CCau has created two animations for QUT Smart Train, the Queensland University of Technology's outreach project. Both animations star the fabulous Mayer and Bettle, CCau's favourite advocates, with the second featuring a cameo by newcomer Flik. They aim to provide a fun and accessible explanation of Creative Commons. Watch them below, or for more information, go to their dedicated pages:

• Mayer and Bettle - focuses on the basics of what Creative Commons is and how it works.
• Mayer and Bettle: the sequel - provides a bit more detail about using the CC licences for your own work.

CCau also created an introductory Seed Animation for its licence launch. You can view it here.

Sailing on a Sunday Morning by magical-world CC BY-SA

Yes, that's right - we've got an update on the Powerhouse Museum's foray into the Commons on Flickr already.

As part of their initiative to release out-of-copyright photos from their Tyrrell Collection on Flickr (see below), Powerhouse has just launched a new initiative - Tyrrell Today. It aims to extend the Powerhouse Museum’s set of images on The Commons by allowing members of the public to post contemporary images from the same Sydney-centric locations as the original Tyrrell photos.

And, excitingly for us, they're encouraging people to provide the photos under a CC licence, so that the Powerhouse can archive them as part of their ongoing collection.

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney made a fabulous announcement the other day - they have joined with the Commons on Flickr project as the first museum in the world to release publicly-held historical photographs for access on Flickr. PHM joins the US Library of Congress, the world's largest photo library, which released its first images for public access in January this year.

An initial 200 black and white images from the Powerhouse's Tyrrell Collection of Sydney life in the late 1800s and early 1900s were made available last Tuesday, with 50 more added since then.

The really exciting thing about this initiative is that the images are designated 'no known copyright restrictions', a new label for Flickr created specifically for this project. This means that the photographs are able to be re-used however you like, without any limitations or fear of copyright infringement - for commercial purposes, as part of a remix work etc. You don't even need to attribute (though it's still polite to).

Some of you have probably noticed news stories over the past week about Virgin's use of CC licensed photographs as part of an advertising campaign. Here are some thoughts floating around the CCau office about the case.

The basic story is that Virgin found photos on Flickr that had been licensed under CC licences, and used them in a series of billboard and web advertisements around Australia. The advertisements are essentially the photographs with captions written across them - which were often insulting to the people pictured in the photographs - and the tagline 'are you with us?'. Controversially, Virgin did not inform the photographers that they were using the images, or the people in the photographs.

There has been a lot of discussion online about the legal and ethical implications of the campaign. Some of the photographers have criticised the campaign. Some of the people captured in the photos (and in particular the brother of a 15 year old girl who was the subject of an insulting tagline) have also expressed displeasure. On the other hand, other photographers have come forward saying they approve of the campaign, and that this is why they CC license their photos in the first place.

From a CC standpoint, there are a few legal issues to consider. If the photographs Virgin used were licensed to allow commercial use and the company complied with any other licence restrictions (ie Attribution, No Derivatives, ShareAlike) this kind of use is almost certainly permitted under the CC model. However, there are some questions about whether Virgin has followed these steps. For example:

* At least one of the images Virgin used appears to currently be under a licence that doesn't allow commercial use - though it's not clear whether it was under a broader licence in the past.

Interested in innovative film making online?

The Melbourne-based screen resources organisation, OPEN CHANNEL, is calling for expressions of interest from film, sound and video artists wanting to take part in its upcoming Video Slam.

The Video Slam will take place over 48 hours, from 10am Sunday May 13 to 8pm Monday May 14, and will provide an opportunity for individuals and teams to collaborate to create a 10 minute digital short from original content and content found on the Web. Most excitingly for us - the entire thing will be licensed under a Creative Commons licence.

The whole event is being run as an Arts Law Week workshop exploring the use of Creative Commons licences for the creation of original digital content. The idea is to explore the possibilities for innovation and collaboration in this new medium, looking at different ways a group of people can work towards a single whole - for example, a different editor may be used for each scene, or five composers scoring two minutes a-piece, or three actors performing the same part directed by four directors.

The event will be run out of Horse Bazaar, with the final product being screened on Monday May 14 in Melbourne's community and arts hub, Federation Square, and made available on the Open Channel and EngageMedia websites.

If you have any kind of skill or interest in a relevant area (eg directors, technicians, performers, writers composers, production assistants) Open Channel wants you to get involved.

Vibewire, the Australian-based youth media non-profit, launched its 2007 e-Festival of Ideas today.

The e-Festival has been running for a few years now, in conjunction with National Youth Week. It's a great initiative, which provides the opportunity for members of the public to come together with experts to discuss important issues of the day. And best of all, it all occurs online, so there are no registration fees or airfares. All you need is an internet connection and an opinion to get involved.

This year's festival includes panels on climate change, multiculturalism and how to get arts funding - and one devoted entirely to Creative Commons. Elliott and I will be on the panel to answer questions, as well as a whole pile of industry experts such as DJ Spooky, Allison Fine from Demos and the team from EngageMedia.

So if you have something you've always wanted to say about Creative Commons, copyright or innovation in the digital era, get aboard and say it. Or even if you've just got questions - we still want to hear from you. Go on - have an opinion!

Creative Commons Australia's parent organisation, the Queensland University of Technology, recently hosted a visit by Terry Fisher, Hale Dorr Professor of Intellectual Property from Harvard Law School and Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. As part of this visit Terry presented a lecture at the Queensland State Library on the Future of Entertainment.

This Podcast is now available for download as a podcast (under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike licence, of course) here. It runs for about an hour, but is an interesting discussion of the effect of the internet on the entertainment industry from one of the world's leading experts on the subject, and so is well worth checking out.

Creative Commons is now being endorsed by UNESCO - or at least its Communication and Information Sector.

Earlier this week, the UNESCO Communication and Information Sector officially launched its Open Training Platform. It aims to increase access to training and non-formal education resources that have been developed by a range of organisations, including the UN, development agencies and NGOs. It also aims to promote the open content movement and the use of open content licensing among contributors from these organisations, by providing information on and actively encouraging the use of open content licences - including the Creative Commons licences.

It is my great pleasure to announce the publication of 'Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons', a collection of essays on open content licensing and the Creative Commons, edited by Creative Commons Australia's own project lead, Professor Brian Fitzgerald.

Drawing on the proceedings of the QUT conference of the same name in early 2005, the book brings together papers by more than 30 leading experts, including CC founder Professor Lawrence Lessig and Futurist Richard Neville, on the internet, copyright and the importance of open access to knowledge, from an Australian perspective.

The book is available for purchase in hardcopy form from Sydney University Press. It is also available for download under a Creative Commons Australia Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives licence from QUT's ePrints Archive. Individual articles can be downloaded from the University of Sydney's eScholarship Repository.

More information on the book and its contents is available from here

The amazing Barcamp initiative has finally made it to Australia. A Barcamp is (in the main wiki's words) 'an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment'. They've been around for the last couple of years and have been held at dozens, if not hundreds, of locations worldwide. They're mainly aimed at free-culture and open-access enthusiasts, but everyone's welcome, as long as they're ready to give a presentation, run a session or contribute in some other way.

The first Australian Barcamps are scheduled to be held in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra on 3-4 March, and should be an exciting chance to get to meet other people with common interests and exchange ideas. They're looking for volunteers, too - sign up on the wiki.