Creative Commons Expands to Ireland with University College Cork

Matt Haughey, November 17th, 2003

University College Cork will lead the license translation and work to expand global access to Irish culture.

Palo Alto, USA, and Cork, Ireland — Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative works free for copying and re-use, announced today the expansion of its International Commons (iCommons) project to Ireland. University College Cork (UCC) will lead the effort.

“We’re very excited to have University College Cork lead iCommons in Ireland,” said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford. “Their participation is crucial to our growing effort to promote an international cultural commons.”

“We look forward to cooperating with the Creative Commons project,” said Dr. Darius Whelan, project lead of iCommons in Ireland and Lecturer in Law at University College Cork Law Faculty. “This way we will enable creators of original works to disseminate that work widely through the Internet for the benefit of everyone,” said Louise Crowly co-project lead of iCommons in Ireland and Lecturer in Law at University College Cork Law Faculty.

Announced in March 2003, iCommons is Creative Commons’ project to make its machine-readable copyright licenses useful worldwide. As the lead institution, UCC will coordinate a public effort to adapt the Creative Commons licenses for use in Ireland. UCC will field comments on an archived email discussion at the Creative Commons website http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#ireland.

Ireland joins Brazil, Japan, Finland, China, and Taiwan in the iCommons effort.

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works, whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

For more information about iCommons, see http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/.

More about University College Cork

University College Cork (UCC) was founded in 1845 and is one of the constituent universities of the National University of Ireland. It was recently named Irish University of the Year 2003 by The Sunday Times.

UCC Law Faculty has an active research record in all areas of law and offers two specialized LL.M. programs — one in e-Law and Commercial Law and one in Criminal Justice. UCC Law Faculty is also actively involved in making laws available online, hosting the Irish office of the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (www.bailii.org), and operating the Irish Legal Information Initiative site (www.irlii.org) and Irish Law Site (www.irishlaw.org).

For more information about UCC Law Faculty, please visit http://www.ucc.ie/law/.

Second Life Residents To Own Digital Creations

Matt Haughey, November 14th, 2003

Linden Lab Preserves Real World Intellectual Property Rights of Users of its Second Life Online Service

NEW YORK CITY: Linden Lab, creator of online world Second Life, today announced a significant breakthrough in digital property rights for its customers and for users of online worlds. Changes to Second Life’s Terms of Service now recognize the ownership of in-world content by the subscribers who make it. The revised TOS allows subscribers to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create, including characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs.

In addition, Second Life has committed to exploring technologies to make it easy for creators to license their content under Creative Commons licenses.

Speaking to an audience of digital rights specialists and virtual world enthusiasts at the NYLS “State of Play” conference, Founder and CEO Philip Rosedale described the new policy as a major breakthrough for users of online worlds.

“Until now, any content created by users for persistent state worlds, such as EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies, has essentially become the property of the company developing and hosting the world,” said Rosedale. “We believe our new policy recognizes the fact that persistent world users are making significant contributions to building these worlds and should be able to both own the content they create and share in the value that is created. The preservation of users’ property rights is a necessary step toward the emergence of genuinely real online worlds.”

Unlike traditional online game environments where anything created in-world is owned by the service provider, Second Life has responded to its residents’ desire to own their work just as they would any other original creations. Under these terms they can create, and sell derivative works based on content they’ve made, or license the work to others.

Second Life residents began creating their world in October, 2002 as beta testers, and continued through commercial launch of the service in June 2003. In just over a year, more than 10,000 users have created a richly diverse world, filled with more than 200,000 objects, complex characters, a range of living situations from whimsical hobbit-style homes to urban apartments, to sprawling mansions, and special recreational areas including a 40-ride amusement park and an island retreat. Everything in the world, from the antique carousel to the hot race cars to the resident-abducting alien spaceship was designed and built by the residents.

The economy supporting this activity includes over 12,000 objects for sale. Each month, nearly 100,000 user-to-user transactions for goods and services take place, with more than Linden$19million in in-world currency changing hands.

“Linden Lab has taken an important step toward recognizing the rights of content generators in Second Life,” said Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University Professor of Law, and Founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. “As history has continually proven, when people share in the value they create, greater value is derived for all. Linden Lab is poised for significant growth as a result of this decision.”

