Mario Pena
Safe Creative will join the Communia 2010 Conference in Turin from 28th June to 1st of July. Here you can find more information and the programme.
Communia is the thematic network on the Digital Public Domain and during those days we will have the chance to share experiences and ideas with the key experts as the ones who will be speaking during those days:
Philippe Aigrain, Sopinspace
Massimo Banzi, Tinker.it
Chiara Basile, unireversity.org
David Bollier, OnTheCommons.org
Boubakar Barry, Association of African Universities
Herbert Burkert, University of St. Gallen
Mario Calabresi, La Stampa
Sandra Cortesi, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Carlo Fabricatore, Initium Studios & University of Worcester
William Fisher, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Urs Gasser, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Jonathan Gray, Open Knowledge Commons
Jean-Claude Guedon, Université de Montréal
Lucie Guibault, IVIR
Martin Hall, Salford University, UK
Jef Huang, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
Joi Ito, Creative Commons
Jafar Javan, UN Staff College
Ignasi Labastida, University of Barcelona
Paolo Lanteri, WIPO
Colin Maclay, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Catharina Maracke, Keio University
Juan Carlos de Martin, NEXA Center for Internet & Society
Jan Masschelein, Leuven
Charles Nesson, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Carlo Olmo, Politecnico di Torino
David Orban, Singularity University
John Palfrey, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Patrick Peiffer, Luxcommons
Antoine Picon, Harvard University
Francesco Profumo, Politecnico di Torino
Stefano Rodotà, University of Rome
Marco de Rossi, Oilproject.org
Marco Santambrogio
Stuart Shieber, Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Office for Scholarly Communication at Harvard University
Maarten Simons, Leuven
Bruce Sterling, Notable Futurologist and Author
Alma Swan, Key Perspectives Ltd.
Sirin Tekinay, Ozyegin
Stephan Vincent-Lancrin, OECD
June 25th, 2010
Mario Pena
We are proud to announce that we will be at the 4th Plagiarism Conference being held at Newcastle Upon Tyne in the Northumbria University from the 21st to 23rd of June 2010. More information here and in the official programme.
The themes from the 2010 conference place a positive emphasis on the value of true academic endeavour whilst highlighting innovative practice from individual practitioners and bodies throughout the education sector. Keynote speakers are key figures in the global academic integrity community, including Jude Carroll, Deputy Director of the ASKe CETL at Oxford Brookes University, UK, Dr. Teresa Fishman, Director of the Center for Academic Integrity, US, Isabel Nisbet, acting Chief Executive of Ofqual and Adrian Slater, Head of Legal Services, University of Leeds, UK.
June 18th, 2010
Mario Pena
What should we do if we find any our contents allegedly plagiarized or otherwise illegally used?
The first thing is to keep the cool. The worst thing we can do is to act impulsively or driven by anger. Take a deep breath, relax and wait 24 hours before doing anything. If you already have your work registered with Safe Creative, you have much of the way covered. That said there are several things you should do, but ultimately it all depends on the specific circumstances of each situation.
1 .- The ideal is to have a lawyer to advise you. This is the basic principle that we should always observe. While many times by one or another reason we do not have one, a good copyright lawyer, is the best guarantee for any initiative to succeed, avoid errors and waste time. However there are other factors to consider.
2 .- Evaluate the situation. Coldly analyze what do you want to happen. Do we want the content to be removed? Maybe to get some sort of compensation? Do we have been plagiarized by a large multinational or perhaps it’s been just a little blog that nearly nobody reads? Is it worth getting into legal disputes for a paragraph, or a complete ebook of us has been copied and is being sold out there without even proper attribution? We must respond these questions and from the answers we will know what to do next.
3 .- Friendly solution. This is something you really have to think about, but in most cases the plagiarism and in general any misuse happen becasue of a simple confusion or not malicious mistake, like the sheer ignorance that comes from the belief that what is on the Internet, for instance, is free to use in whatever way one might want. Many times you can solve everything with a friendly approach that saves troubles to all. Depending on the analysis of the situation we might try to prove a friendly approach to solve the problem. In a significant percentage of cases sending a friendly email to remove the content, properly credit or respect the creative commons license solves the problem. If despite this approach the issue is not settled, there are more things you can do.
4 .- Collect your evidence of authorship. If you haven’t already done so, download from Safe Creative (or from the online copyright registry you’re using) your registration certificate and the registered content. You might give this authorship to you lawyer. If your lawyer happens to need more technical information about the strength of the evidence, he or she might want to contact us. Our attorneys will be happy to provide any required documentation.
5 .- Collect proof of the alleged illegal use. Your attorney will take appropriate measures to ensure the evidence of the alleged offence doesn’t disappear. Usually this is something to do with a notary. Note that if you start a process and then the site that has allegedly plagiarized your work happens to “disappear” you might find yourself in the situation of not being able to show that your content has been illegally used.
6 .- Send “cease and desist” letter. One option you have, if you like to try in case it might work, is to send a “cease and desist” request letter from Safe Creative. Go to “My works” and to the drop-down “More Actions” on the right of the content, then select “Incidences” You will need the email address of the person who allegedly illegally used your content. Fill in the fields to send the letter. You can keep track of the incident and see if the person has agreed to your request or not.
7 .- Initiate legal action. If the delivery of the “cease and desist” request does not change the alleged plagiarist attitude or even if he or she does, you still can take legal action, yes, always advised and guided by a good lawyer.
Too often there are people who will not or can not afford a lawyer. If this is the case, and the letter of incidence has not taken effect, you might want to bring out the case -without defamation nor insult- using the tools the Internet gives you for the dissemination of information.
June 8th, 2010
Mario Pena
Safe Creative can help you with the contests for creative authors you are thinking of, being both a sponsor and/or offering the right tools to contribute to the success of it.
Safe Creative proposes you to tell us your project, and if we like it and suits our vision and project, we will help you sponsoring at least part of it. Don’t doubt it, contact us and let’s talk. We want to know about it.
But besides that, Safe Creative offers to any other contest very important tools. We describe two of them:
1.- If you are organizing the contests, you can add in the rules the need of the work to be registered with Safe Creative, creating therefore an independent authorship claim proof. This will avoid, as much as possible, for you to get works not created by the ones who send them. Creating this proof in our servers means that you have an electronic secure statement. This proof is so strong it’s virtually invulnerable.
2.- If you are taking part in contests, whether the registration in Safe Creative is or not in the rules, you might better register with us to avoid any plagiarism or work misuse temptation . Create your free of charge authorship proof requesting contests to respect your copyrights, although you might perfectly give them specific rights to use the work.
Safe Creative is the independent and neutral platform that gives tools for anybody and is very interested into encouraging creativity. Since contests are essential for the promotion of creativity, what are you waiting for to tell us your project?
June 4th, 2010