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

Luxembourg 40th Jurisdiction to Offer Ported Creative Commons Licenses

Michelle Thorne, October 14th, 2007

October 15, 2007 — San Francisco, CA, USA and Luxembourg, Luxembourg

The launch of the Creative Commons licensing suite today in Luxembourg marks the 40th jurisdiction worldwide to offer Creative Commons licenses adapted to national law. Creative Commons worked in collaboration with Luxcommons ASBL, a local non-profit for researching and developing Open Content headed by Patrick Peiffer, to linguistically and legally port the licenses to Luxembourgish law.

An event to commemorate the launch will be held today at the Public Research Center Henri Tudor (CRP) in Luxembourg, featuring speeches by John Buckman, founder and CEO of Magnatune.com and Board Member of Creative Commons, and Paul Keller, Project Lead for Creative Commons Netherlands.

The ceremony will also include a presentation by Laurent Kratz, founder Luxembourg’s Jamendo, one of the largest music portals offering Creative Commons-licensed works, and Lionel Maurel, scientific coordinator from the National Library of France.

The Creative Commons licenses were “the first instrument of choice” in Luxcommons’ efforts to lead innovation in intellectual property and promote Open Content in their region and around the world. The licenses, available free of charge at http://creativecommons.org, allow authors and artists to mark their works as free to copy or transform under certain conditions, and thereby enable others to access a growing pool of raw materials without legal friction.

About Luxcommons

The non-profit Luxcommons was founded in 2005 with the goals of promoting, researching, and developing of Open Content. Thanks to funding from “2007, Luxembourg and Greater Region, Cultural Capital of Europe,” the National Cultural Fund and with the Support of the Technoport Incubator (an initiative of the Henri Tudor Research Center), Luxcommons was able to start transposing the CC 3.0 License to the Luxembourg jurisdiction. For the future, a stronger linking of similar initiatives in the Greater Region and stronger tie-ins with institutional partners is sought to keep the Luxembourgish CC project on stable footing. For more information about Luxcommons, please visit their website http://www.luxcommons.lu/.

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

Dr. Catharina Maracke
International Coordinator
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
catharina AT creativecommons DOT org

Press Kit
http://creativecommons.org/presskit
http://creativecommons.org/international/lu/

Creative Commons Licenses Launch in Greece

Michelle Thorne, October 12th, 2007

October 13, 2007 — San Francisco, CA, USA and Berlin, Germany

Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a body of creative work that is free and legal to share and build upon, unveiled today a localized version of its innovative licensing system in Greece.

With the Creative Commons’ project in Greece joining the effort, Creative Commons licenses are now being offered in localized versions in a total of 39 countries around the world.

Staff at Creative Commons’ offices in San Francisco and Berlin worked with project leads Marinos Papadopoulos, Theodoros Karounos, and Prodromos Tsiavos to adapt the standardized copyright licenses to Greek law.

Today the Greek version of Creative Commons will be launched in Athens, at an event in the Ceremonies Hall at the University of Athens. Lawrence Lessig, founder and CEO of Creative Commons, will give the keynote address at the ceremony, which will be hosted by Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET).

“The real value of the Creative Commons licenses,” says Marinos Papadopoulos, “comes in clarifying what is useful to both creators and users of intellectual property, while also providing them with the tools to share creations in a mutually acceptable legal environment. By helping both creators and users determine the value of intellectual property sharing, Creative Commons in Greece is helping an explosive growth in creativity.”

About GRNET

The Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET) supports the research and development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within Greece and internationally, through the provision of its high-capacity networking and grid computing infrastructure, the strengthening of e-Learning & e-Business practices, as well as the participation in international research and education efforts. GRNET operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Development and is supervised by the General Secretariat for Research and Development.

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

Dr. Catharina Maracke
International Coordinator
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
catharina@creativecommons.org

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit
http://creativecommons.org/international/gr/

Creative Commons Launches Third Annual Fundraising Campaign

Melissa Reeder, October 1st, 2007

Creative Commons Launches Third Annual Fundraising Campaign

San Francisco, CA USA — October 1, 2007

Today, Creative Commons officially launched its third annual fundraising campaign. The past two fundraising campaigns generated vital financial support for Creative Commons. This year, the organization is asking its community for help in raising funds before January 1, 2008.