About Linden Lab

Based in San Francisco, Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D entertainment. The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of many of today’s streaming media technologies, including RealVideo. In April 2003, noted software pioneer Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, was named Chairman.

Second Life launched in June 2003 after being named a Time Magazine “Coolest Invention of 2002″ during its beta test. Currently available to all PC users via a download at www.SecondLife.com, the world of Second Life, which grows with the size of the community, is now close to 1000 virtual acres and by the end of 2004 should be as large as Manhattan. A Macintosh version is expected early in 2004.

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works, whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain, the Hewlett Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society. For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Berklee College Of Music Launches “Berklee Shares” – A Ground-breaking

Matt Haughey, November 12th, 2003

The world-renowned music college encourages people to share music lessons
via file-sharing networks

Boston, Massachusetts USA – Berklee College of Music,
the world’s largest independent music college and the premier institution
for the study of contemporary music, announces the launch of Berklee
Shares. The groundbreaking new program provides free music lessons under
Creative Commons licenses and encourages musicians to share and
distribute the lessons online. The Berklee Shares lessons consist of a
growing catalog of MP3s, QuickTime movies, and PDF files derived from
curriculum developed at the college by its world-renowned faculty. The
lessons are available for download today at
http://www.berkleeshares.com/, affiliate partner sites, and
peer-to-peer networks, including Limewire.

“Berklee Shares was born out of Berklee College of Music’s commitment to
furthering music education through innovative means,” said Dave Kusek,
Associate Vice President. “Offering free education on the Internet and
through file sharing networks underscores the college’s core beliefs that
these channels are an effective way to openly distribute meaningful
educational content to a global audience, as well as serve as a powerful
promotional platform for artists to market, distribute, and sell their
music.”

The Berklee Shares program launches with over 80 music lessons spanning
instrument performance, music production and technology, songwriting and
arranging, music business and careers, music education and improvisation.
The number of lessons offered will expand over time.

“Berklee College of Music will prove to many the innovation and education
that can be supported through a more balanced system of rights,” said
Lawrence Lessig, chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at
Stanford University. “We are honored to help Berklee College spread
educational content broadly.”

About Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that
the best way to prepare students for careers in music is through the
study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, the
college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music
and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance
majors, a diverse and talented student body representing 70 plus
countries, and a music industry “who’s who” of alumni, Berklee is the
world’s premier learning lab for the music of today and tomorrow.

http://www.berklee.edu/

About Berkleemusic

Berkleemusic.com is Berklee’s online music school, delivering online
access to world-renowned music faculty, educational concepts, and
time-tested curriculum previously available only to on-campus students.
Berkleemusic.com expands music-education opportunities beyond the campus
experience using the newest methods, media, and technology.
Berkleemusic.com is the first online music school seamlessly combining
education and career development to give musicians, educators and music
industry professionals a one-stop destination for all their learning,
career, and networking needs.

http://www.berkleemusic.com/

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of
intellectual works – whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by
the
generous support of The Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation. Creative
Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space,
and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Karen DeMarco
MPRm Public Relations/Berklee
323-933-3393 (tel)
kdemarco@mprm.com

Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director, Creative Commons
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
glenn@creativecommons.org

China and Taiwan are paving the way for Creative Commons

Matt Haughey, November 12th, 2003

CNBlog.org and the Institute of Information Science at Academia Sinica are spearheading efforts to translate Creative Commons licenses for China and Taiwan to expand international access to their cultures.

Palo Alto, USA; Shanghai, China; Taipei, Taiwan; – Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a body of creative works free for copying and re-use, announced today that formal discussions have begun for expanding its International Commons (iCommons) project to China and Taiwan. CNBlog.org (China) and the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica (Taiwan) will lead the efforts in these jurisdictions.

“We’re very excited to have CNBlog.org and the Institute of Information Science working with us to bring iCommons to China and Taiwan” said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford. “As the project enables people around the world to access an expanding pool of ideas from these regions, the cultural commons we all share will become increasingly rich.”

CNBlog.org’s Isaac Mao, the project lead for iCommons China, notes that “Creative Commons has a well-defined architecture for copyright that encompasses both law and computer code, offering a spectrum of options for licensing digital works. This model envisions a great future for knowledge-sharing in the 21st century. CNBlog.org espouses this vision and looks forward to introducing these revolutionary licenses to China, and to the whole Chinese world.”

