The report covers research initiated in September last year that explore differences between 'commercial' and 'noncommercial' uses of online content in terms of how that use is perceived by different online 'communities', in particular recognition of the Creative Commons NC license.
Creative Commons provides model free copyright licenses to creators who want to grant the public certain permissions to use their works, in advance and without the need for one-to-one contact between the user and the creator. Its NC license is one of four license terms that creators may choose to apply to CC-licensed content. NC licensing precludes use of a work "in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation".
The research is US-centric. It draws on online surveys of US content creators and users, open access polls of global 'Creative Commons Friends and Family', "interviews with thought leaders" and focus groups with content creators/usersthe world who create and use a wide variety of online content and media. Most respondents (87% of creators, 85% of users) indicated that the NC definition was "essentially the same as" (43% of creators, 42% of users) or "different from but still compatible with" (44% of creators, 43% of users) theirs. Some 7% of creators and 11% of users indicated that the definition was "different from and incompatible with" their definition.
The report also includes rating by content creators and users of different uses of online content as either "commercial" or "noncommercial" on a scale of 1-100 (1 is "definitely noncommercial" and 100 is "definitely commercial". Creators (84.6) and users (82.6) rated uses regarding online advertising as "commercial", although on an instasnce by instance basis that interpretations is usually fact-specific. Creator and user perceptions of what is 'commercial' were lower where the use was by not-for-profit entities. Both creators (24.3) and users (16.0) rated "personal or private" use as noncommercial.
Creative Commons, unsuprisingly, notes that perceptions outside the US were different. It cautions that "direct empirical comparisons may not be drawn from these data". The researcher responsible for the study commented that
we were particularly interested to see that—contrary to what many might believe—there is little variation between creators and users in the perceived ‘commerciality’ of particular uses of copyrighted content. Furthermore, where they do differ, users tend to have a more conservative outlook than creators.
