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program. TAACCCT will invest $2 billion over a period of 4 years, funneled through the Department of Labor and the Department of Education. The program is designed to support job training, and is an instrument to help achieve President Obama’s goal for the U.S. to lead the world in the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.

All grant outputs produced by the program are required to be released under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which, as described in the government's program announcement, "allows subsequent users to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the copyrighted work." The caveat is that whoever spreads the materials (in their original or changed format) has to attribute the work to its original author. There's also a notice about the CC BY license that has to be included in every copy of the work. As such, although the CC BY license allows more people to use the works it covers, it is in many ways stricter than traditional copyright.

In plain, jargon-free language, here is an example of what the Creative Commons licenses enable:

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

"In practice, this means that if a community college wins a grant to create a video game to teach how to install solar panels, everyone will have the benefit of that knowledge. They will be able to play the game for free. In addition, anyone can translate it into Spanish or Russian or use it as the basis to create a new game to teach how to do a home energy retrofit."

The article "Open Grantmaking in Practice, Not Just In Principle" (where you'll find the above quote) explains the utility and potential for government use of Creative Commons licenses much more in depth.

The CC BY license requirement is a landmark for Creative Commons, itself a nonprofit, whose advocacy for alternate forms of attribution beyond copyright has been a laudable if uphill battle. As they see it, by requiring the CC BY licensing, the government is recognizing the potential of this way of attributing work.

For taxpayers, the benefit is not having to pay twice – once in taxes to create the work, then a second charge for access to it. For the funders and people who create the work, the benefit is that the fruits of their investment can be harvested by many more people in many more places than if they'd chosen traditional copyright. It's a benefit they hope to bring to more government programs in the future.—James David Morgan

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Two Years on From George Floyd’s Murder, We Fight to Protect Protest
Jamala Rogers
Building Power, Building Wealth: The Value of Community-Driven Models
Lem White and Keiko Murase
The Great Awakening: Redefining Work, Values, and Purpose
Rithika Ramamurthy
The Rich Get Richer: CEO Pay at 300 US Companies Climbs 31 Percent in 2021
Steve Dubb
The Struggle for Black Land: Preserving Heirs’ Property by Building Trust
Dr. Jennie L. Stephens
The Emergence of Black Funds
Cyndi Suarez

NPQ_Summer_2022

Upcoming Webinars

June 23rd, 2 pm ET

Compensation Equity

A Values-Based Framework & Implementation Guide

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.