Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Administrative and preservation metadata > Rights metadata for personal archives
Rights metadata for personal archives
Standards for digital rights management
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a form of licensing which enables copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licences. The licences were developed in recognition of the fact that many rights holders do not wish to restrict the use of their materials as rigidly as the default copyright protections and may in fact wish to encourage re-use of their creations. Creative Commons allows creators to generate licences for their materials very simply, by completing an online form. The licences have three parts:
- A machine readable part - this allows search engines to search specifically for materials that can be re-used without tracing and seeking the permission of rights holders.
- A human readable part - this part allows creators to understand the licence they are granting and potential re-users to understand the licence that is granted them.
- A part for legal professionals - this part is the legalese that ensures that licences are legally sound.
The Creative Commons Licences include three major characteristics:
- Permissions - rights granted by the licence.
- Prohibitions - things prohibited by the licence.
- Requirements - restrictions imposed by the licence.
Each work covered by a Creative Commons licence has a Creative Commons graphic displayed or embedded in it to alert users to the presence of a licence.
Creative Commons licences were designed to facilitate the re-use of web-based works, though they can be used in other contexts. Whilst most of the material in a personal digital archive is likely to be private in nature (e.g. day-to-day correspondence and working papers), some record creators may have attached Creative Commons licences to their works - usually electronic publications and other web-based material intended for public consumption. Digital curators need to be aware of any such works included in the archives they administer, because these licences take precedence over copyright protection - usually allowing digital material to be used more freely. In addition to setting out the specific rights attached to a digital object, a Creative Commons licence has optional fields in which to record both the creator’s and copyright holder’s names, enabling archivists to identify rights and rights holders for inclusion in the metadata record.
