Pinang International | 菁仔ê世界 | 檳榔國際

Shall Terms of Service Trump Public Licenses?

trc — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:34:00 +0800

The following is just my own experience and opinion.

A funny thing recently happened to me: I cannot get my own photos from my Flickr account. The high-resolution files I uploaded are no longer available to me or anyone; only the smaller (resized) images are accessible. Flickr assures me, however, that "the originals are saved in case you upgrade later". Here is the story. I paid a fee to upgrade to a "Pro account" more than one year ago, but didn't renew it when my subscription expired one year later. Now Flickr keeps the originals away from me, again a "Free account" user who is not supposed to have access to the originals at the first place.

Why am I surprised? Didn't Flickr spell out the difference between "Pro" and "Free" to me? I guessed they did when I upgraded, but obviously I was not paying attention to the details. I thought the difference between "Free" and "Pro" is about the amount of storage I can use, not about whether Flickr can hide my own files from me at its site.

My photos at Flickr are released under the Creative Commons (CC) Licenses, which means anyone can copy and distribute them as long as the licenses are respected. Of course I hope that people use the high-resolution originals. But Flickr keeps the originals away from all people, myself included, if I don't pay Flickr again. To be fair, the resized images are still available, and CC-licensed, to all — "Pro", "Free", or not — at Flickr's site. Nevertheless I am frustrated that my effort in using the CC licenses to help distribute my (high-resolution) photos is offset by Flickr.

Flickr is part of Yahoo. The Yahoo! Terms of Service (ToS) requires me to grant Yahoo, among others, a license to use the photos I upload to Flickr (9.b). Supposedly that is where I give it the right to hide my own photos from me. Moreover, the service from Flickr is provided "as is" and with no warranty of any kind (19.a). Yahoo can change its ToS anytime too (24). In short, Flickr can do many things to my photos but is under little obligation to me, if I use its service.

Other content hosting services are no better, in despite that many of them help you mark your works as CC-licensed at their sites. Google's Picasaweb photo sharing service is known to mix up the CC licenses' marks with "All rights reserved" in some non-sensible manner (~~take a look at the licensing information about this featured photo~~ note: this mix-up has been corrected by Google). At freesound.org and slideshare.net, you must register before you can download CC-licensed works hosted at their sites. My colleague I-Yuan doesn't like this but, as Bob argues, these service providers cannot be said to violate the terms of the CC licenses. We have agreed to their Terms of Service before files are uploaded to their sites!

CC licenses are tools to help people distribute and share their works. If my photo is CC-licensed, you can copy it and pass it to others without asking me. You do not have to get the photo directly from me, and you need not download it from some designated web sites either. Once you have the photo, you can freely redistribute it, along with its license information, to anyone without the need to again ask me or anyone. This peer-to-peer nature of free distribution and redistribution is at the core of public licenses such as the Creative Commons Licenses and the GNU General Public Licenses. These public licenses enable and encourage large-scale people-to-people sharing of their works.

When I rely on a particular service provider to store and distribute contents, however, its ToS imposes conditions on what can be uploaded and how they are available at its site. These conditions may not be in line with the public licenses' free circulation ideals. Here is another example. Although CC licensed works can be freely copied and distributed, they may not be sublicensed (4.a). Sublicensing complicates things; it is not necessary when public licenses are used. However, Yahoo's ToS asks me to grant it a license to use all the photos I upload. This means that I cannot upload, say, both Bob's CC BY-SA licensed photo and my retouched version to Flickr, so that their differences can be more easily compared. Unless, of course, I get Bob to grant me the right to sublicense his photo to Yahoo. But this defeats the very purpose of the CC BY-SA license, which already allows us to copy, distribute, modify, and redistribute Bob's original and our modifications (as long as the works are properly attributed and CC BY-SA licensed).

Flickr, Freesound, Picasaweb, and Slideshare are some of the earliest content hosting services that adopt the CC licenses. Many of their services are provided for free, and their sites host some of the largest collections of CC-licensed works. I cannot but applaud their efforts in supporting the CC licenses. However, we shall also be aware that these free services do not come for free; their Terms of Service impose conditions on what and how our works are kept and circulated at their sites. As these services increasingly become the hubs of content circulation of our age, we need to keep our eyes on how they are shaping our sharing concepts and practices. Creative Commons Licenses are best used without other conditions, and we shall not allow Terms of Service to trump Public Licenses.

Note: This entry was first posted at the Creative Commons Taiwan web site.

網站服務條款應該蓋過公眾授權條款嗎？

以下只是我個人的經驗與想法。

最近有件趣事發生在我身上：我在 Flickr 的帳號裡，拿不到我自己的照片。先前我上傳的高解析度照片檔案，任何人（包括我）都看不到了；只能看到較小尺寸的縮圖影像檔。不過 Flickr 要我不要擔心，「照片的原件還留著，就等您升級」。故事是這樣的。一年多以前我付費升級成為「專業帳號」的用戶，一年後服務到期但我沒有繼續繳費。現在的我又回復到「免費帳號」，本來就沒有取得高解析度照片原件的權利。所以 Flickr 把我的原件藏起來，不給我用了。

我有需要這樣大驚小怪嗎？難道 Flickr 沒講清楚「專業帳號」和「免費帳號」的區別嗎？在我升級的時候，我想它應該有說吧。不過顯然我沒注意這些細節。我以為「免費」和「專業」的差別只在於網站上我可以使用的空間大小；哪知道 Flickr 會拿我自己的檔案跟我捉迷藏。