Dr. Tyng-Ruey Chuang, the project lead of Taiwan states: “The Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, is glad to have this opportunity. We believe Creative Commons’ modular
design of licensing conditions is ideal for content creators
who like to freely distribute their works but at the same time
want to preserve certain rights. We have just completed a draft translation
of the licenses in traditional Chinese characters, and are working with local art, legal, and research communities to finalize the process of making the licenses workable in Taiwan.” His co-project lead, Shunling Chen, adds: “The sharing of knowledge is a noble act that has been practiced throughout all of human history. The Creative Commons license project provides a
convenient alternative for people who are not satisfied with the mindset of
the existing copyright system, which makes sharing “unnatural”. With the various indigenous and Chinese legal traditions in Taiwan,
the introduction of the CC licenses will induce a re-examination of the
culture of knowledge sharing.”

First announced in March 2003, iCommons is Creative Commons’ project to make its machine-readable copyright licenses useful worldwide.
As the lead institutions for their respective jurisdictions, CNBlog.org, the Institute of Information Science at Academia Sinica will coordinate public efforts literally and legally to translate the Creative Commons licenses for use in China and Taiwan. These areas will thus be joining Brazil, Japan and Finland in the iCommons effort.

CNBlog.org and Taiwan’s Institute of Information Science will field comments relating to their specific initiatives in archived email discussions on the Creative Commons website: China, Taiwan.

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works, whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

For more information about iCommons, see http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/.

More About CNBlog.org and the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

CNBlog.org

CNBlog.org was founded in 2002 to deploy open collaborative research on the Internet, its technologies, and its impacts on society and business. Sponsored by several private funds, CNBlog.org is extending itself from grassroots publishing research to a multidisciplinary Internet research and education center. Since its foundation, CNBlog.org has devoted itself to creating a new kind of open community, and to following closely the emerging social and technological trends. Operating as a volunteering and visiting consortium, CNBlog.org seeks to catalyze new collaborative projects (Social Software, Emergent Democracy and Grassroots Culture, etc.) to spread its ideas and methodologies to other individuals/organizations and to encourage the practical applications of its findings. CNBlog.org also sponsors Open Education Project (oedu.org) in China.

For more information about CNBlog.org, visit http://www.cnblog.org.

Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

Academia Sinica is the highest government-sponsored academic research institution in Taiwan. The institution supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from mathematical and physical sciences to humanities and social sciences. The Institute of Information Science (IIS) was formally established in September 1982, and is one of the nine institutes within the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. IIS presently has 33 full-time research fellows, 16 postdoctoral fellows and over 160 full-time information technology engineers supporting research and development of information science and engineering.

The mission of IIS is to conduct quality, fundamental research in information science, to develop cutting edge technologies applicable to advanced information systems, and to improve Taiwan’s competitiveness in information technology and its international visibility. Being a member of the most prominent research institution in Taiwan, IIS is obligated to assuming the leadership role in the area of information science, and aiming to establish itself as one of the world’s top research institutions.

Currently, IIS is conducting the Open Source Software Foundry (OSSF) project, with the aim of establishing a vital open source community. OSSF is to serve as a public, virtual common ground where local open source developers are invited to contribute their creativity in software development.

For more information about the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, visit http://www.iis.sinica.edu.tw.

Contacts

Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)
iCommons Coordinator, Creative Commons
christiane@creativecommons.org

Isaac Mao (Mao Xianghui) (Shanghai)
Project Lead, iCommons China
CNBlog.org
me@isaacmao.com

Dr. Tyng-Ruey Chuang and Shunling Chen (Taipei)
Project Lead, iCommons Taiwan
Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica
trc@iis.sinica.edu.tw
shunling@iis.sinica.edu.tw

Glenn Otis Brown (Palo Alto)
Executive Director, Creative Commons
glenn@creativecommons.org

Creative Commons launches the GET CREATIVE! Moving Image Contest

Matt Haughey, August 5th, 2003

Win a Computer – A DV Cam – An iPod

Contest to create a 2-minute presentation will demonstrate “open-source
messaging”

Palo Alto, USA Creative Commons announced today the
launch of the GET CREATIVE! Moving Image Contest. Entrants are invited to
create a 2-minute presentation in the animation or moving image format of
their choice that explains Creative Commons’ mission.

