Press Releases
2006 June
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES OFFERED IN PERU
Silicon Valley-based NGO reinforces its activities around the globe and introduces its innovative copyright licenses in Peru.
San Francisco, CA, USA; Berlin, GERMANY; and Lima, Peru — June 29, 2006 — Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative work free to share and build upon today announced the launch of its licenses in Peru.
Creative Commons copyright licenses are available free of charge from the group’s website. The licenses allow authors and artists to mark their works as free to copy or transform under certain conditions—to declare “some rights reserved,” in contrast to the traditional “all rights reserved”—thereby enabling others to access a growing pool of raw materials without legal friction.
Staff at Creative Commons’ offices in San Francisco and Berlin worked with a project leads Oscar Montezuma and Pedro Mendizabal in Peru to adapt the standardized licenses to Peruvian law. Creative Commons Peru is hosted by Computers Professionals for Social Responsibility – Peru (CPSR-Peru).
“The Peruvian version of the Creative Commons licenses will be launched after the iLaw Program 2006 being held at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University, CEO & Chairman of Creative Commons, will deliver the keynote speech on the importance of Creative Commons Peru”, says Oscar Montezuma.
“CC has been very well received in Peru. It has quickly gained the interest of many individuals and institutions ranging from the private to public sector. Success has been such, that I think Peru can eventually become a promising global free culture spot in South America“.
“We are proud of the achievements of the Creative Commons community in Peru. This is a success for all Peruvian authors and creators,“ adds Pedro Mendizabal.
The President of the National Institute of Defense of the Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI), Santiago Roca, greeted the launching of Creative Commons Perú, welcoming it as a legitimate exercise of authors that would allow them to grant universal access of their works, without the obligation of economic compensation.
About CPSR-Peru
CPSR-Peru is a public interest research centre on information and communications technology (ICT). Founded in Lima in October 2002, as a civil society non-profit association, its mission is to promote the use and development of ICT in a socially responsible way; to influence the process of public policies decision-making related to ICT and to foster the development of a more humane information society. For more information about CPSR-Peru visit their site.
About Creative Commons
A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether owned or in the public domain—by empowering authors and audiences. It is sustained by the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and the Hewlett Foundation. For general information, visit their site.
Contact
Oscar Montezuma
CPSR-Peru, Lima
Email
Christiane Henckel von Donnersmarck
Executive Director Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
Email
Mia Garlick
General Counsel & COO, Creative Commons
Email
Microsoft and Creative Commons Release Tool for Copyright Licensing
The organizations announce availability of Microsoft Office add-in that enables easy access to Creative Commons copyright licenses.
Redmond, WA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA – June 20, 2006
Microsoft Corp. and Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works, have teamed up to release a copyright licensing tool that enables the easy addition of Creative Commons licensing information for works in popular Microsoft® Office applications. The copyright licensing tool will be available free of charge at Microsoft Office Online. The tool will enable the 400 million users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel® and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® to select one of several Creative Commons licenses from within the specific application.
“We’re delighted to work with Creative Commons to bring fresh and collaborative thinking on copyright licensing to authors and artists of all kinds,” said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft. “We are honored that creative thinkers everywhere choose to use Microsoft tools to give shape to their ideas. We’re committed to removing barriers to the sharing of ideas across borders and cultures, and are offering this copyright tool in that
spirit.”
“The goal of Creative Commons is to provide authors and artists with simple tools to mark their creative work with the freedom they intend it to carry,” said Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of
Creative Commons. “We’re incredibly excited to work with Microsoft to make that ability easily available to the hundreds of millions of users of Microsoft Office.”
“It’s thrilling to see big companies like Microsoft working with nonprofits to make it easier for artists and creators to distribute their works,” said Gilberto Gil, cultural minister of Brazil, host nation for the Creative Commons iSummit in Rio de Janeiro June 23 through 25, where the copyright licensing tool will be featured. Gil, who will keynote at the iSummit, has released one of the first documents using the Creative Commons add-in for Microsoft Office.
The goal of the Creative Commons licenses is to give an author a clearer ability to express his or her intentions regarding the use of the work. The Microsoft Office tool allows users to choose from a variety of Creative Commons licenses that enable an author to retain copyright ownership, yet permit the work to be copied and distributed with certain possible restrictions, such as whether or not the work can be used commercially and whether or not modifications can be made to the work. The full list of licenses available from Creative Commons is available online at http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses. The tool also provides a way for users to dedicate a work to the public domain.
“Microsoft’s openness in working with the Creative Commons is a very exciting because an author can now easily embed licenses to creative works during the process of innovation,” said Ian Angell, professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics (LSE). “This is an important step in ensuring that each individual becomes aware of his or her own intellectual property rights — and those of others. We at the LSE are keen to work with Microsoft toward empowering the ‘creators of intellectual wealth’ to become more involved in its commercial use.” The LSE partners with Creative Commons to drive Creative Commons license adoption and awareness in England and Wales.