我在 Flickr 的照片都使用創用CC授權條款，也就是說任何人只要遵守授權條款的約定，都可以複製和散布我放在 Flickr 的照片。當然我希望大家用的是高解析度的照片原件。不過現在 Flickr 把這些原件藏起來了；如果我不付費，就不給任何人用（包括我在內）。當然，較小尺寸的縮圖影像還在 Flickr 網站上，也還是以創用CC方式授權給所有人使用（不管您是「專業」、「免費」還是根本不是 Flickr 帳號的用戶）。不過，我使用創用CC授權條款來幫助我散布（高解析度）照片的用意，卻受到 Flickr 的干擾，我還是很在意。

Flickr 是雅虎提供的服務。雅虎的「網站服務條款」 (Terms of Service; ToS)要我授權給雅虎，讓它可以使用我上傳到 Flickr 的照片（9.b）。我想就是這一條讓它可以把我的照片藏起來吧。而且，根據這份網站服務條款，Flickr 的服務是以「現狀」為前提，沒有任何服務上的保證（19.a）。雅虎也可以隨時修改它的網站服務條款（24）。也就是說，如果我使用雅虎的服務，Flickr 是可以對我的照片玩把戲，對我也沒太大責任。

其他網站也好不到哪邊去。現在許多內容網站都可以將您所上傳的內容標示為創用CC授權，不過它們的服務卻不盡令人滿意。舉例來說，Google 的 Picasaweb 照片分享服務，會把創用CC的授權要素圖象和 "All rights reserved" （「所有權利保留」）這句話很不搭嘎的放在一起（~~看一下這張特選照片的授權資訊吧~~ 註：Google 已更正此種錯誤）。在 freesound.org 和 slideshare.net 網站，您要先註冊才能下載它們網站上CC授權的作品。我的同事易原對此很不以為然，但就如柏強所講的，不能說這些內容服務網站就違反了創用CC授權條款。在上傳檔案到這些網站之前，我們可同意了它們的服務條款啊！

創用CC授權條款是工具，協助眾人散布、分享彼此的作品。我以CC授權的照片，您不用問我就可以直接拷貝、轉手。您不一定要直接從我這裡取得照片，也不需要到特定的網站去下載。拿到照片後，只要同時保留授權資訊，您可以自由地再散布給任何人，不用再問我或是其他任何人的意見。這種同儕傳播、自由散布與再散布的方式，是創用CC授權條款和「GNU 一般公眾授權條款」(GNU General Public License)這類公眾授權條款的核心。公眾授權條款促成並鼓勵大規模、眾人對眾人方式的作品分享。

當我使用某網站所提供的服務來儲存和散布內容，該網站的服務條款就可以設一些條件，限制我可以上傳的內容、以及這些內容在該網站被取用的方式。這些條件未必和公眾授權條款的自由流通理念一致。再舉一個例子。以創用CC方式授權的著作，都可以被自由地複製與散布，但不能被「再授權」(sublicense)給別人(4.a)。再授權會讓事情變得複雜；使用了公眾授權，就不需要再授權了。但是雅虎的網站服務條款要求我授權它使用我上傳的所有照片。這意味著，我不能把柏強以創用CC「姓名標示-相同方式分享」授權的照片，以及我改自他原作的照片，一起上傳到 Flickr 網站上，方便大家比較兩張照片不一樣的地方。當然，除非我又找到柏強請他同意我可以把他的照片再授權給雅虎。這不是很麻煩嗎？柏強使用創用CC「姓名標示-相同方式分享」授權條款的用意，就是要大家自由地重製、散布、修改、再散布他的照片以及改自他原作的作品（只要姓名有標示好，作品也同樣使用創用CC「姓名標示-相同方式分享」授權），不用再去找他啊！

Flickr, Freesound, Picasaweb, Slideshare 這些內容存放服務很早就採用了創用CC授權條款。這些服務大都免費，網站上也匯集了大量的創用CC授權的作品。這些服務能支持創用CC授權，我不能不為它們鼓掌。不過我們也要瞭解，使用這些免費的服務並不是就不必付出代價；這些網站的服務條款，對於我們存放在它們那裡的作品及其流通方式，設下了條件。這些服務已日漸成為我們時代的內容流通中樞，也形塑我們對於分享的概念與作法，而這需要我們的關注。使用創用CC授權條款時，不要有外加條件，我們也不應該讓網站服務條款蓋過公眾授權條。

註：本文先前已刊於台灣創用CC計畫網站。

Route 61

trc — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:28:00 +0800

By chance we took on Route 61 on the first day of the lunar year. We were visiting Fort Zeelandia, and thought it would be interesting to drive north to Taichung from there on Route 61. Route 61 is the West Seaside Expressway; some segments are not yet finished. The route goes through some "inland sea" (lagoon) and passes many small land areas developed for fish farming. There was little traffic, and the scene mostly solitary.

On Route 17, looking east on a bridge to Cigu Township.

Turn right and you are onto Route 61, northbound. The stalls sell sea food and oyster snack.

Looking west on Route 61. Sunset on the Taiwan Strait in a hour.

Very little traffic on Route 61.

These road signs keep me oriented.

In Budai Township, I think. "Inland Sea" (Lagoon) oyster farming.

Route 61 is considered an expressway, so there are over-passes now and then.

It is getting dark, and no more photo.

Road Trip to Kenting

trc — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:58:00 +0800

Early this month we were on a road trip to Kenting. It is a semi-annual family trip we take in the winter break; the other in the summer. We drove south all the way to Kenting from Taipei, and stopped at Taichung, Meinong, and Kaohsiung; and on the return, at Tainan and again at Taichung. The kids had been to Kenting several times. They were less thrilled about the place. Still, Kenting continues to be a favorite of the family. As for myself, often I am in a better mood whenever going more southern than Taichung. This time it is of no exception.

These photos, I hope, capture the mood of the trip. It is not the full picture, of course. (We went to two hospitals, but I am not going to write about it.) It has been a fun trip.