“With ‘Get Creative,’ our own Flash movie, we took a shot at explaining
Creative Commons,” said Lawrence Lessig, chairman of Creative Commons and
professor of law at Stanford. “We’re fond of it, but we think the
community that’s grown around this idea could do an even better job. The
Moving Image Contest will be an exercise in open-source messaging.”

The Silicon Valley nonprofit will encourage entrants to re-use materials
licensed under its free copyright licenses, including Creative Commons’
own artwork, graphics, and Flash animation, as well as original and
public domain materials.

An accomplished panel of independent and qualified judges will review and
rank all contest entries:

Elisabeth Shue
-
Academy Award nominee for Best Actress in Leaving
Las Vegas, among many other celebrated roles

Jason Zada
-
Co-founder and creative director of San Francisco
advertising and design studio evolution | bureau

Joshua Davis
-
Accomplished web designer and creative thinker

Mitsuhiro Takemura
-
Associate professor, Graduate School of Frontier
Sciences at the University of Tokyo

Amir Bar-Lev
-
Documentary filmmaker (the critically acclaimed
Fighter, 2001) and television producer

The three best entries will win:

First Prize choice of an Apple® Power Mac® G5 Computer (Dual
2GHz
PowerPC G5) or an Alienware® 2001DV™ System

Second Prize Sony® Handycam® Camcorder

Third Prize Apple® iPod™ Digital Music Player

The contest will run through December 31, 2003, and winners will be
announced in February 2004. All entries must be released under a Creative
Commons license of the author’s choice by time of entry.

Official rules can be found at http://creativecommons.org/contest/
rules.

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of
intellectual works, whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by
the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at
Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with
the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

More information at http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director
CreativeCommons
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
1.415.336.1433 (cell)
glenn@creativecommons.org

Neeru Paharia
Assistant Director
Creative Commons
1.650.724.3717 (tel)
1.510.823.1073 (cell)
neeru@creativecommons.org

Supreme Court Audio Classics Enter P2P Zone Thanks to Creative Commons Licenses

Matt Haughey, June 25th, 2003

Creative Commons Also Rolls Out Strategy for Embedding and Verifying License Information in MP3s and Other Files

Palo Alto and Chicago, USA — Creative Commons and the OYEZ Project announced today the first-stage 100-hour release of MP3s from the Project’s 2000+ hours of Supreme Court recordings using Creative Commons’ machine-readable copyright licenses. Creative Commons also announced its new metadata verification policy, designed to ease the legitimate distribution and copying of audio files online by associating copyright information with the files themselves.

The OYEZ Project, http://www.OYEZ.org, is a multimedia archive dedicated to the business of the Supreme Court of the United States and the lives of its Justices. Founded in 1994 at Northwestern University, OYEZ will now host MP3 audio recordings of oral arguments before the Court dating back to the 1950s, including landmark cases such as Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003 (affirmative action) Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003 (affirmative action) Bush v. Gore, 2000 (2000 presidential election) Regents v. Bakke, 1978 (affirmative action) Roe v. Wade, 1971 (abortion and reproductive rights) New York Times v. United States, 1971 (the “Pentagon Papers” case) Miranda v. Arizona, 1966 (”You have the right to remain silent . . .”) Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963 (a defendant’s right to counsel).

Recordings of the oral arguments from these historic controversies are now available for free download from the OYEZ website under a Creative Commons copyright license, which encourages copying and redistribution of the recordings while imposing certain conditions on their use: OYEZ must be attributed, commercial re-use is prohibited, and any modification of the files obligates licensing under the same Creative Commons terms as the original files.

“With the Creative Commons, we have for the first time found a way to license our content to assure use consistent with our objectives. As long as users meet the conditions of the license, they are free to enjoy and share a small treasure of America’s legal and political heritage,” said Jerry Goldman, Northwestern University political science professor and OYEZ project director.

“By releasing hundreds of important Supreme Court recordings under Creative Commons licenses, the OYEZ Project has demonstrated a commitment to filling the commons with high quality educational material for others to use and learn from,” said Lawrence Lessig, chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford. “Just as important, the OYEZ Project’s use of machine-readable licenses with its MP3s is a big step toward a world in which law and technology can work together to promote sharing.”

