Creative Commons and “Free” Licenses – Considerations and Risks

About the Program:

Creative Commons licenses and other free or low-cost options for sourcing content provide diverse and affordable repositories for all kinds of creative material, but taking advantage of such licenses is not risk-free.  Understanding the terms and scope of the licenses themselves (including potentially tricky issues like attribution) and the potential pitfalls in using Creative Commons materials is critical to managing your exposure.  Join us for a Zoom panel discussion on the basics of Creative Commons and other open-source licenses, practical uses for these licenses in business, and the legal risks and challenges involved in vetting content and staying within the bounds of the licenses.

Speakers:

Michael W. Carroll is Professor of Law and the Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (2009- present). He teaches and writes about intellectual property law and cyberlaw. Professor Carroll’s research focuses on the search for balance in intellectual property law over time in the face of challenges posed by new technologies. His research includes projects about the social costs imposed by one-size-fits-all intellectual property rights and about the history of copyright in music.Professor Carroll also is recognized as a leading advocate for open access over the Internet to the research that appears in scholarly and scientific journals. He has written white papers and has given numerous presentations to university faculty, administrators, and staff around the country on this issue. In addition, he speaks about and promotes publication of open educational resources and open scientific data. Professor Carroll is a founding member of Creative Commons, Inc. (2001 – present), a global organization that provides free, standardized copyright licenses to enable and to encourage legal sharing of creative and other copyrighted works. He also serves on the Board of the Public Library of Science (2012- present) and recently completed service on the National Research Council’s Board on Research Data and Information (2008-2013). He is a member of the Editorial Board of I/S Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society (2006 – Present). In addition, he is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology (2009- Present) and a member of the Advisory Board of Public Knowledge (2009-Present).Prior to joining the WCL faculty, Professor Carroll taught at the Villanova University School of Law (2001-09), and he served as a law clerk to Judge Judith W. Rogers, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Joyce Hens Green, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (1996-97; 2000-01) (now WilmerHale) in Washington, D.C. Prior to entering law school, Professor Carroll was a journalist in Chicago, a high school teacher in Zimbabwe, and a project assistant at the Africa-America Institute, where he worked on providing election monitoring and election assistance in Africa. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Chicago.  

Jessica Moon, currently serving as Director Visual Content Strategy & Compliance at Scholastic Publishers, has held leadership roles in the IP rights industry for almost two decades. At Scholastic, Jessica oversees the central office for licensing compliance and leads strategic governance initiatives at the intersection of business operations, creative workflows, and technology. Passionate about literacy, visual storytelling, and typography, Jessica is known as a collaborative and innovative leader. She’s committed to simplifying and decluttering business process to improve operational efficiencies and defining and implementing compliance standards that reduce business risk and achieve cost savings. Jessica reads every day.

As General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for CC, Diane Peters directs the organization’s legal strategy, affairs and projects, and oversees CC’s legal staff. She coordinates legal programs and activities that harness CC’s diverse and complex international network of affiliate institutions. She also leads development of CC’s licenses and legal tools, including the CC0 public domain dedication (2009), the Public Domain Mark (2010), Version 3.0 ports and, most recently, Version 4.0 of the CC license suite (2013).
Diane is a founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center. Prior to joining CC, she served as general counsel for Open Source Development Labs (now, the Linux Foundation), and was legal counsel to Mozilla. In 2014, the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California awarded her its Intellectual Property Vanguard Award for public policy. She is based in Portland, Oregon.

Chad Rutkowski is a Partner at BakerHostetler LLP where his practice focuses on the intersection of copyright and technology. He assists clients in the midst of the “digital transformation,” helping them identify and capture the intellectual property (IP) in their valuable data, algorithms, and enterprise software. Clients rely on him to help identify their IP, to build internal processes for its management, navigate open source and other open innovation strategies, and to create licensing programs that enable full value realization. He further protects that value in disputes and litigation, whether through enforcing his clients’ IP rights or fending off attacks by competitors. Chad is the principal author of the firm’s Beyond Source Code web tool, which digests all court decisions addressing the scope of copyright protection in the non-literal elements of source code. Chad writes and presents regularly on the robust protections afforded by copyright law to software, data, artificial intelligence, and related innovations. He has helped his clients protect innovations in healthcare technology, water management, smart cities, population health management, and online consumer lending. Chad’s interest in how IP law has adapted to digital transformation began in his former role as a founder and business manager of a digital media publisher. Drawing from his professional and legal experiences, he co-leads the firm’s Technology & IP Transactions and Outsourcing practice team and contributes regularly to the firm’s IP blogs. Additionally, he is an active member of the Copyright Society of the USA and the ABA IP Law Section. Chad is AV Preeminent-rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been voted by his peers as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer and Rising Star.

CLE CREDIT:

The Copyright Society is a Certified New York State CLE Provider. Program will satisfy 1 NY CLE credit.  The intermediate program is transitional and appropriate for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys. Instructions for verifying attendance will be emailed to registrants prior to the program.

Newly admitted attorneys please note: Effective March 11 through June 30, 2020, the New York State CLE Board is permitting newly admitted attorneys to participate in Skills CLE courses in live, nontraditional formats (webconference, teleconference and videoconference) where questions are allowed during the program. The Copyright Society’s Zoom webinar will allow for questions.

COST:

Members: $25
Non-Members: $50
Student Members: Free

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Cancellation Policy
Refunds must be requested in writing at least three business days before the event. Refunds will not be issued after that point. Unfortunately we will not be able to credit your registration payment toward a future event, but you may allow another person to attend in your place. Please email rogerio@csusa.org and let us know that person’s name, affiliation, city and state.

Financial Aid Policy
The Copyright Society provides a limited number of scholarships each year to students, law clerks, unemployed attorneys, and nonprofit and government employees. For information on how to apply, please click here.