SPANISH COURT RECOGNIZES FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT THERE IS MUSIC THAT IS NOT REPRESENTED BY COLLECTING SOCIETIES

Mia Garlick, March 23rd, 2006

Spanish bar owner does not have to pay license fees to Spain’s primary collecting society for CC-licensed music

Barcelona, Spain & San Francisco, USA — March 23, 2006

Last month, the Lower Court number six of Badajoz, a city in Extremadura, Spain, ruled that a bar owner did not have to pay license fees to the main Spanish collecting society — Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (“SGAE”) for his use of Creative Commons-licensed music.

In the Fall of 2005, the main SGAE sued Ricardo Andrés Utrera Fernández, the owner of Metropol, a disco bar located in in Badajoz alleging that he had failed to pay SGAE’s license fee of 4.816,74 € for the period from November 2002 to August 2005 for public performance of music managed by the collecting society.

On February 17th, 2006, the court rejected the collecting society’s claims because the owner of the bar proved that the music he was using was not managed by the society. The music performed in the bar was licensed under CC licenses that allows that public display since the authors have already granted those rights. Specifically, the judge said:

“The author possesses some moral and economic rights on his creation. And the owner of these rights, he can manage them as he considers appropriate, being able to yield the free use, or hand it over partially. “Creative Commons” licenses are different classes of authorizations that the holder of his work gives for a more or less free or no cost use of it. They exist as … different classes of licenses of this type … they allow third parties to be able to use music freely and without cost with greater or minor extension; and in some of these licenses, specific uses require the payment of royalties. The defendant proves that he makes use of music that is handled by their authors through these Creative Commons licenses.“

The full text of the decision (in Spanish) is available here.

This case sets a new precedent because previously, every time that the SGAE claimed a license fee from a bar, a restaurant or a shop for public performance of music, the courts have ruled in their favor on the basis that the collecting society represents practically all the authors. This case shows that there is more music that can be enjoyed and played publicly than that which is managed by the collecting societies.

Unfortunately, the current membership requirements of collecting societies such as SGAE, which requires musicians to assign rights to the society, means that their members are currently unable to release their works to the public under a Creative Commons license. Consequently, all artists who choose to CC-license their creativity currently cannot be members of SGAE.

“This decision demonstrates that authors can choose how to manage their rights for their own benefit and anyone can benefit from that choice, too. I expect that collecting societies will understand that something has to change to face this new reality,” said Ignasi Labastida, Project Lead for Creative Commons in Spain.

“This case shows that both bar owners and Spanish courts recognize that there are new and diverse forms of music emerging,” Creative Commons Chairman & CEO Lawrence Lessig said, “I do hope, however, that we can work with SGAE and other collecting societies so that musicians have the freedom to choose when they want their music CC-licensed and when they want to be represented by a collecting society.”

About Creative Commons Spain

Creative Commons Spain is collaboration between Creative Commons Corporation and the University of Barcelona. For general Information (in Spanish) visit their site.

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 the group’s site.

Contact

Ignasi Labastida i Juan

Project Lead, CC Spain

Email

Mia Garlick

General Counsel, Creative Commons

Email

Press Kit

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES LAUNCH IN MEXICO

Mia Garlick, March 16th, 2006

San Francisco, USA, Berlin, GERMANY, March 16, 2006

Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative work free to share and build upon, today unveils a localized version of its innovative licensing system in Mexico.

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 Project Leads Leon Felipe Sanchez Ambia, and Jorge Ringenbach to adapt the standardized licenses to Mexican law. Creative Commons Mexico is being supported by Fulton & Fulton, S.C.

Today the Mexican versions of the Creative Commons licenses will be launched in Mexico City, at a ceremony held in the Andromeda Ballroom at the Hotel Nikko Mexico. At the event that is hosted by Fulton & Fulton, S.C., Professor Lawrence Lessig (Chairman and CEO of Creative Commons) will give the keynote address. As part of the launch event, Emilio Saldaña Quiñones, Joint Director General of the Presidency’s Internet System, will be addressing a speech on the adoption of Creative Commons licenses by the Mexican Presidency to release all of their content published on the internet under a BY-NC-ND 2.5 license.