These pictures were taken when I was not behind the wheel, mostly.

The road not yet traveled: Highway 6 to Puli, then to Sun Moon Lake.

Central Taiwan is a mix of agricultural and industrial scenes.

Power networks crisscross road networks.

Highway 3 goes through numerous tunnels.

A radio tower? I cannot be sure.

Almost always stop at this rest area every time I am on Highway 3.

The giant banyan tree in the rest area.

We stayed at Kaohsiung for two days. We went to Rueifong Night Market in the first evening. We had been to Liouhe Night Market in Kaohsiung, so I expected Rueifong to be about the same. I was wrong. The feels are quite different. I cannot say that I like one over the other. Rueifong is very compact and too crowded; Liouhe has too many Japanese tourists. It is hard to have a personal favorite about night market.

My first time at Rueifong Night Market, Kaohsiung City.

A very popular place, it seems.

Over exposed, but I like it.

The crowd, and the densely arranged stalls in the market.

The next day we went to Cijin Island, once a peninsula, just outside the Port of Kaohsiung. We went through the Cross Harbor Tunnel by car; last time we took the ferry. By car, we were able to explore more about Cijin.

Cargo ships lining up to enter Kaohsiung Port, as seen from Cijin Island.

The bikers at Cijin

Laid back at Cijin.

Every moment seems ever more relaxed at Cijin.

Kenting needs no word. Here are some photos.

Good morning, Kenting.

Facing south from Nanwan Bay, Kenting.

Facing east from Longpan Park, Kenting.

A quite corner of Kenting; the bikers were there too.

A road trip, by its nature, asks to explore roads that, until now, have not been taken. I have circled Taiwan several times by car — it is a small island after all — but are often wondering about the roads not yet taken. The southern tip of Route 1, or at least some segments of it, was new to me and proves to be very memorable for this trip.

Heading north on Route 1. A "Grandma Black Pearl Wax Apple and Mango" shop.

I like this view on Route 1 so much I stop my car. About to connect to Highway 3.

Note: There are 30 photos about the trip in this album.

Free Culture Research Workshop 2009 (Report)

trc — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:14:00 +0800

Free Culture Research Workshop 2009 took place at Harvard Law School on October 23, 2009. This one-day workshop was attended by about 50 scholars and practitioners interested in emerging issues and challenges connected to "Free Culture" (as exemplified by collaborative production of culture artifacts such as Wikipedia, and the enabling technologies, legal agreements, and social norms behind them). The participants necessarily come from different disciplines — anthropology, economics, law, and information technology, among others — but have been previously engaged in research and investigation in various aspects of Free Culture. As such, this workshop provides a rare opportunity for this diverse group of people to interact and jointly reflect on their findings, to develop possible research agendas, and to facilitate collaborations. The workshop agenda, as well as the essays submitted by the participants, are available at the workshop website.

The workshop was opened by welcome remarks from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, and the NEXA center, Politecnico di Torino (the main sponsors of the workshop). After a brief opening by Lawrence Lessig, Jonathan Zittrain facilitated a warm-up session where the participants introduced themselves. The main part of workshop consisted of three sessions, each lasted 1½ hours. As there were a large number of participants, no podium presentation was used, instead each session proceeded by a themed discussion led by a moderator (who had read all essays related to the theme of the session). The themes for the three sessions were "Lessons from Practice" (moderated by Aaron Shaw), "Free Culture and the Marketplace" (moderated by James Grimmelmann), and "Free Culture in Society" (moderated by Nagla Rizk). A one-hour wrap-up session was moderated by Giorgos Cheliotis and Elizabeth Stark held at the end, and was followed by some summary comments from William Fisher.

Given the conversational nature of the sessions, I can only recall, overly simplifying and subjective, what I still remember now of my understanding then of the discussions. The participants' essays at the workshop website are the definite sources of their viewpoints. (Note that not everyone who had submitted an essay did come to the workshop.) In the first session, the discussions are around what are Free Culture practices, and what are (shaping) the current landscapes of these practices. There is some argument for more quantitative measurements (e.g., statistics on CC license adaptations), but also about what are to be measured and how. (Do we recognize every form of Free Culture?) Issues of governance, in organizations like Creative Commons and in collaborations for culture productions, are also raised.

For the "Free Culture and the Marketplace" session, I am attracted to the essays by Bodó Balázs, Judith Donath, James Grimmelmann, and Yuri Takhteyev. They explore the various "free" factors (as in cost and in expression) in people's interactions to one another, in group dynamics, and in their interfaces to relationships established by monetary transactions. My reading is that the convenient analogy between free software and free culture is not really satisfactory. In the discussion, I used a Karaoke get-together to illustrate that free culture is not about free cultural artifacts (i.e., duplicating the sound tracks), but more about uncensored cultural practices (i.e., singing with friends). I wish I had deliberated my thoughts better.

The last session includes several interesting essays, e.g. by Julie Cohen, Gabriella Coleman, and Zac Zimmer, which offer legal, political, social, and even literarily critical views of freedom in the current copyright regime. The discussions, however, more or less center on whether Free Culture is a social movement, and if it is, what constitutes this movement, what it aims to change, and how. My feeling is that there is little agreement on what the Free Culture movement is (if there is one), as we have yet to fully comprehend what Free Culture is. I think it is also premature to equal what Creative Commons licenses can do with what Free Culture is about. But this is just my opinion. The participants agree, however, that more research shall be done, and ones shall ask critical research questions.