“Our annual campaign measures our success in building a movement and community,” said Lawrence Lessig, CEO of Creative Commons. “It is critical that we meet our goal, and I am confident that we will.”

The goals of the 2007 campaign are to raise at least $500,000 and to highlight the CC community — the people dedicated to expanding the depth, breadth, and impact of free digital culture. “Building and supporting the Creative Commons community is equally as important as fundraising, when it comes to ensuring CC’s future,” said Melissa Reeder, CC’s development coordinator.

To celebrate the launch of the campaign, CC will unveil a redesigned website, which will include a dynamic global map that shows precisely where in the world CC’s support is coming from. Creative Commons will also offer a limited edition t-shirt as a premium for all donations above $75.

Other features of the campaign include the second annual CC Swag Photo Contest, the “Commoner” letter series, and the Corporate Commoner Giving Program. More information about each of these projects is below.

CC Swag Photo Contest:
Last year, Creative Commons instituted the CC Swag Photo Contest, to offer people another way to promote and support Creative Commons during the campaign. For more information on the 2006 contest and to see the entries, please visit http://support.creativecommons.org/contest/.

“Commoner Letters” Series:
Creative Commons will launch its “Commoner Letters” Series. This new series will consist of letters from five prominent CC community members about why they support Creative Commons. The series will be bookended with letters from Creative Commons CEO Lawrence Lessig. If you would like to receive these letters, please subscribe here: http://support.creativecommons.org/letters.

Corporate Commoner Giving Program:
Creative Commons has now launched a giving program specifically for companies. For more information, visit http://support.creativecommons.org/donate/corporate.

As a way to kick off the campaign, Six Apart will deliver a presentation at the CC SF Salon on Oct. 10th. The company will also give a large donation to Creative Commons, which was raised entirely by the LiveJournal community.

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
http://creativecommons.org/presskit

Creative Commons Announces New Vice President and General Counsel

Mike Linksvayer, October 1st, 2007

October 1, 2007 — San Francisco, CA, USA

Virginia Rutledge has been named Vice President and General Counsel of Creative Commons, the organization announced today. In this position, Rutledge will oversee Creative Commons’s legal affairs, lead initiatives focused on the arts, and create partnerships with arts and cultural institutions both in the U.S. and internationally.

“Creative Commons has been very lucky to have had fantastic general counsels,” said Lawrence Lessig, CEO of Creative Commons. “But Virginia brings a breadth of experience and skills that is unmatched. I could not be happier that she has chosen CC as the next stage in her extraordinary career.”

Rutledge comes to Creative Commons from the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where she was a litigation associate. At Cravath, Rutledge’s areas of practice included intellectual property, art, entertainment, antitrust, securities, and general commercial law. She has represented clients in the media and music industries, including Time Warner Inc., Warner Music Group, Warner Bros., and New Line Cinema, as well as the arts nonprofit organization the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance.

Rutledge has extensive experience in the art world, having worked as an exhibition associate for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and served as a contributing editor for Art Papers magazine. She has presented on art, digital media, and intellectual property law at conferences around the world. Additionally, her writing on art has been published in Art in America and Bookforum.

Rutledge is a member of the New York State Bar, and is the current chair of the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association and a member of the Committee on Intellectual Property of the College Art Association. She holds several academic degrees, including a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), and an M. Phil. in Art History from the City University of New York’s Graduate School and University Center.

News of Rutledge’s appointment has been well received within the legal and arts communities. “I applaud Creative Commons for its inspired choice of Virginia Rutledge as Vice President and General Counsel,” said copyright expert William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google Inc. “Virginia’s background in academia, the art world, and the white-shoe corporate law firm environment is unique. Her ability to forge consensus, her love of learning and commitment to the public interest will serve Creative Commons and the rest of us exceedingly well.”

“I commend Creative Commons for this excellent choice to help further the worthy purposes of the organization,” said patron of the arts Martin E. Segal. “Virginia’s commitment to the arts and her scholarly and practical background make her a wonderful addition.”

“Creative Commons couldn’t have made a better choice,” said Joel Wachs, President of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. “Virginia has deep knowledge of contemporary art practices and institutions, and the practical experience of working within a highly competitive corporate culture. She will do an excellent job of helping to build relationships between communities that have a common interest in promoting vibrant cultural production and exchange.”