Leon Felipe Sanchez says, “We got involved in this project focused on the benefits it would carry to, mainly, young creators who are willing to share their works and build upon others’ works as part of the cultural growth in our country. As lawyers, we also wanted to help the authors get back their power to decide what best suits their needs in relation to their works. We’re living in a time in which commerce has constrained author’s rights to the will of big enterprises and this isn’t helping anyone else but them”.

Says Jorge Ringenbach “We believe that advanced contracting and intellectual property issues are matters that have great involvement with today’s technology changes, so what a better way to get involved in such issues that with a project with a noble cause that helps culture spread in a more friendly way.”

About Fulton & Fulton, S.C.

Fulton & Fulton, S.C., founded in 2002, is a premium level, young attorney’s law firm with wide experience on intellectual property law based in Mexico City. The attorneys are committed with keeping updated on every issue the firm is involved. Fulton & Fulton leads the legal porting project for CC in Mexico as a pro-bono activity that pursues to contribute on the research and development of new ways to understand and use intellectual property rights. More information about Fulton & Fulton, S.C. is available at at 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 the group’s site.

Contact

Christiane Henckel von Donnersmarck

Executive Director

Creative Commons International, Creative Commons

Email

+49.30.280.93.909

Press Kit

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES UPHELD IN DUTCH COURT

Mia Garlick, March 16th, 2006

San Francisco, USA, & Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 15, 2006

The first known court decision involving a Creative Commons license was handed down on March 9, 2006 by the District Court of Amsterdam. The case confirmed that the conditions of a Creative Commons license automatically apply to the content licensed under it.

The proceedings arose when former MTV VJ and podcasting guru Adam Curry published photos of his family on the well-known online photo-sharing site Flickr under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike license. The Dutch tabloid Weekend reproduced four of the photos in a story about Curry’s children.

Curry sued Weekend for copyright and privacy infringement. As to the copyright claim, Weekend argued that it was misled by the notice ‘this photo is public’ (which is a standard feature of all Flickr images that are viewable by the public), and that the link to the CC license was not obvious. Weekend had assumed that no authorization from Curry was needed. Audax, the publisher of Weekend, argued that it was informed of the existence of the CC license only much later by its legal counsel.

The Court rejected Weekend’s defense, and held as follows:

“All four photos that were taken from www.flickr.com were made by Curry and posted by him on that website. In principle, Curry owns the copyright in the four photos, and the photos, by posting them on that website, are subject to the [Creative Commons] License. Therefore Audax should observe the conditions that control the use by third parties of the photos as stated in the License. The Court understands that Audax was misled by the notice ‘This photo is public’ (and therefore did not take note of the conditions of the License). However, it may be expected from a professional party like Audax that it conduct a thorough and precise examination before publishing in Weekend photos originating from the Internet. Had it conducted such an investigation, Audax would have clicked on the symbol accompanying the notice ‘some rights reserved’ and encountered the (short version of) the License. In case of doubt as to the applicability and the contents of the License, it should have requested authorization for publication from the copyright holder of the photos (Curry). Audax has failed to perform such a detailed investigation, and has assumed too easily that publication of the photos was allowed. Audax has not observed the conditions stated in the License […]. The claim […] will therefore be allowed; defendants will be enjoined from publishing all photos that [Curry] has published on www.flickr.com, unless this occurs in accordance with the conditions of the License.”

The full text of the decision (in Dutch) is available here.

“We are very happy with this decision as it demonstrates that the millions of creators who use creative commons licenses are effectively protected against abuses of their willingness to contribute to the commons,” said Paul Keller, Public Project Lead for Creative Commons in the Netherlands.

“This decision confirms that the Creative Commons licensing system is an effective way for content creators to manage their copyrights online,” said Lawrence Lessig, Creative Commons CEO & Chairman, “The decision should also serve as a timely reminder to those seeking to use content online, to respect the terms that apply to that content.”

About Creative Commons Netherlands

Creative Commons Netherlands is collaboration between Creative Commons Corporation, Waag Society, Netherland Knowledgeland Foundation and the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam. Creative Commons is supported by the Dutch Ministry for Education, Culture and Sciences. For general Information (in Dutch) visit their site.

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 site.

Contact

Paul Keller

Project Lead

CC Netherlands, Amsterdam

Email

Mia Garlick

General Counsel

Creative Commons, San Francisco

Email

Press Kit

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES OFFERED IN BULGARIA

Mia Garlick, March 15th, 2006

San Francisco, USA, Berlin, GERMANY - March 14, 2006

Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides a flexible copyright licenses for authors and artists, recently unveiled a localized version of its innovative licensing system in Bulgaria.

