OPEN COPYRIGHT LICENSES OFFERED IN CANADA AND SPAIN

Creative Commons introduces its innovative copyright licenses to Canada and Spain; free legal tools available in two languages in each country

San Francisco, USA; Ottawa, Canada; and Barcelona, Spain — Oct. 11, 2004 — Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that provides an alternative to full copyright, recently unveiled localized versions of its innovative licensing system in Canada and Spain. The Creative Commons licenses afford authors and publishers an intermediate degree of protection over their photos, music, text, films, and educational materials — a “some rights reserved” copyright in contrast to the traditional “all rights reserved.”

With the announcement, Creative Commons now offers free legal tools in a total of ten country-specific versions. The organization already provides copyright licenses specific to Austrian, Brazilian, Dutch, Finnish, German, Japanese, U.S., and Taiwanese law, thanks to a global network of artists, lawyers, and technologists.

Staff at Creative Commons’ offices in San Francisco and Berlin worked with Ignasi Labastida i Juan, of the University of Barcelona, and Marcus Bornfreund, of the University of Ottawa’s law faculty, to adapt the standardized licenses for use under Spanish and Canadian law, respectively. The Spanish licenses are available in both Castilian Spanish and Catalan, and the Canadian licenses in both English and French.

Creative Commons released the new legal tools, which are available free of charge from the Creative Commons website, at conferences in Barcelona and Ottawa last week.

“We are honored to be able to work with these two great institutions,” says Glenn Otis Brown, Executive Director of Creative Commons. “Their translations and superb legal research have made possible two new sets of free legal tools, in four different languages, on two continents — in the same week.”

The global expansion of the Creative Commons project — which is chaired by Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University Law School — is one of the main priorities of the San Francisco-based organization this year.

“We look forward to adding more countries to the list during the remainder of the year,” says Christiane Asschenfeldt, the International Commons Coordinator, based in Berlin. “Thanks are due to the friends of Creative Commons around the world.”

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 https://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin), iCommons Coordinator, Creative Commons

Glenn Otis Brown (San Francisco), Executive Director, Creative Commons

press@creativecommons.org

Press Kit