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 and BBE Music Collaborate on Release of Remixable DJ Vadim Tracks

Cameron Parkins, September 17th, 2007

San Francisco, CA — September 18, 2007

Creative Commons and BBE Music are proud to announce the release of the original studio tracks from the album The Sound Catcher by DJ Vadim. The separated, solo instrumental and vocal tracks from the entire album are available for free and legal downloading and remixing. All are available online through Creative Commons’ remix site ccMixter and are licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.

DJ Vadim is widely recognized as one of the world’s premier DJs and producers. He has performed in virtually every country in Europe, all over North America, Australia, New Zealand. Japan, Israel, Turkey, South America, and South East Asia in just the last year. He has also performed with the likes of DJ Krush, Company Flow, The Roots, The Pharcyde, Public Enemy, The Beat Junkies, Dilated Peoples, and Kraftwerk. He has supported Super Furry Animals, Morcheeba, and Paul Weller, and has performed at events like Glastonbury and the Moscow Street Ball festival (to over 60,000 people).

The Sound Catcher is Vadim’s latest album and was released on BBE Records earlier this year, at which time ccMixter held a remix contest with two of the album’s tracks. The contest was such success for everybody involved that BBE and ccMixter decided to team up for the long term. The release of the rest of the The Sound Catcher tracks marks the first major milestone in that relationship.

“Tracks from many of our new releases and back-catalogue are being uploaded to ccMixter,” said BBE Music’s Ben Dawson in a message to the ccMixter community. “We know how well you all produce and we want to see what will happen! BBE has been releasing music for nearly 11 years now and the artists we have worked for include J Dilla, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Will I Am, Cut Chemist and lots more. It has been a beautiful thing to see producers at the beginning of their careers or established artists coming through the label and releasing their music through us. We believe in music and its power to unite, and this is why we have teamed up with ccMixter — to involve as many people as possible in the music and to seek the finest emerging talent out there.”

Victor Stone, project lead of ccMixter, refers to the relationship as one based on mutual respect. “DJ Vadim and BBE Records have already proven their leadership in terms of artistry. Taking the bold step of releasing all of The Sound Catcher’s tracks under a Creative Commons license shows they are willing to lead in an even broader cultural context. We’ve all been predicting this type of event as inevitable, yet as the day arrives it’s still a thrill to see it become reality.”

Visit the site at http://ccmixter.org/bbe

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

About BBE

BBE Records was an outgrowth of the Barely Breaking Even movement over
10 years ago when Peter Adarkwah and his partner Ben Dawson were discussing music and discovered a shared interest in diverse, eclectic sounds covering all genres – from old scratchy Brazilian grooves, through 70’s funk, via jazz fusion, hip – hop and soul to newer garage, disco and techno music. Today BBE is a major force in the DJ community. Learn more: http://www.bbemusic.com.

Contact

Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
eric@creativecommons.org

Ben Dawson
BBE Music
b.w.dawson@googlemail.com

Creative Commons and Fedora Team Up To Deliver LiveContent Distribution

Cameron Parkins, August 6th, 2007

San Francisco, CA — August 6, 2007

Creative Commons today announced the release of LiveContent, a collaborative initiative to showcase free, open source software and dynamic, Creative Commons-licensed multimedia content. Red Hat’s Fedora 7 will serve as the platform for Creative Commons LiveContent CD. The first LiveContent CD is now available at the Creative Commons and Fedora booths at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco.

The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored, community-based open source collaboration that provides the best of next-generation open source technologies. Its latest distribution, Fedora 7, features a new build capacity that allows for the creation of custom distributions and individual appliances.

“Fedora 7 features a completely open source build process that greatly simplifies the creation of appliances,” said Jack Aboutboul, community engineer for Fedora at Red Hat. “We encourage Fedora 7 users to create custom distributions that fit their individual needs and are excited that Creative Commons is making use of this capability within Fedora 7 to enable the liberation of content and provide free licensed software to all. This is the first step in bringing Red Hat’s open source community and Creative Commons’ “share, reuse, remix” initiative together. Our communities have always been talking about a common vision of free software and free content – today we have both decided that it’s time to start bridging those gaps.”