“Creative Commons licenses are essential for protecting my creative work and for sharing it with others. They help with copyright issues, which frees me to do my job: making movies. I’m glad Microsoft Office users can now so easily
use Creative Commons’ tools,” said Davis Guggenheim, director of the documentaries “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Teach” and member of the board of directors of Creative Commons.
“The collaboration of Microsoft and Creative Commons to bring Creative Commons licenses to Microsoft Office applications underscores how for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations can work together to bring innovative
ideas and tools to the public,” said Alan Yates, general manager of the Information Worker Division at Microsoft.
Microsoft and Creative Commons partnered with 3sharp LLC, a Redmond-based independent solution provider to develop and test the copyright licensing tool.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works — whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists and educators that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. It is sustained by the generous support of various foundations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation as well as members of the public. For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.
Contact
Jessica Coffman
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
(425) 638-7000
Email
Rapid Response Team
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
(503) 443-7070
Email
Eric Steuer
Creative Commons
(415) 946-3039
Email
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.
No Comments »CREATIVE COMMONS ANNOUNCES OPEN VIDEO CONTEST WITH THE FEDORA PROJECT
San Francisco, USA – June 20, 2006
Creative Commons and the Fedora Project are pleased to announce the Open Video Contest taking place now. The contest promotes flexible copyright, open media formats and the Fedora Project.
Entries must be 30 seconds or less, in OGG Theora format, promote freedom and openness, and be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license.
Visit http://creativecommons.org/video/openvideocontest/ before July 20, 2006 to enter.
The contest will be judged by representatives of the Fedora Project and Red Hat, Creative Commons jurisdiction leads from Brazil, Nigeria, and Poland, and a representative of the Wikimedia Foundation Special Projects Committee.
“This contest spreads the message that a combination of open licensing, open formats and open source software gives creators, consumers, and developers infinite freedom” says Alex Maier, Chair of Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee.
About OGG Theora
Theora is an open, royalty-free video codec developed by the Xiph.org Foundation as part of the Ogg multimedia framework. Theora is released to the public under a BSD-style open source software license, completely free for commercial or noncommercial use. For more information about Theora visit http://theora.org.
About the Fedora Project
The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored and community-supported open source project. The goal? Work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from free software. Public forum. Rapid progress. Open process. A proving ground for new technology that may eventually make its way into Red Hat products.
Fedora Core is an operating system and platform, based on Linux, that is always free for anyone to use, modify and distribute, now and forever. It is developed by a large community of people who strive to provide and maintain the very best in free, open source software and standards.
About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works – whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the generous support of various foundations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit the organization’s Web site (http://creativecommons.org/).
Contact
Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
Email
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES OFFERED IN DENMARK
San Francisco, USA, Berlin, GERMANY – June 12, 2006
Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides flexible copyright licenses for authors and artists, unveiled a localized version of its innovative licensing system in Denmark on Saturday.
Creative Commons copyright licenses are available free of charge from the group’s website.The licenses allow authors and artists to mark their works as free to copy or transform under certain conditions—to declare “some rights reserved,” in contrast to the traditional “all rights reserved”—thereby enabling others to access a growing pool of creative materials without legal friction.
Staff at Creative Commons’ offices in San Francisco and Berlin worked with Project Leads Thomas Riis and Jan Trzaskowski to adapt the standardized
licenses to Danish law. Creative Commons Denmark are supported by the Law Department of Copenhagen Business School.
On June 10, the Danish versions of the Creative Commons licenses were launched in Copenhagen at a ceremony held in Politikens Foredragssal. At
the event, hosted by Copenhagen Business School, Professor Lawrence Lessig (Chairman and CEO of Creative Commons) gave the keynote
address. The ceremony was sponsored by Copenhagen Business School, Bender von Haller Dragsted law firm and IBM Denmark.
Says Dr. Thomas Riis, “The Creative Commons licenses will benefit the cultural life in Denmark. Creators and users of everything from music,
weblogs and homepages to paintings and books will profit from the licenses.” Dr. Jan Trzaskowski adds that “the licenses make it much easier
and faster to exchange creative works, which falls perfectly in line with the vibrant cultural life in today’s Denmark”.
About Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) has around 14,000 students and an annual intake of around 1,000 exchange students. With this number of students as well as around 400 full-time researchers and around 500 administrative employees,
CBS is the one of the 3 largest business schools in Northern Europe. The
Law Department’s aim is to maintain, develop and present research of a
high standard within the field of commercial law. Commercial law is
subject to research together with other faculty activities. For general information, visit their website.
About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licences provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. It is sustained by the generous support of various foundations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation as well as members of the public. For general information, visit their website.
Contact
Christiane Henckel von Donnersmarck
Executive Director, Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
Email