One of the pleasures in participating in a research workshop like this is to meet colleagues and friends whom one does not often get to meet face-to-face. I was very happy to see Shunling Chen (SJD candidate, Harvard Law School), Mike Linksvayer (VP, Creative Commons), John Wilbanks (VP, Science Commons), and quite a few Creative Commons jurisdiction project leads at the workshop. At the morning of October 24, the day after the workshop, CC jurisdiction project leads and representatives from China Mainland, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Singapore, and Taiwan also got together with Diane Cabell (Corporate Counsel, iCommons), Mike Linksvayer, and Lawrence Lessig. We updated one another about the status of our jurisdiction projects, and even planned out some joint projects.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Note: Obligatory trip report, submitted to Academia Sinica in December 2009.

Related note: Jude Yew took some nice photos about the workshop.

International Semantic Web Conference 2009 (Report)

trc — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:50:00 +0800

International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) is the premier conference on semantic web research. The 8th conference in this series was held in 27th – 29th, October, 2009, at the Westfields Conference Center near Washington, DC. The main conference consists of about 80 oral presentations scheduled in 3 days, categorized into Research Track, Semantic Web In-Use Track, Doctoral Consortium Track, and Industry Track. There is also a poster session, a lightning talk session, and a Semantic Web Challenge session where new applications of semantic web datasets and technologies are showcased and entered into competition. Pat Hayes (Institute for Human and Machine Cognition), Tom Mitchell (Carnegie-Mellon University), and Nova Spivack (Radar Networks) gave three keynotes. The detailed program can be found at the ISWC 2009 conference website.

In addition to the main conference, ISWC 2009 also included tutorials and workshops, held on the 25th and 26th. As this is the first time I ever attended ISWC (or any semantic web conference), I took this opportunity to learn more from the following: How to Consume Linked Data on the Web (tutorial), Legal and Social Frameworks for Sharing Data on the Web (tutorial), Building Ontology-based Applications using Pellet (tutorial), and Terra Cognita (workshop). ISWC 2009 also co-located with other meetings. Among them, I was interested in the 6th OWL Experiences and Directions Workshop (23rd – 24th), the 3rd International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (25th – 26th), and the Semantic Web and Museum Data Workshop (25th), but did not attend any of them because of time constraint. The ISWC 2009 website has links to all tutorials, workshops, and co-located meetings.

Given the many attractions in ISWC 2009, I can only say about a few that interested me. Tom Mitchell's keynote shows how ontologies (even the simple ones) help structuring information machine-mined from large collections of web pages, and how the extracted data helps refining the human-given ontologies. This model of mutual enrichment, though only on special knowledge domains and not entirely automatic, seems to work well and warrants further investigation. Erétéo, Buffa, Gandon, and Corby give a nice presentation on using semantic web technologies for the analyses of online social networks. Auer, Lehmann, and Hellmann show how to add a spatial dimension to the web of linked data by elevating information from the community built OpenStreetMap datasets. I also find Bernhard Schandl's presentation on Functions over RDF Language Elements interesting (perhaps because of my background in functional programming).

One of the objectives for me to attend ISWC 2009 is to learn "in the field" about ontologies especially about how they are used, in practice, in semantic web applications. To this end, I get some understanding of this area from the following presentations: OntoCase — Automatic Ontology Enrichment Based on Ontology Design Patterns (Eva Blomqvist), What Four Million Mappings Can Tell You About Two Hundred Ontologies (Ghazvinian, Noy, Jonquet, Shah, and Musen), and Exploiting Partial Information in Taxonomy Construction (Shearer and Horrocks).

My personal favorites, however, are the following three presentations: Produce and Consume Linked Data with Drupal! by Stéphane Corlosquet et. al., which also receives the best paper in the Semantic Web In-Use Track, What's New for SPARQL? which is a panel organized by the W3C SPARQL Working Group, and Linked Data and The New York Times by Evan Sandhaus. In my view, these are nice examples of the maturity of (and the need for continuous improvement to) the tools, languages, and applications of the semantic web research.

Over all, ISWC 2009 is a great event to sample the state of the art in semantic web research and development. My impression is that people from different backgrounds are congregating to the semantic web area. For example, you see people working on description logic, on rule and reasoning, on ontology, on information retrieval and web mining, on linking open data on the web, and on web standardization and engineering. There is a significant presence of European research networks (e.g., DBpedia, LarKC, and NeON); one can also easily sense the intense interest from the industries (especially from the US defense industry). It has been a large crowd of interesting people.

Chantilly, Virginia, USA.

Note: Obligatory trip report, submitted to Academia Sinica in December 2009.

A Name to Remember

trc — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:12:00 +0800

Morakot, 2009/08/07 at 05:25 UTC, when it started to bring record rainfall and heavy damage to Taiwan.

Image: NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response.

要牢記的名字

莫拉克在 2009/08/07 05:25 UTC 的位置。它已開始在台灣帶來破紀錄的雨量與災害。

Dialogue with Self

trc — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:03:00 +0800

與自己的對話

«Whale Island Uprising» CC-licensed

trc — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:59:00 +0800

By chance I encountered this CD album titled «Whale Island Uprising: Declaration of Human Rights». What caught my eyes actually is not the reflective words on the cover of album package (my apology for the following inadequate translation):

In the Winter of 2008, the youth of the Whale Island gang first put together their voices. With their plain and pure passion, and their believe in equity and justice, they brought out these works to show they care!

Think — of all the lies in the media and politics, how would you look through the superficies and get to the truth?

Feel — in your wandering and loss, and the rigidity and constraints of the system, do you see yourself?

Watch — human rights ignored and by-passed, can you endure the inequities and the consequences?

Rather, it is the small CC BY-NC mark at the back of the album cover that I recognize by instinct. On the cover, there are also links to Amnesty International Taiwan and the Small Place Tour events. How would human rights and copyright rights connect in this CC-licensed CD produced by Gamaa Music?