The Fedora 7 operating system boots directly from the LiveContent CD, making use of the open source tools found in the latest Fedora distribution like Revisor, Pungi and more. The CD features a variety of Creative Commons-licensed content including audio, video, image, text and educational resources. From the desktop, users can explore free and open content and learn more about businesses like Jamendo, Blip.tv, Flickr and others supporting creative communities through aggregation and search tools.

Also included are a number of open source software applications including OpenOffice, The Gimp, Inkscape, Firefox, multimedia viewers, open document templates and others. The LiveContent CD is a product of collaboration across a number of organizations – Red Hat is providing in-kind engineering support via Fedora 7 and many open source community members collaborated on the included software applications. Worldlabel.com, member of the Open Document Format Alliance, is supplying ongoing support for the development and distribution of the LiveContent CD.

“When we decided to explore LiveContent, we knew we would need a reliable, community-driven platform on which to base our content,” said Jon Phillips, community and business developer at Creative Commons. “We had a previous relationship with some of the engineers at Red Hat and knew the Company’s solutions to be valuable, well-developed and reliable. We envision LiveContent to be a stepping stone to dynamic distribution of open content. Forthcoming versions of LiveContent aim to support autocurated packaging of Creative Commons-licensed content, allowing for the most up-to-date, ‘living’ content distribution. For this to happen, we’re calling on community members and content curators to join the effort to help spread open media.”

For more information on Fedora, to download or to join this community effort, please visit: http://fedoraproject.org. Visit http://creativecommons.org/project/livecontent to learn more about the project and get involved with future versions of LiveContent. To obtain a copy of the LiveContent CD, visit the Fedora and Creative Commons booths at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco.

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

About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat, the world’s leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 50 satellite offices spanning the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise Software for three consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat provides high-quality, low-cost technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

Contact

Jon Phillips
Community + Business Developer
Creative Commons
(415) 369-8486
jon@creativecommons.org

Kerri Catallozzi
Red Hat
(919) 754-4268
kcatallo@redhat.com

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit

CREATIVE COMMONS RELEASES LIBLICENSE FOR SIMPLE TECHNICAL LICENSING INTEGRATION

Scott Shawcroft, July 31st, 2007

San Francisco, CA – July 30, 2007 – Today, Creative Commons published the first public release of its desktop licensing library, Liblicense, featuring desktop integration. When content authors grant permission for re-use of their work, Liblicense provides software developers with the ability to easily discover and display those permissions to a user. Liblicense also offers authors the ability to embed those permissions in a standard way in files. Read More…

SPOON TO HEADLINE CONCERT TO BENEFIT CREATIVE COMMONS AND KICK OFF WIRED NEXTFEST IN LOS ANGELES

Cameron Parkins, June 25th, 2007

WIRED magazine today announced that rock band Spoon will headline a concert to benefit Creative Commons on September 10, 2007 at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. The concert is a kick-off event for WIRED NextFest, a unique world’s-fair-style event showcasing future technologies in design, entertainment, communication, healthcare, transportation, sustainable living, and more, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, September 13–16, 2007.

Spoon is an Austin, TX-based quartet with five full-length albums to its credit, and its heavily anticipated sixth album, entitled “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” is slated for release on July 10. Spoon’s previous album, “Gimme Fiction,” received widespread acclaim and appeared on “Best of 2005” lists in Blender and Spin. In 2004, Spoon joined artists such as the Beastie Boys, David Byrne, My Morning Jacket, a pre-Gnarls-Barkley Danger Mouse (featuring Cee-Lo), and the Rapture in donating tracks to the Creative Commons-licensed WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit Creative Commons, the non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others to build upon and share legally. This is the third benefit concert WIRED has produced to benefit Creative Commons. Previous concerts featured David Byrne and Gilberto Gil; and Girl Talk, Diplo and Peeping Tom.

The concert will serve as a live reunion for Spoon and Keepon the robot, which achieved online celebrity status in April after the little robot became a YouTube sensation dancing to Spoon’s song, “I Turn My Camera On.” The video “Keepon Dancing to Spoon” is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-yrjh58ms and boasts over 1.2 million views and scores of online imitators. Following the concert, Keepon will be holding court at WIRED NextFest September 13-16.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, June 23, for the all-ages general admission show priced at $20. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.com.

