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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/31/copyright_hub_launch/
The web has grown up without letting people own and control their own stuff, but a British-backed initiative might change all that, offering a glimpse of how the internet can work in the future. Their work will all be open sourced early next year.
Britain's much-anticipated Copyright Hub was given ministerial blessing when it finally opened its kimono today, boasting a pipeline of over 90 projects covering commercial and free uses.
A handy new site – Copyright done right – has also been launched, explaining what it offers. The initiative has sparked global interest.
Today, it turns out that most people actually do want what they’re missing from today’s internet: property rights (or property-ish rights) for the digital stuff they post to the interwebs. But many have found that copyright just doesn’t work for them. The Hub aims to build rights-aware layers on top of the internet, so that people can track how what they make public is used, much as DNS added ease of use to naming protocols and VPNs added privacy standards to the basic bare-bones internet.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday August 03 2015, @08:19AM
An therein lies the problem. It is only 'freely available' if the license under which it is published says it is. If I put my cat photo on the web with a CC license permitting you to use it, there is no issue. If, however, I put my cat photo on the web with a more restrictive license, and some big business comes along, uses it, and makes money - all without any recognition of my work nor permission for its use by me - then this project will give me some recourse to take legal action against the big company. This project will have published the license, indicated who owns the picture, and big business hasn't got a leg to stand on in court. Now, in the UK, taking someone to court can cost nothing - the loser pays all costs. Therefore, with this sort of support I stand a much better chance of winning my case and succeeding in court to gain recompense.
The genie is out of the bottle, no-one is going to undo the laws that are currently in place. But giving me some way of taking redress is the best I can hope for.