Creative Commons Voluntarily Dismissed from Lawsuit

Mike Linksvayer, November 28th, 2007

San Francisco — November 28, 2007

We are happy to announce that the plaintiffs in the Chang litigation, previously reported at http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7680, have voluntarily dismissed Creative Commons from that lawsuit. Although we are confident that any court would have agreed that there was no valid legal claim against us, this is a good result. It was highly gratifying to have so many of our legal friends offer to represent us pro bono.

We thank them for supporting Creative Commons’ mission. But we prefer to devote our resources to doing the ongoing work of developing and distributing content licensing tools that are as clear and easy to use as possible.

Creative Commons CEO Lawrence Lessig makes this comment: “I applaud the decision of plaintiffs’ counsel to remove Creative Commons from this lawsuit. We work hard to make our work clear, but it is absolutely clear that there is no basis in law for the suit they filed against us.” For more, including a copy of the dismissal, see Larry’s blog entry at http://lessig.org/blog/2007/11/from_the_whyagcfromcravathisgr.html.

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. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Eric Steuer
Creative Director
Creative Commons
eric@creativecommons.org

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit

Creative Commons Releases Add-in Support for OpenOffice.org

Nathan Yergler, November 14th, 2007

San Francisco, CA — November 14, 2007

Today Creative Commons released an Add-in for OpenOffice.org which allows users to select and embed a Creative Commons license in documents. Based on work completed as part of the Google Summer of Code by Cassio Melo, the add-in supports Writer (word processing documents), Calc (spreadsheets) and Impress (presentations).

Google Summer of Code provides students with funding to work on open source software between May and August. During summer 2007, Cassio worked on developing the basic OpenOffice.org add-in. Cassio was mentored by Nathan Yergler, Creative Commons CTO, and generously supported by Google’s Open Source programs. “Cassio provided a great foundation for us to build on and maintain. I’m thrilled to finally be able to offer support for OpenOffice.org,” said Yergler.

The Add-in is available without charge, and is licensed under the GNU General Public License. Download information and links to source code are available at http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OpenOfficeOrg_Addin.

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. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Nathan Yergler
Chief Technology Officer
Creative Commons
nathan@creativecommons.org

Creative Commons Launches Second Annual CC Swag Photo Contest

Melissa Reeder, November 13th, 2007

San Francisco, CA — November 13, 2007

Today, Creative Commons launched its second annual CC Swag Photo Contest. The contest is an important component of the third annual Creative Commons fundraising campaign, which was launched on October 1.

“It is not only vital that we meet our $500,000 goal for the fundraising campaign, it’s also important to use the campaign as away to disseminate CC’s mission,” said Melissa Reeder, Creative Commons’ development coordinator. “The CC Swag Photo Contest is a great way for people to show their support for Creative Commons.”

The CC Swag photo contest challenges people to creatively photograph Creative Commons T-shirts, buttons, stickers, and other promotional items (all available at CC’s online store). To enter, the photographs must be uploaded to the Flickr group CCSwagcontest07. Please go to the official contest webpage to read the other rules and regulations and to see the 2006 contest image archive.

The two winners, chosen by Creative Commons, will be awarded 100 postcards featuring their winning photo. These postcards will also serve as promotional material for Creative Commons and will be distributed internationally to promote CC.

Franz Patzig, one of the winners of the 2006 CC Swag Photo Contest, says that in addition to being a way to support Creative Commons, the contest helped raise his profile as a photographer.

“I have been publishing all my photos under Creative Commons licenses since CC’s beginning,” Patzig says. “I joined the contest for fun; I never expected my photo to be chosen as one of the winners. Since then, many people have used it to illustrate blog postings about the commons, which has brought a lot of attention to my Flickr pages. I’ve even sold some photographs. I love sharing my work.”

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. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Melissa Reeder
Development Coordinator
Creative Commons
melissa@creativecommons.org

Press Kit

Creative Commons releases viral fundraising widget and social networking campaign

Melissa Reeder, November 1st, 2007

Last year Creative Commons utilized an innovative fundraising model by using the video sharing platform Revver to disseminate the Creative Commons mission and to help raise funds for the Creative Commons’ second annual fundraising campaign. That experience demonstrated the strength of CC’s community and that viral fundraising is key to sustaining Creative Commons.

This year Creative Commons has added a Web 2.0 “widget” and a Facebook initiative to its viral fundraising arsenal. The widget embeds directly in blogs, websites and MySpace. The text is customizable so people can encourage others to give in their own words. This easy to use tool enables people to more directly participate in raising awareness and funds for Creative Commons.

Beth Kanter, professional blogger and consultant on the use of social media tools in the nonprofit sector for social change says… “I can’t wait to remix the Creative Commons widget and use it to help fundraise on my blog and social networking profiles. This is perfect way to celebrate what Creative Commons stands for and help raise funds for the annual fund campaign!”

Creative Commons has also launched fundraising in Facebook using the “Causes” Facebook app. All of Creative Commons’ viral fundraising tools, including the widget, Facebook, videos, and other forms of social media sharing, are available on 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. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Melissa Reeder
Creative Commons
Development Coordinator
melissa@creativecommons.org

Press Kit