Czech Gov’t Drafting Copyright Bill...

..seems a direct attack to open & alternative licensing. [27aug10]

The draft of a new copyright law in the Czech Republic seems like a direct frontal attack on alternative licensing schemes (including Creative Commons licenses.

Under the draft text, anyone who wants to use a public license must report to a copyright collective administrator. The administrator would then review the work in question and the creator would have to prove that he or she has created that work in the first place. Then, and only then, can a creator legally use a public license of their choice.

One of the key aspects of Creative Commons is the ease to obtain a license. You just browse to the Creative Commons website, select the license you want by answering a few simple questions, and then you get a block of code you can paste on any HTML website you are building to tell everyone what you can and cannot do. This is one of many reasons Creative Commons is so successful.

Now, it seems, the Czech Republic is working to end this practice altogether. According to a very disturbing report by Czech media site Piratske Noviny. A manually translated version to English is available here.

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