Queensland University of Technology (QUT) will lead the license translation and work to expand global access to Australia’s culture

Palo Alto, USA, and Brisbane, AUSTRALIA – March 25, 2004 – Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative works free for copying and re-use, announced today that it would expand its International Commons (iCommons) project to Australia.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in Brisbane, will lead the effort.

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

As the lead institution, QUT will coordinate a public effort to translate the Creative Commons licenses literally and legally for use in Australia.

“We are thrilled to be working with Queensland University of Technology,” said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford University, in the U.S. “Australia will be a vital participant in bringing the international cultural Commons to fruition.”

“We are also excited to be involved in developing Creative Commons in Australia,” explained Project Co-Leader Brian Fitzgerald, Professor and Head of the School of Law at QUT. “There is already strong demand within the Australian community for a legal means of facilitating the distribution of Open Content, and Creative Commons will be a tremendous platform on which to build these protocols and agreements.”

Tom Cochrane, Project Co-Leader and Deputy Vice Chancellor at QUT, said that with copyright law and regulation getting more attention by the day, QUT was pleased to be associated with this international effort to find collaborative solutions more appropriate to rapidly changing digital environments.

“Even within the University, there are already numerous direct applications of the model in our day to day academic work,” Mr Cochrane said.

QUT will field comments on an archived email discussion at the Creative Commons website, http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#australia.

Australia joins Brazil, China, Croatia, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Jordan in the iCommons effort.

More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works, whether owned or in the 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 https://creativecommons.org.

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

More about Queensland University of Technology

QUT is a major Australian university with a strong interest in and commitment to information law and policy. As well as its large Law Faculty, QUT is also home to the Faculty of Creative Industries, which is keen to utilize the Creative Commons model to further develop innovation in the creative industries; the Faculty of Information Technology, which is a leader in information security; and the Faculty of Business, which has recognized expertise in technology policy and innovation.

QUT’s partner in this exercise has been Ian Oi and his team at Blake Dawson Waldron Lawyers. Ian Oi is a recognized expert in Technology and Intellectual Property Issues and plays an active role in the development of law and policy in this area.

For more information about QUT, visit http://www.qut.edu.au.
For more information about Blake Dawson Waldron Lawyers, visit http://www.bdw.com.au.

Contact

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

Professor Brian Fitzgerald (Brisbane)
Project Lead, iCommons Australia
Head of School of Law, Queensland University of Technology
email: bf.fitzgerald@qut.edu.au

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