Catherine Stihler OBE was appointed CEO of Creative Commons, in August 2020, a non-profit organisation that helps overcome legal obstacles to advance better sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s pressing challenges. She has been an international champion for openness as a legislator and practitioner for over 20 years. She was a member of the European Parliament for Scotland representing the Labour Party. At the European Parliament, she became one of Scotland’s longest-serving and most respected legislators. Prior to joining Creative Commons, she served as the CEO of the Open Knowledge Foundation. Catherine reflects on this trajectory that led her to Creative Commons and the lessons learned from the EU Copyright Directive adoption. She talks about the growing importance of Creative Commons licences and the importance of various ongoing legislative developments (e.g. AI, disinformation). She highlights the value of Creative Commons for creativity and knowledge sharing. Finally, throughout the episode she emphasises the need for the community, from libraries to civil society organisations, that are seeking a progressive copyright reform to unite and stand together in order to ensure their voice is heard by policymakers.

Key Takeaways

The Importance of Open Knowledge in Recent times
Thoughts on the Current State of the Copyright Directives Movement
The Future Role of Creative Commons
Global Legislative Developments in Copyright Laws
The Movement's Effects Outside of Politics
The Difference Between a Regular Business Model and an Open Business Model
Guest Prediction for 2030 and Her Takeaways

Quote Takeaways

The opposition was strong, and as a result, we must examine ourselves and consider how we might work more closely together as an open movement, with common goals that we can all agree on when confronted with such strong resistance. - Catherine

We see the value through openly sharing content works in terms of new knowledge being built on and that knowledge is built on another knowledge and creativity is built on other creativity. - Catherine

Speakers in this Episode

Catherine Stihler | CEO of Creative Commons having served as CEO of the Open Knowledge Foundation. She represented Scotland in the European Parliament for 20 years.
Profile: https://creativecommons.org/author/catherine
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherine-stihler-a7b83711
Twitter: https://twitter.com/c_stihler?lang=en

Gwen Franck | Communications Specialist at EGI Foundation | Communications and Events at Knowledge Center Data & Society
Website: Gwenfranck.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwenfranck
Twitter: https://twitter.com/g_fra

Chapters

00:00- Introduction
00:40 - Guest Bio
01:46 - The importance of Open Knowledge and the Push for This Mission
09:54 - Reflections of our guest on the Current results in the Copyright Directives Movement
16:26 - the Role of Creative Commons in the future
22:14 - Legislative Developments on Copyright laws on a Global Scale
25:53 - The Impacts of the Movement Outside Politics
27:51 - Regular Business Model vs Open Business Model
34:45 - The Guest’s Moment where she hit A Wall
38:47 - Guest Prediction for 2030 and Her Takeaways
42:05 - Outro

This podcast was produced by Heartcast Media.
https://www.heartcastmedia.com/