The connection is that music societies in ten colleges in central and southern Taiwan, as well as many indie bands, collaborated in organizing more than 10 Small Place Tour concerts last year. Year 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights. Amnesty International had been working with artists and musicians everywhere in giving small concerts, so as to reach out to people to care for worldwide human rights issues. This global campaign was called the Small Place Tour.

These concerts and the albums were not funded by Amnesty International; they were voluntary efforts by the participating artists and musicians. By using music to promote human rights, it was hoped that the message would touch upon more people. It is by this connection that I feel especially thankful that the «Whale Island Uprising» album is released under a CC license.

Note: This entry was first posted at the Creative Commons Taiwan web site.

Image: www.gamaamusic.com

《鯤島起義》以創用CC授權釋出

偶然的機會接觸到這張音樂專輯，叫做《鯤島起義之人權宣言》。牽引我眼睛的不是CD包裝盒側邊的冷冽文案：

2008的冬天，鯤島幫的青年首次集結發聲。以素樸的熱情，與對平等正義的信仰創作，搖滾對社會的關懷！

思索 — 在媒體政治操作的紛擾矯情謊言喧鬧洪流中，要怎麼看穿表面，回溯本質？

心疼 — 人們盲目追尋徬徨迷惘，被扭曲的體制規訓束縛，孤寂空洞中看不到自己。

看見 — 人權價值被忽略與輕蔑，導致社會問題叢生及資源分配的不公不義。

而是近乎「職業性」本能所瞄到、不起眼的創用CC授權標示。這張由迦鎷文化音樂國際有限公司發行的專輯，以「姓名標示 — 非商業性」方式釋出。

CD包裝盒上卻也同時標示了國際特赦組織台灣總會以及「小地方音樂季」 (Small Place Tour) 的網址。著作權與人權有關嗎？

原來這是去年底由中南部十所大專院校社團、以及台灣十多組獨立樂團發起，共同為人權發聲，巡迴演出十數場的紀念專輯。去年為了紀念世界人權宣言60週年，國際特赦組織以多場次、持續舉行、小型演唱會的方式，來呼喚普世大眾關注人權議題。這項全球的在地活動就稱為「小地方音樂季」。

這些演唱會、唱片不是由國際特赦組織出資舉辦或發行，而是由音樂人主動將他們的演出、作品與人權議題結合，以求能將觸角伸得更遠更深。而台灣的這張紀念專輯能以創用CC方式釋出，也就分外令人感念了。

註：本文先前已刊於台灣創用CC計畫網站。

Taipei Held Meeting on Public Licensing of Scientific Data and Publications

trc — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:52:00 +0800

Creative Commons Taiwan organized the Symposium on Common Use Licensing of Publicly Funded Scientific Data and Publications at Taipei, Taiwan, on March 27, 2009. The symposium was jointly organized by CODATA Taiwan, NARL Science & Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI), Taiwan, and NRC Board on Research Data and Information, USA. The meeting was held in Academia Sinica, the host of Creative Commons Taiwan.

The symposium program, as well as the abstracts and slides of the presentations, is available at the symposium website http://scientificdata2009.creativecommons.org.tw/programme. The one day symposium consists of three sessions and one panel. The symposium touches upon the history of and the rationale for commons use of scientific data and publications (session 1), emphasizes the current practice and trend of common use licensing (session 2), and discusses the various issues and challenges faced by the scientific communities (session 3).

Joining from US at the symposium are Paul F. Uhlir from the National Academy of Sciences, Harlan J. Onsrud from University of Maine, and Kaitlin Thaney from Science Commons. Gene Hettel from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Philippines, and whom the Creative Commons Taiwan team met at the Commons Crossroads meeting at Manila in February, also joins the symposium and gives a presentation on IRRI's new Creative Commons licensing policy for its scientific publications.

The Taiwanese speakers include Ted Lau (STPI), Ly-yun Chang, Kwang-Tsao Shao, and Eric Yen (all from Academia Sinica), Chau Chin Lin (Taiwan Forestry Research Institute), and Ming-Che Wu (Taiwan Livestock Research Institute). Ly-yun Chang gives an overview of the Survey Research Data Archive that has been collected and maintained at the Center for Survey Research, Academia Sinica. Shao and Lin discuss issues and challenges in sharing biodiversity data and publications, and present the Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility.

The symposium was closed by a panel, chaired by D. T. Lee (Chairman of CODATA Taiwan), on policy issues in implementing common use licensing of scientific data and publications. The panelists consist of Paul F. Uhlir, Ted Lau, Harlan J. Onsrud, and Tyng-Ruey Chuang (Creative Commons Taiwan). They exchange thoughts on policy issues and examine potential policy instruments to actively enable the sharing of scientific data and publications.

Note: This entry was first posted at the Creative Commons Taiwan web site. The Chinese language text below of this entry is quite different from the English language text.

Image: scientificdata2009.creativecommons.org.tw (designed by Wen-Yi Chou)

科學資料的開放近用與自由流通

今年3月27日中央研究院舉行了一場「公共出資的科學資料與出版品的一般使用與授權」學術研討會。該會議邀集了不同領域的學者專家、公眾授權的倡議者與採用者、以及研究機構的策略規劃者，就科學資料與出版品的開放近用與自由流通，進行了廣泛的討論（詳見研討會網址，以及講者投影片）。

科學出版品（指可被視為著作的部份），在一般使用與公眾授權方面，已受到相當的重視。在觀念推展與實務作法上，無論是法律工具如創用CC授權條款，或是散布管道如採用開放近用 (Open Access) 的學術期刊及機構典藏庫 (Institutional Repository) 的建立，甚或是政策規範如美國〈國家衛生研究院公共近用政策〉 (‹NIH Public Access Policy›) 等各方面，目前已有許多可以借鏡、相互學習的地方。