More About Creative Commons’ Metadata Embedding Policy

Creative Commons also announced today their new metadata embedding policy that defines a standard way to embed metadata into files verified by an external webpage.

“The Creative Commons license information embedded into each of the OYEZ Supreme Court files can be verified by an external webpage maintained by the copyright holder,” said Mike Linksvayer, Creative Commons CTO.

“We hope this will become the standard approach to embedding and verifying metadata.”

More information below, and at: http://creativecommons.org/learn/licenses/embedding.

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works — whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

More information at http://creativecommons.org.

More about OYEZ

Today, The OYEZ Project provides access to more than 2000 hours of Supreme Court audio. All audio in the Court recorded since 1995 is included in the project. Before 1995, the audio collection is selective. OYEZ aims to create a complete and authoritative archive of Supreme Court audio covering the entire span from October 1955 through the most recent release. OYEZ receives support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, FindLaw, Northwestern University, and the law firm of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw.

For more information http://www.OYEZ.org.

Contact

Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director Creative Commons
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
glenn -AT- creativecommons.org

Jerry Goldman
Professor of Political Science
Director, The OYEZ Project
1.847.475.6671 (tel)
j-goldman -AT- northwestern.edu

Neeru Paharia
Assistant Director Creative Commons
1.650.724.3717 (tel)
neeru -AT- creativecommons.org

Mike Linksvayer
Chief Technical Officer Creative Commons
ml -AT- creativecommons.org

Creative Commons Welcomes David Wiley as Educational Use License Project Lead

Matt Haughey, June 23rd, 2003

The Silicon Valley Nonprofit Also Takes Up Baton of Wiley’s Trailblazing OpenContent Project

Palo Alto, California, USA — Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a layer of reasonable copyright, announced today that OpenContent founder Dr. David Wiley, Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology at Utah State University, will join Creative Commons and officially close the OpenContent Project.

“When I saw the Creative Commons team, and all their expertise, I saw that they ‘got it,’” said Wiley. “I slowly came to the somewhat painful realization that the best thing I could do for the community was to close the OpenContent project and encourage people to adopt the Creative Commons licenses.”

The OpenContent Project launched in 1998, offering the first license designed specifically to support the free and open sharing of content. While working to evangelize the idea of “open content,” Dr. Wiley next worked with members of the open source software community and commercial publishers to develop an open content license that would be acceptable to publishers. Since its release, numerous books have been published under the terms of the resulting Open Publication License, including titles by O’Reilly, Prentice Hall, New Riders, and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Copies of the OpenContent License and Open Publication License will continue to be available from the OpenContent website, http://opencontent.org/, for archival purposes, but newcomers to the site will be encouraged to visit Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org/, to utilize the licenses available on their site. Neither of the OpenContent licenses will be developed further in the future.

Creative Commons Executive Director Glenn Otis Brown commented: “It is an honor to welcome a pioneer like Professor Wiley to the Creative Commons team. His efforts have been a major source of inspiration for our own, so it is both appropriate and a little humbling for us to be working alongside him now.”

Wiley joins Creative Commons in the capacity of Project Lead for Educational Licensing. “Because I’m an instructional technologist, and my primary field of research and inquiry is using technology to better support learning, my own http://creativecommons.org Press Release work in open content has always focused on reusable educational media. I couldn’t be happier than I am to participate in this manner,” said Wiley.

Creative Commons will announce new Project Leads for a Developing Nations License shortly, said Brown.

More about Creative Commons

A non-profit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works — whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

For more information about the community development model, visit http://creativecommons.org/discuss.

Contact

Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director (Palo Alto)
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
1.415.336.1433 (cell)
glenn -AT- creativecommons.org

Neeru Paharia
Assistant Director (Palo Alto)
1.650.724.3717 (tel)
neeru -AT- creativecommons.org

David Wiley
david.wiley -AT- usu.edu
dw2 -AT- opencontent.org

Creative Commons Welcomes Joi Ito to Board of Directors

Matt Haughey, June 16th, 2003

San Francisco- and Tokyo-based venture capitalist, technologist, and
policy expert joins leadership of the Silicon Valley nonprofit

Palo Alto, USA — Creative Commons, a nonprofit
corporation dedicated to expanding the world of reusable content online,
announced today that Joichi Ito has joined its Board of Directors. Ito is
a venture capitalist, technologist, and internationally popular weblogger
and commentator based in California and Japan.