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 Project Leads Veni Markovski and Dessi Pefeva of the Internet Society Bulgaria, to adapt the standarized licenses to Bulgarian law. Creative Commons Bulgaria is hosted by the Internet Society Bulgaria (ISOC-Bulgaria) and supported by the Open Society Institute.
Says Veni Markowski, “We are proud of the achievements of the Creative Commons community in Bulgaria. This is a success for Bulgaria, and for all authors - an ever increasing number of them use Creative Commons’ licenses to publish their works.“

“There are new CC initiatives every day in Bulgaria – see open-culture.net
or the Bulgarian netlabels - stretching-spaces.net, ouim.net and mahorka.cult.bg. There’s even a whole audiolab, called VOXXLab, which gives young musicians opportunity to record their music free of charge, if they license their music under CC”, said Dessi Pefeva, CC project coordinator.

About ISOC-Bulgaria

Founded in 1995, among its main aims is to support free and open development of the Internet in Bulgaria and freedom of speech, access to information and basic human rights in the Information Society. ISOC-Bulgaria recently has been working on changes in the legal framework in Bulgaria. ISOC-Bulgaria has about 600 members, among them the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov, the Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, the former President, and the former Prime Minister, many distinguisged IT-professionals, scientists, and experts. ISOC Bulgaria is working with the United Nations Development Program and under the European Union 6th Framework Program on promoting Free and Open Source Software in the administration. For more information about ISOC Bulgaria, visit their site.

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

Press Kit

CREATIVE COMMONS, WARNER BROS. RECORDS, AND MACHINE SHOP RECORDINGS ANNOUNCE FORT MINOR REMIX CONTEST AT CCMIXTER.ORG

Eric Steuer, March 8th, 2006

San Francisco, USA & Los Angeles, USA – March 8, 2006

Creative Commons, along with Warner Bros. Records and Machine Shop Recordings, today announced the Fort Minor Remix Contest. Fort Minor, the hip-hop project led by Linkin Park vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, has made the digital files from the recording session of its song “Remember the Name” available online under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license. Under this license, producers, DJs, and remixers all over the world can easily and legally create new versions of the track.

Mike Shinoda will select one remix as the contest’s winner. The creator of the winning remix will be awarded a new Technics SL-1200MK5 turntable, courtesy of Warner Bros. Records and Machine Shop Recordings. The contest will be hosted at ccMixter.org from Wednesday, March 8, 2006 through Saturday, May 6, 2006.

To participate, entrants must download the separated audio elements of Fort Minor’s “Remember the Name” from ccMixter.org and produce a remix that incorporates the song’s vocal track. Entrants may, but are not required to, also use other elements from the original version of the song in their remixes. Producers must upload their remixes to ccMixter.org between March 22, 2006 and May 6, 2006. All entries must be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license. Under this license, the public may legally make copies of, distribute, and create derivative works from the remixes – as long as the original authors are appropriately credited and the uses are not for commercial purposes.

About Fort Minor

Fort Minor is a hip-hop project fronted by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda. Fort Minor’s debut album, The Rising Tied, was executive produced by Jay-Z and features Styles of Beyond, Common, John Legend, Black Thought of The Roots, and Holly Brook. For more information about Fort Minor and to hear the group’s music, visit the official Fort Minor Web site and MySpace page.

About Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is the cornerstone of Warner Music Group’s labels, covering a vast spectrum of musical genres through its subsidiaries Warner Bros. Records and Reprise Records, and its divisions Warner Nashville, Warner Jazz, and Warner Christian. Over the years, they have earned a reputation as artist-friendly labels with a visionary approach to discovering and nurturing musical talent. The Warner Bros. Records Inc. catalogue includes such legendary artists as Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, Madonna, and Enya. It is also home to Faith Hill, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park, R.E.M., Flaming Lips, Jaheim, Pat Metheny and many of the most exciting recording artists in the world. For more information about Warner Bros. Records, visit the label’s Web site.

About Machine Shop Recordings

Machine Shop Recordings, a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records, specializes in discovering and supporting career artists. The company works with musicians such as Fort Minor, Holly Brook, No Warning, and Styles of Beyond. For more information about Machine Shop Recordings, visit the company’s Web site.

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.