科學資料（因進行科學研究而所蒐集產生的資料）的開放近用與自由流通，情況就比較複雜。資料 (Data) 以及資料庫 (Database) ，是否為受法律保護的客體，在不同國家有不同的法律規範。歐洲議會於1996年3月所通過的《資料庫之法律保護指令》 («Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases») ，對於資料庫給予法律保護，並認為對資料庫的權利是特有的 (sui generis) ，與對著作的權利不同，兩者分別受到保護。但在美國、台灣、以及其他許多國家，資料庫不被視為著作，不受到著作權法的保護，也未必以法律給予特有的保護。

使用創用CC授權條款來作資料的釋出，嚴謹來說並不合適，因為資料並不是受著作權法保護的客體。荷蘭 CC 計畫 (Creative Commons Netherlands) 在進行 CC 授權條款本地化的過程裡，考量了歐盟資料庫保護指令的情形，對荷蘭版的 CC 授權條款，就做了一些調整。為了避免使用CC授權條款所釋出的著作，是否也可被視為是資料庫，而有適用上的疑慮，荷蘭版的 CC 授權條款裡，將著作本身的定義放寬到包括資料庫，以擴大該授權條款的適用的範圍。但在台灣以及其它（無資料庫保護法律的）國家，該國本地化的 CC 授權條款，目前並沒有（也不合適）作這些調整。

為因應科學資料在自由流通上的需要，最近 Creative Commons 正式發佈了一項稱為 CC0 (CC Zero) 的宣告。聲明人可使用 CC0 宣告，表示對所宣告的作品，不保留著作權及相關權利。這些著作權及相關權利，包括著作權利、資料庫權利、以及萃取使用該作品所內含資料等權利；聲明人也不對使用人作「姓名標示」或「相同方式分享」上的要求 [1]。 Creative Commons 希望透過 CC0 宣告，可以讓所宣告的著作和資料的流通使用更加自由，近一步擴展創意、文化、科學的共有領域。目前已有兩項計畫採用了 CC0 宣告，分別是 The ProteomeCommons.org Tranche network 以及 Personal Genome Project 。兩項都有關於生命科學的資料分享與使用。

科學資料的公眾釋出與一般使用，在散布管道與施行方法上，也較少有示範性或共通性的作為。為呈現學術研究的成果，研究者主要著重於論文的發表。用以佐證研究結果的原始資料的整理發佈，並不受到格外的重視。將原始資料清理成公眾可以獨立使用的格式，對研究者反而是額外的工作。（這讓人想到一則關於自由軟體的聽聞：有些程式開發者心理很願意釋出程式的原始碼，但最後沒能釋出，原因是覺得自己寫的程式有些醜，或是程式碼沒加註釋，覺得不好意思，但也沒時間修改了，所以就不釋出。）

一般的研究機構對其所蒐集產生的科學資料，通常在釋出政策上也不多作要求，在行政程序或是資訊技術上，也未必對研究者提供必要的協助。研究機構或是研究者本身，也常以智慧財產的角度，對科學資料的釋出，持保留的態度；當資料還沒被分析發表為論文之前，這些資料的開放近用與自由流通，尤其困難。但在現今的研究環境，能夠取得其他研究團隊的第一手原始資料，自由進行各種資料的整合、萃取、與分析，以互惠的精神協力合作，卻是非常的重要。分享觀測資料的虛擬天文台，已是常見的典範模式。

公共所出資的科學研究的產出（即使是原始資料），應該給所有公民（包括其他研究者）所使用，這在法律、政治、與倫理上，都有不可逃避的理由 [2]。民主國家中政府資訊公開，以及公共出資的科學產出的開放近用議題，也逐漸受到重視。有足夠的例證顯示，政府資訊（包括公共出資的科學資料）的公開對於社會經濟活動，相當有助益。一些研究報告就指出，相對於歐盟，美國聯邦政府採取較開放的方式，釋出所掌有的資料（如地理量測、即時氣象等原始資料），因此在相關產業的規模與發展（如地理資訊、氣象預報等服務），領先歐盟甚多。

對於科學資料與出版品的開放近用與自由流通，台灣在政策上並沒有特別的規範。雖然《科學技術基本法》的第二十條提到：「為推動科學技術研究發展，政府應擬訂科學技術資訊流通政策，採取整體性計畫措施，建立國內外科學技術研究發展之相關資訊網路及資訊體系」，但這似乎是高層次的宣示；個別研究機構對於其所產出的科學資料與出版品，是否釋出供一般使用，在作法上可能差異很大。以下簡要介紹兩項示範性的作為，供大家參考。

國科會的‹專題研究計畫執行同意書›，要求以調查法（如面訪、電話訪問、郵寄問卷等）進行計畫之主持人，應將「研究成果報告、資料讀我檔、空白問卷、過錄號碼簿、電腦資料數據檔、資料欄位定義程式等及調查資料檔案利用授權書」，送中央研究院人文社會科學研究中心調查研究專題中心。而該中心對所保管的調查資料，於一定時間後，釋出給國內外研究機構、大專院校的研究人員、教授或研究生使用。

2001年由行政院核定通過的「生物多樣性行動方案」中，明示應建置國家生物多樣性資訊中心，整合全國生物多樣性相關資料，促進研究、教育、及保育之功能。為此中央研究院已接受國科會與農委會部份經費補助，負責整合台灣生物多樣性的各式資料，並維運「台灣生物多樣性資訊入口網」 (Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility, TaiBIF) 。該網站是台灣在「全球生物多樣性資訊機構」 (Global Biodiversity Information Facility, GBIF) 的入口網站，與其它參與 GBIF 的國家入口網站，進行生物多樣性資料的全球交換與分享。