“We are thrilled to have Joi Ito join the team,” said Lawrence Lessig,
chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford University.
“His unique breadth of experience in technology, business, and policy —
and his well-earned reputation as an innovator on an international level
— make him a perfect new colleague for our growing organization.”

“Protecting the commons is essential for enabling emerging technologies
and businesses in networked consumer electronics and the Internet,” said
Ito. “It is critical for Japan and the rest of the world to understand
and embrace Creative Commons‚ principles and tools. I am honored to join
this world-class organization to help make it happen.”

Ito joins a Board of Directors that includes Lessig; fellow cyberlaw
experts James Boyle, Michael Carroll, and Molly Shaffer Van Houweling;
public domain web publisher Eric Eldred; filmmaker Davis Guggenheim; MIT
computer science professor Hal Abelson; and lawyer-turned-documentary
filmmaker-turned-cyberlawyer Eric Saltzman.

More about Joichi Ito

Joichi Ito is the founder and CEO of Neoteny, http://www.neoteny.com, a
venture capital firm focused on personal communications and enabling
technologies. He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet
Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. In 1997 Time ranked him as a
member of the CyberElite. In 2000 he was ranked among the “50 Stars of
Asia” by Business Week and commended by the Japanese Ministry of Posts
and Telecommunications for supporting the advancement of IT. In 2001 the
World Economic Forum chose him as one of the 100 “Global Leaders of
Tomorrow” for 2002.

More information at http://joi.ito.com.

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of
intellectual works — whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by
the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at
Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with
the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

More information at http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director
Creative Commons
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
1.415.336.1433 (cell)
glenn -AT- creativecommons.org

Joichi Ito
jito -AT- neoteny.com

Neeru Paharia
Assistant Director
Creative Commons
1.650.724.3717 (tel)
1.510.823.1073 (cell)
neeru -AT- creativecommons.org

Creative Commons Begins Work On Finnish Versions Of Copyright Licenses

Matt Haughey, June 3rd, 2003

The Helsinki Institute for Information Technology Will Drive Public Discussion from the Silicon Valley Nonprofit’s Website

Palo Alto, California, USA – Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a layer of reasonable copyright, announced today that it would begin development of Finnish versions of its copyright licenses as part of its ongoing International Commons (iCommons) project. The Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), an authority on law and technology in Finland, will lead the effort.

Announced in March 2003, iCommons is Creative Commons’ project to make its machine-readable copyright licenses useful worldwide.

“With iCommons, we are building a system for promoting creativity across borders,” said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford. “If you imagine different countries as legal operating systems,’ iCommons will port our licenses for use across the world.”

As project lead, HIIT will coordinate a public effort to literally and legally translate Creative Commons’ licenses for use in Finland. HIIT will field public comments on an archived email discussion at the Creative Commons website, http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#finland.

“HIIT is enthusiastic to host iCommons in Finland,” said Martti Mäntylä, research director of HIIT and a professor at Helsinki University of Technology. “Creative Commons could do the same for the entertainment and publishing industries that free software and open source did for the software business.”

Christiane Asschenfeldt, the iCommons Coordinator at Creative Commons, commented: “It is great to get the iCommons drafting process underway with a project lead of HIIT’s experience and expertise. Finland will set an excellent precedent for many other iCommons countries, which in the near future will include Brazil, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.”

“Finnish copyright law doesn’t differ much from the U.S. system,” said HIIT project lead Herkko Hietanen. “But by translating the licenses to Finnish, we’ll make it even easier for Finnish artists and authors to adopt Creative Commons licenses and share their works with the world.”

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works — whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

For more information about iCommons, see
http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/.

More about HIIT

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, founded in 1999, is a joint research institute of the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology. HIIT represents high expertise both in computer science and law and has close institutional bonds with academic legal science, law-courts, and The Finnish Bar Association.