Contact

Eric Steuer

Creative Director, Creative Commons

Email

Press Kit

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES LAUNCH IN MALAYSIA

Mia Garlick, March 3rd, 2006

San Francisco, CA, USA and Berlin, GERMANY — March 4, 2006 — Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative work free to share and build upon, today unveils a localized version of its innovative licensing system in Malaysia.

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 Project Leads Alina Ng, Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, and Hasnul Nadzrin Shah to adapt the standardized licenses to Malaysian law. Creative Commons Malaysia is being supported by The Multimedia Development Corporation, Cyberjaya.

Today the Malaysian versions of the Creative Commons licenses will be launched in Kuala Lumpur, at a ceremony held in the Sultan’s Ballroom at the Le Meridien Hotel. At the event that is hosted by The Multimedia Development Corporation, Professor Lawrence Lessig (Chairman and CEO of Creative Commons) will give the keynote address.

As part of the launch event, the winning entries for the Creative Commons Malaysia Competition will be awarded. The winning entries consisting of works of music, motion picture and art will receive prizes, have their works showcased at the launch and be included in a CD/DVD to be distributed freely.

Mr. Badlisham Ghazali, Chief Executive Officer of the Multimedia Development Corporation says that “It is timely that Malaysia participates in the Creative Commons Project. At a point in time when Malaysia is becoming a rich and vibrant information society, the Creative Commons project allows Malaysians from all walks of life, whether they are students, academics, researchers or in the creative content industry, such as independent musicians and filmmakers or creative content companies to participate in content development and distribution around the globe.”

Says Alina Ng, “The purpose of the competition is to create awareness for the project and to encourage the creative use of materials available under Creative Commons’ licenses to produce new works. By participating in the competition, we hope that the Malaysian public will become familiar with the licensing tools of Creative Commons. The competition encourages the use of existing works to create new ones.“

About The Multimedia Development Corporation

The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) was established in 1996 to oversee the growth of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project, a strategic project to develop the country’s economy to a developed nation status by the year 2020. MDC works in partnership with government agencies and the private sector to develop initiatives such as market access assistance, human resource development and training support, financial and non-financial incentives, research and development (R&D) grants, venture capital funding and business incubation centers. One of the initiatives of the MSC is to tap the potential of technology and creativity integration to meet local and global demand for content in education, entertainment and other applications. For this purposes, the MDC overlooks the Creative Multimedia Cluster that seeks to utilize multimedia and information communication technologies to cultivate creativity in schools, institutes of higher learning, universities as well as in the private sector. More information about the creative multimedia cluster is available here.

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. 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

+49.30.280.93.909

Press Kit

HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SUPPORTIVE OF A “FREE(R) CULTURE”

Mia Garlick, February 17th, 2006

Budapest, Hungary & San Francisco, USA — February 15, 2006

Creative Commons Hungary, a collaboration between Center for Media Research and Education, and the nonprofit organization Creative Commons, is pleased to highlight the recent release by acting Hungarian Prime Minister Mr. Ferenc Gyurcsany and his publisher Napvilag of Mr. Gyurcsany’s recent book “Utkozben” (In Transit) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. This license clearly signals to members of the public that they are free to download and redistribute the book provided they do so noncommercially and with attribution.

“Utkozben” summarizes Mr. Gyurcsany’s political philosophy and outlines his new Hungarian social democratic program. The book is available from the publisher’s website.

Mr. Gyurcsany’s book comes in the wake of comments by the Hungarian Culture Minister Mr. András Bozóki to the meeting of the Inclusive Europe Conference of European Ministers of Culture held in Budapest in November 2005 in which Mr. Bozóki acknowledged that “[a]ccess to culture is often faced with limitations posed by contemporary copyright regimes” and recommended that “we should begin a process of finding creative ways to rethinking our intellectual property system that we inherited from the last centuries.” Mr. Bozóki specifically identified Creative Commons as one of the initiatives that “widen[s] access to culture in the public domain, in the public interest, and contribute[s] to the competitiveness of European cultural products.” (For a copy of the speech see this page).

Balazs Bodo of the CC Hungary project team said “In the global market of cultural goods, Creative Commons and the free culture approach are essential tools to maintain the cultural heritage for such small and marginal cultures as the Hungarian. With it Hungarian cultural goods are not only technically available but legally accessible as well.”