以上兩項工作的內容與挑戰，請參見張苙雲、邵廣昭兩位研究員在3月研討會的介紹。科學資料的開放近用與自由流通，還有許多努力的空間，也需要大家的關注。

註：本文先前已刊於台灣創用CC計畫網站。此篇的中文內容和英文內容相當不同。

[1] Creative Commons, ‹CC0 FAQ›. ^

[2] Paul F. Ulhir, ‹The emerging role of open repositories for scientific literature as a fundamental component of the public research infrastructure›. In «Open Access: Open Problems», pp. 59-103, G. Sica (editor), Polimetrica, Torino, Italy (2007). ^

‹Bentwave› @ WNYU

trc — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:18:00 +0800

Never have I considered myself to be into minimal techno, nevertheless I now make a habit of tuning in every Tuesday morning at 10:30 for ‹Bentwave›, hosted by Miss Eleanor at WNYU. By the way, that is Monday 10:30 pm in New York.

Each set is full of serious fun, good for 2 ½ hours! Better yet, the programs are archived with playlists. So you know where to find and what to lean on when fighting the daily inbox!

It happens that Miss Eleanor is paying a tribute to the King of Pop today.

Image: www.wnyu.org

〈折波〉 @ 紐約大學電台

從沒認為我是極簡電子音樂的愛好者，不過現在卻有個習慣每週二早上十點半準時收聽紐約大學電台，由伊蓮娜小姐主持的〈折波〉。對了，在紐約的話時間是週一晚上十點半。

每集滿滿兩個半小時，精彩緊湊！更棒的是，舊節目的錄音和曲目都有留存。所以，每日與電子郵件信箱奮戰所需要的支撐，你知道要去哪裡找了！

恰好今天伊蓮娜小姐為了「流行音樂之王」，於節目中致意。

Spring Arriving at Caoshan

trc — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:54:00 +0800

We were at Caoshan ten days ago. What a refreshing trek!

草山之春

十天之前我們去了草山。沿途小徑多怡人！

MoShang Music and Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase

trc — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:38:00 +0800

The results of the Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase have just been announced. MoShang (a.k.a. Jean Francois Marais) won the Audio category with his sound track ‹Invocation›. The winning entries in the Video and Graphic/Photo categories are from, respectively, Robbie Ferguson and William J McKee Jr. These works will be showcased in the "Examples/" directory in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 distribution. They are all released under a Creative Commons "Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0" license.

People who are into downtempo electronica probably know about and enjoy MoShang's tracks already, so MoShang Music hardly needs introduction. MoShang produced the highly acclaimed «Asian Variations» remix album in 2007, and co-produced with Pig Head Skin the collaborative music album «CABACA» in 2008. He also remixed and mastered Kou Chou Ching's double-CD award-nominated album «KOU!! It's Coming Out!!!». By the way, he is a "son-in-law of Taiwan" — a title Taiwanese fondly refer to the one who arrives from afar and gets married to one of their daughters. (Yes, someone was in their wedding just recently!)

The track ‹Invocation› is from his new EP «Stone Bell». MoShang also does live online mixes in Second Life, and is now putting up new online mixes at his website every week. Go find them and enjoy the mixes!

Note: This entry was first posted at the Creative Commons Taiwan web site.

Image: stonebell.moshang.net

Image: www.moshang.net

莫尚音樂與 Ubuntu 9.04 自由文化選拔活動

Ubuntu 9.04 自由文化選拔活動日前宣佈得獎者。其中的聲音項目由莫尚 (MoShang) 的 ‹Invocation› 一曲獲選。影像和圖像項目分別由 Robbie Ferguson 和 William J McKee Jr 的作品獲選。將於四月發佈的 Ubuntu 9.04 最新版本中，三項作品將收錄在其中的「範例」目錄，並以創用CC「姓名標示-相同方式分享 2.0」授權條款釋出供公眾使用。

許多電子音樂的愛好者對莫尚這位台灣女婿（是的，住在台灣的他幾周前才結了婚，有位台灣太太）的作品，應該都不會感到陌生。他於2007年製作的 «Asian Variations» 混音專輯深獲好評，2008年與朱約信共同製作了《卡巴卡》協力創作合輯（兩張專輯都使用創用CC授權）。拷秋勤的金曲獎入圍專輯《拷!!出來了!!!》，也是由他混音。

這次獲選的 ‹Invocation› 一曲收錄於他新近的 EP 專輯 «Stone Bell»。莫尚在 Second Life 每週有一次即時混音演出，目前他也陸續把這些演出的錄音檔在他的網站上釋出（採創用CC「姓名標示-非商業性 2.5 台灣」授權條款）。聽聽看，你會入迷！

註：本文先前已刊於台灣創用CC計畫網站

Mazu Procession

trc — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:46:00 +0800

By incident I walked across a Mazu procession, and I captured these pictures using my cellphone. Mazu and her believers in this procession are from the Songshan Cihyou Temple. Songshan Cihyou Temple was founded by the people in "the 13 streets and villages in Sihko" in 1757, according to the Temple's web site. To this day, the Temple still is a spiritual focal point for people living in the Songshan, Neihu, and Nangang districts in the Taipei city. It is an amazing feeling watching the Mazu procession going by, as if I am still a child and I am free as a kid.

媽祖繞巡

偶然的我與媽祖繞巡的隊伍相遇，用手機拍下這些照片。繞巡的媽祖與她的信徒來自松山慈祐宮。根據慈祐宮的網站，慈祐宮是由「錫口十三街庄」的居民於1757年建造完成。直到今日，慈祐宮仍是台北市松山、內湖、南港區居民的心中要地。看著媽祖繞巡隊伍經過的感覺很奇特，好像我還是小孩子，無所憂慮。

"Give Your Hands, Save The Red Men"

trc — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:39:00 +0800

I encounter this postcard designed by Amnesty International Malaysia today, and I am very impressed. A card presents the "red man" as a big Chinese character, and actually is inside a folder with a hole. The folder is a cell, and the red man character is being watched from the peeking hole. The small Chinese characters constituting the big red man start with

Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, Hu Jia in China, thousands of dissents in Tibet, and many men in other countries like ...