HIIT conducts internationally high-level strategic research in information technology, especially in areas where Finnish IT industry has or may reach a significant global role. HIIT works in close co-operation with universities and industry, aiming to improve the contents, visibility, and impact of Finnish IT research to benefit the competitiveness of Finnish IT industry and the development of the Finnish information society.

For more information about HIIT, visit http://hiit.fi.

Contact

Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)
iCommons Coordinator, Creative Commons
christiane -AT- creativecommons.org

Herkko Hietanen (Helsinki)
Helsinki Institute for Information Technology
herkko.hietanen -AT- hiit.fi

Glenn Otis Brown Executive Director (Palo Alto)
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
1.415.336.1433 (cell)
glenn -AT- creativecommons.org

Creative Commons and Negativland Begin Work on Free Sampling and Collage

Matt Haughey, May 30th, 2003

The Silicon Valley Nonprofit Also Rolls Out New Model for Community
Participation

Palo Alto, California, USA – May 29, 2003 – Creative Commons, a nonprofit
dedicated to building a layer of reasonable copyright, announced today
that it would begin development of the Sampling License, a copyright tool
designed to let artists encourage the creative transformation of their
work, for profit or otherwise. Leading the public discussion and
development of the license is Negativland, practitioners of “found sound”
music as well as other forms of media manipulation.

Glenn Otis Brown, Creative Commons Executive Director, commented: “The
Sampling License is among the most exciting projects we’ve taken on so
far. The technology and culture of the Net already facilitate the
remixing of culture. The law does not, so we’re helping it catch up by
remixing copyright itself.”

When completed, the Sampling License will allow people to create collage
art and “mash-ups” – as well as other art forms based on re-used
materials – from licensed works. Like all of Creative Commons copyright
tools, the Sampling License will be made available for free to the public
from the organization’s website.

“There’s a crucial difference between bootlegging another’s work and the
creative transformation of it.” Negativland said. “Collage is a technique
that has an undisputed currency in virtually all art forms today.
Originally, copyright was designed to prohibit the piracy or bootlegging
of complete works; that was and remains a worthy goal. But copyright is
now also routinely used to prohibit collage, as if it were no different
from outright piracy. With Creative Commons, we’re trying to build a
license that will allow copyright holders to invite transformation of
their works – even for money – while preventing this sort of verbatim
bootlegging.”

Negativland is Creative Commons’ first Project Lead, a role central to
the organization’s new community development model. As Creative Commons
identifies new projects, Project Leads will drive public discussion from
the Creative Commons website.

“Creative Commons is a public laboratory for new ideas,” said Lawrence
Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford.
“By having real-life practitioners like Negativland lead volunteer
discussion groups, we’ve come up with a nice way to build on the great
ideas among our supporters.”

Creative Commons will soon announce new Project Leads for an Education
License, a Developing Nations License, and others. The nonprofit plans to
extend the Project Leads model into technological developments as well.

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of
intellectual works – whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by
the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Creative Commons is based at
Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with
the school’s Center for Internet and Society.

For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

To follow the progress of the Sampling License discussion group, visit
http://creativecommons.org/discuss.

About Negativland

The experimental music and art collective known as Negativland has been
recording music/audio/collage works since 1979, producing a weekly 3-hour
radio show (”Over The Edge”) since 1981, hosting a World Wide Web site
since 1995, and performing live on occasional tours throughout America
and Europe. They have released 15 CDs, one video and one book (Fair Use:
The Story Of The Letter U And The Numeral 2) since 1980.

Negativland’s particular musical practice incorporates found sounds and
musical samples into their collage compositions. This contemporary
interest in collage (a hallmark of 20th Century art of all kinds) stems
in part from fact that art and commerce have now merged to a degree where
corporations finance, groom, direct, filter, manufacture and distribute
almost everything we know of as “culture.” This inevitably uncomfortable
partnership of art and commerce to produce “mass culture” means that art
is no longer an independent creation. It is now instigated, owned,
operated, and promoted by administrators, subsumed by demographic
targeting, and subjected to economically inspired “guidelines” for
creation.

For more information, visit http://negativland.com.

More about the Project Leads model at http://creativecommons.org/discuss.

Contact

Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director (Palo Alto)
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
1.415.336.1433 (cell)
glenn AT creativecommons.org

Negativland
dj AT webbnet.com
markhosler AT charter.net