About The Center for Media Research and Education (MOKK)

The Center for Media Research and Education (MOKK) was founded in 2002 as a joint effort of the Department of Sociology and Communication at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the leading Hungarian telecommunication company, Hungarian Telecom, with the aim of furthering multi-disciplinary research and education in the field of new media in Hungary. MOKK is built around the conviction that it is impossible to understand the sociocultural effects of new technologies without taking into account their technical foundations and attributes—and equally, that in order to develop successful new media applications one needs to understand the sociocultural context of their use. For more information about MOKK, 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 Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation. For general information, visit their site.

Contact

Balazs Bodo (Budapest)

CC Hungary

Email

Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)

Creative Commons International

Email

Press Kit

COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS REMIX CONTEST EXTENDED UNTIL MARCH 14

Eric Steuer, February 15th, 2006

New Vocal Samples from Chuck D and George Clinton Made Available for Use

San Francisco, CA, USA – February 15, 2006

Creative Commons, along with filmmakers Kembrew McLeod and Ben Franzen, today announced that due to overwhelmingly positive response, the Copyright Criminals Remix Contest has been extended by two weeks, ending on March 14. Additionally, new vocal samples from influential rapper Chuck D (of Public Enemy) and pioneering funk musician George Clinton (of Parliament-Funkadelic) have been made available for use in the competition.

Winners will be chosen according to the same criteria as originally announced; no other contest details are changed.

The Copyright Criminals Remix Contest encourages producers, DJs, and remixers from around the world to use audio snippets from the upcoming documentary film Copyright Criminals in new, original songs. One winner will have his/her music featured prominently in the final edit of Copyright Criminals. The winning track, along with 11 runners-up, will be included on the film’s companion CD. The contest is going on now at ccMixter.org.

Drawing from more than fifty interviews with prominent musicians, artists, scholars, lawyers, and music industry representatives, Copyright Criminals looks at the development of sound collage (also known as sampling). The film explores the complicated impact that copyright law has had on the creative practice of sampling and studies the conflicting opinions artists and others have about appropriation.

Samples of dialogue by artists like De La Soul, DJ Qbert, Matmos, Coldcut, and members of Negativland – all taken from interviews conducted for Copyright Criminals – are available online at the popular remix community ccMixter.org for use as source material to be included in entrants’ songs. Entries will be judged by McLeod, Franzen, and author/producer Jeff Chang. Contest rules and details are available at ccMixter.org.

About the judges

Kembrew McLeod is a professor at the University of Iowa and an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker. McLeod has written music criticism for Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, and MOJO; and has authored two books, most recently Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity (Doubleday).

Ben Franzen is an Atlanta-based artist who owns an independent production company called Changing Images LLC, which specializes in video, photography, and multimedia. Franzen edits the animated TV program Squidbillies, which appears as part of the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim line-up.

Jeff Chang is the author of the American Book Award-winning Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. In 1993, he co-founded and ran the influential indie hip-hop label, SoleSides (now called Quannum Projects), helping launch the careers of DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and Lateef the Truth Speaker. He has helped produce over a dozen records.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works 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 more information, visit CC’s Web site.

Contact

Eric Steuer

Creative Director, Creative Commons

Email

Kembrew McLeod

Co-director, Copyright Criminals

Email

Press Kit

FIRST EVER HUNGARIAN CREATIVE COMMONS REMIX CONTEST ANNOUNCED

Mia Garlick, February 15th, 2006

Budapest, Hungary — February 15, 2006

Creative Commons Hungary, a collaboration between Center for Media Research and Education and the nonprofit organization Creative Commons, today announced, together with the band Nomada and Tilos Radio, the first Creative Commons remix competition in Hungary.

The five-member group Nomada was founded by Roma singer-guitarist Balogh Gusztáv in 2003. Nomada’s music is derived from the Hungarian Gypsy tradition in addition to drawing from other musical styles such as Spanish, Arabic and Serbian folk elements.

Nomada have released their song Aven le Roma! – Here come the Roma!, and its component elements, under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license which authorizes members of the public to remix it. To be considered as part of the content, remixes must be uploaded to this site by March 31, 2006. Six of the best remixes will be selected by panel of Hungarian and international musicians including DJ Vadim, Szakcsi Lakatos Béla, Mitsou and Dj Palotai.