In addition to enjoying Spoon’s critically acclaimed music and supporting an important cause in Creative Commons, concertgoers will get a sneak peek at some of the futuristic exhibits to be showcased at WIRED NextFest. Attendees of the benefit concert will get a free ticket to WIRED NextFest for Friday, September 14.

To learn more and to purchase tickets for WIRED NextFest, please visit http://www.wirednextfest.com.

About WIRED

For nearly 15 years, WIRED has been the first word on how technology is changing the world around us. Each month, the magazine delivers a glimpse into the future of business, science, entertainment, education, culture, and politics. Under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, WIRED has been nominated for an unprecedented six consecutive National Magazine Awards for General Excellence, winning the industry’s prestigious top prize in 2007 and 2005. WIRED magazine and Wired.com reach nearly 6 million readers per month.

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

Contact

Alexandra Constantinople
WIRED Media
+1 415 276 5962
Alexandra_Constantinople@wired.com

Bill Danon
Bite Communications for WIRED Media
+1 310 295 2140
bill.danon@bitepr.com

“A Story of Healing” Becomes First Academy Award® Winning Film Released Under A Creative Commons License

Eric Steuer, April 19th, 2007

“A Story of Healing” Becomes First Academy Award® Winning Film Released Under A Creative Commons License

April 19, 2007

Interplast — the first humanitarian organization to provide free reconstructive surgery for children with clefts, disabling burns, and hand injuries — is proud to announce that its 1997 Academy Award® winning documentary, “A Story of Healing,” has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerical-No Derivatives license. This marks the first time in history that an Academy Award® winning film has been licensed under any Creative Commons license, allowing free and legal distribution of the film via the Internet.

“Interplast hopes that by licensing ‘A Story of Healing’ in such a way, anyone with Internet access can watch this moving film and learn more about the need for surgical care in developing countries,” said Susan W. Hayes, Interplast president and CEO.

Interplast believes that greater public access to information about humanitarian issues will bring increased awareness to global need and hopefully persuade people to want to help. For this reason, Interplast also has posted thousands of photos from developing world countries on Flickr and dozens of videos on blip.tv, all under a Creative Commons by-nc-nd license. The international organization also encourages other nonprofits to publish their various media under Creative Commons licenses, so that the public can more easily learn about various causes and solutions worldwide.

Creative Commons, American Public Television, and blip.tv were instrumental in helping Interplast provide worldwide, free distribution of the film’s powerful message. Interplast is deeply grateful for their help.

“This film is a tremendous asset for Interplast—to the extent it is seen. We’re happy that a Creative Commons license can help with that. Other mission-driven organizations should take note,” said Lawrence Lessig, Creative Commons CEO.

To view “A Story of Healing,” visit interplast.org/astoryofhealing.php. A DVD version of the film may also be obtained on the Interplast website.

About Interplast

Interplast — the first humanitarian organization to provide free reconstructive surgery for children with clefts, disabling burns and hand injuries — has provided 64,000 life-changing surgeries for those who have no other access to care. Working in underserved regions of 16 countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, Interplast teaches, empowers and partners with volunteers and overseas medical professionals so every child living in poverty has free access to the safest and highest-quality care—now and in the future. Interplast is committed to transforming as many lives as possible, allocating 90 percent of its budget to medical programs. For more information, visit interplast.org.

About blip.tv

Blip.tv is the video-sharing site that features the best independently produced shows on the Internet, from scripted comedies and dramas to newsmagazines and reality shows. For each show, blip.tv provides hosting, distribution, marketing and advertising sales. Shows are hosted on the destination site www.blip.tv and syndicated to iTunes and to blogs and websites throughout the Internet, including AOL Video and Yahoo! Video. In all cases, ads are embedded into blip.tv videos, so the ads travel with videos throughout the Internet. Blip.tv splits all advertising revenue with show creators 50/50. The company’s goal is to allow talented, creative personalities to concentrate on making great shows by providing all the services necessary to help them sustain their efforts. For more information, visit blip.tv.

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 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 general information, visit creativecommons.org.

Contact

Sara Anderson
Director of Communications and Public Relations, Interplast
Email
650.934.3305

Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
Email

Press Kit