Use of open content licences by cultural heritage organisations - report now available

The study that Jordan Hatcher has been working on for us is now available.  The report looks at the current usage of Creative Commons and other open content licences by cultural heritage organisations in the UK.

Note that this report, and survey on which it is based, only reflects those individuals that participated (107 respondents in all), and does not purport to represent the entire sector.  That said, it mildly surprises me that about half of those completing the survey hadn't heard of Creative Commons or Creative Archive licences.  It also struck me as interesting to note that only about half the respondents have "an in-house legal department or designated person that deals with copyright issues" and that a similar proportion do not have "a copyright policy publicly stated on its website".

I've argued before that it is too hard to re-use cultural heritage content in the UK for anything other than personal educational use (particularly in comparison with the US).  Moving towards making copyright and licensing terms explicit would be a big step in the right direction.