Balazs Bodo of the CC Hungary project team said “Nomada has its roots in the Roma music tradition where music is ‘free’ as the common heritage of Roma people. The band has created something unique out of this, and by releasing their remix of this tradition under a CC license, they are giving it back to those to whom it belongs: a community where it is kept alive. The only difference is that we have stepped out from the analogue, manual music tradition into the realm of electronic music and digital remixes. Use it, fuse it, diffuse it!”

About The Center for Media Research and Education (MOKK)

The Center for Media Research and Education (MOKK) was founded in 2002 as a joint effort of the Department of Sociology and Communication at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the leading Hungarian telecommunication company, Hungarian Telecom, with the aim of furthering multi-disciplinary research and education in the field of new media in Hungary. MOKK is built around the conviction that it is impossible to understand the sociocultural effects of new technologies without taking into account their technical foundations and attributes—and equally, that in order to develop successful new media applications one needs to understand the sociocultural context of their use. For more information about MOKK, visit their site.

About Tilos Radio

Tilos Radio is a community, a non-profit radio station in Budapest, Hungary, that was established in 1991, to draw the public’s attention to the fact that there was at that time no legal framework for independent and community broadcasters. During the first years of its broadcasting, Tilos (which means “forbidden” in Hungarian) enjoyed wide public interest and played a key role in the liberalisation of the airwaves in Hungary, which happened in 1995. In 1995, Tilos Radio secured a frequency license and has since transitioned to become a key player in the cultural and lifestyle scene of Budapest.

The services of Tilos are mainly financed by listeners’ donations and the income from fund-raising events, and partly by support from EU programmes, international NGO’s and charity institutions. For more information about Tilos 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 Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation. For general information, visit their site.

Contact

Balazs Bodo (Budapest)

CC Hungary

Email

Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)

Creative Commons International

Email

Press Kit

CREATIVE COMMONS TO PORT LICENSES TO MAINLAND CHINA

Mia Garlick, December 23rd, 2005

San Francisco, CA, USA and Berlin, GERMANY — December 20, 2005 — Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative work free to share and build upon, introduces today a revamped draft version of its localized licenses in The People’s Republic of China.

Creative Commons copyright licenses are available free of charge from the group’s website (http://creativecommons.org). 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.

Led by Project Lead Chunyan Wang and the Law School of Renmin University of China, and helped by Professors Li Chen and Guo He, Ms. Gao Si from NCAC, and Mr.Zheng Yi and Miss Chen Jie, Creative Commons Mainland China has worked on a new version of the standardized licenses, adapted to Chinese law.

The Creative Commons Mainland China project is supported by IET Foundation, the Center for Internet Law at Peking University Law School, and China Open Resources for Education (CORE).

CC Mainland China will post their new version on the Creative Commons website for public discussion. The license draft will be discussed at a new mailing list and a new URL.

Following a fruitful discussion, CC Mainland China plans to launch a localized version of the licenses during a launch event at the Intellectual Property and Creative Commons conference taking place at Renmin University of China and Peking University in Beijing in March 2006.

Says Chunyan Wang: “I think it would be extremely important to introduce Creative Commons licenses to China. The concept and approach of Creative Commons licenses would provide a sensible middle ground for China, between western approaches of strict copyright and the traditional Chinese approach of having no intellectual property rights. Indeed, the very idea of Creative Commons is based on the traditional Chinese approach of society sharing its intellectual creativity, under a reasonable set of guidelines. Adopting the Creative Commons licensing system in China would be a significant step forward in helping China further the development of culturally diverse creative works, and improve the ability of the people of China to communicate effectively with other societies and cultures around the world.“

About Law School of Renmin University of China

Renmin University of China (RUC) is a national leading university focusing on humanities, social sciences, economics, law and management. RUC was officially established in 1950. As one of the major schools and departments, the Law School is the first higher legal education institution officially established after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Consisting of 12 Teaching and Research Sections (TRS) and 15 research centers, the Law School boasts two National Key Research Centers—Research Center of Criminal Jurisprudence and Research Center of Civil and Commercial Jurisprudence—and China Law Information Center, a National 211 Project program. With one LL.B, nine LL.M and seven LL.D programs, RUC Law School has a comprehensive legal education system.

For general information, visit the website

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 Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

For general information, visit the group’s website.

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Christiane Asschenfeld
Executive Director CC International
Creative Commons
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Mia Garlick
General Counsel and COO
Creative Commons
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