Beneath the peeking hole on the cell folder, the words read

Give Your Hands, Save The Red Men

When one pulls out the card to free the red man, the card materializes into a postcard ready to send to US President George W. Bush, urging him to give fair trials to the Guantánamo detainees.

Amnesty International Malaysia, I salute you!

「該出手時就出手，囚中紅人能得救」

今天有機會看到國際特赦組織馬來西亞總會所設計的一組明信片，讓人十分讚嘆。一張卡片，上面寫個大大的紅色「人」字。但這張卡片被夾在一個有洞的監獄封套裡；洞中可以窺見被囚禁的紅人。構成大紅字的小字寫著：

緬甸的昂山素枝 / 中國的胡佳 / 西藏數以千計的異見者和他國如 / …

在監獄封套裡的洞口之下，寫了以下的字句：

該出手時就出手，囚中紅人能得救

當你把卡片抽出，釋放出紅人時，發現這是一張寫好收件人是美國總統布希的明信片，促請美國公平的審判目前羈押於關塔納摩灣的囚犯。

國際特赦組織馬來西亞總會，我向您致敬！

Volfoniq Remix Kou Chou Ching

trc — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:47:00 +0800

Here is an interesting news from Kou Chou Ching, the hippest Taiwan traditional Hip Hop joint: The French artist Volfoniq has just released an EP «DUB'IN TAIWAN» collecting three mixes of their track ‹Your name is TAIWAN›. The album is released by the net label Les Cristaux Liquident (LCL) under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 license.

If you are a fan of Kou Chou Ching (like myself), you might notice that the third track in «DUB'IN TAIWAN» — ‹My dub is Taïwan: LCL edit› — is in Kou Chou Ching's double-CD album «KOU!! It's Coming Out!!!». It is the 12th track in the 2nd CD, which itself consists entirely of remixes made by friends of Kou Chou Ching based on their originals in the 1st CD. In «DUB'IN TAIWAN», however, Volfonig collaborated with Tribuman and Pier and made two new tracks: ‹Panique sur le dancefloor› and ‹Tsunamix›.

The net label Les Cristaux Liquident (LCL) is an artist collective based in Montpellier, France. From their website, they stated:

Les Cristaux Liquident considers the artistic creation as a raw material that can be reworked and whose original form can be adapted and changed. This way of apprehending art, alongside the open culture spirit, can give birth to new original creations that might be brought to evolve, transform, multiply…

All the artists releasing on LCL, have chosen the "Creative Commons" licence, a reliable way of avoiding abuses and attempts of artwork commercialization, without closing themselves to sharing practice.

Fearless open culture advocates and practitioners, indeed they are!

If you wish to enjoy more remixes of ‹Your name is TAIWAN›, you can listen to the mixes of Viba, DJ Jay Szu, and LTK Commune, which are collected as the 2nd, the 7th, and the 17th tracks in the 2nd CD of «KOU!! It's Coming Out!!!».

(Kou Chou Ching's original ‹Your name is TAIWAN› actually is also a mix: Their track mixed the legendary Chen Chou-Lin's ‹Moonlight Sighs› from the beginning!)

Note: This entry was first posted at the Creative Commons Taiwan web site.

Image: www.lescristauxliquident.org (used under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license)

〈汝介名，叫做台灣人〉本尊分身七種版本

從拷秋勤部格格捎來的消息：法國電音創作者 Volfoniq 新近出版 «DUB'IN TAIWAN» 網路專輯，只收錄〈汝介名，叫做台灣人〉一曲的三款法國風混音版。該專輯的樂風獨特，並且以創用CC「姓名標示-非商業性-禁止改作 3.0」授權方式釋出，不僅值得仔細品嚐，還可以自由收藏、轉寄給朋友！

耳朵尖的讀者也許已發現， «DUB'IN TAIWAN» 專輯中的第三首 ‹My dub is Taïwan: LCL edit› ，其實已收錄於拷秋勤金曲獎入圍專輯《拷!!出來了!!!》，是第二片 CD （友情混音版）中的第十二首。 Volfonig 這次的專輯，另外邀請了 Tribuman 和 Pier 兩位音樂人，分別再混音創作成 ‹Panique sur le dancefloor› 以及 ‹Tsunamix› 兩曲。

發行這張專輯的網路音樂品牌 Les Cristaux Liquident (LCL) 也是開放文化的倡議者與實踐者，他們的網頁上寫著：

Les Cristaux Liquident 認為藝術作品是素材，可以被再次使用，原件的形式可以被沿用與更改。這種使用藝術的方式，以及所伴隨的開放文化精神，催生了新的、原創的的作品，而可以再演化、轉變、繁衍…。

所有在 LCL 發行的藝術家，都選擇「創用CC」授權條款：這是種避免遭到濫用和藝術品商業化的可靠方式，而且創作者也不會自外於分享的實務。

《拷!!出來了!!!》的第二片 CD 中，還另外收錄了三曲〈汝介名，叫做台灣人〉的混音版，分別由 Viba （第二首）、 DJ 小四（第七首）、以及濁水溪公社（第十七首）所作。算一算，〈汝介名，叫做台灣人〉，本尊分身，共有七種版本呢！

(其實本尊也是混得很兇啊，一開始就用了陳秋霖先生創作的〈月夜嘆〉。沒聽過?就七種版本一起聽聽看吧！)

註：本文先前已刊於台灣創用CC計畫網站。