Creative Commons begins work with the
University of Namur’s cyberlaw research center to offer Belgian
versions of its “some rights reserved” copyright licenses

San Francisco, USA and Brussels, BELGIUM Oct.
19, 2004 Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of
creative work free to share and build upon, announced today its plans
to create localized Belgian versions of its free tools.

Creative Commons copyright licenses, which are available at no charge from the group’s website (https://creativecommons.org),
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”—thus eliminating
undue legal friction.

Belgium joins thirteen other nations
in the draft and comment phase of adapting the Creative Commons
licenses. Nine nations today offer localized Creative Commons licenses,
and several dozen more are in the preliminary draft phase.

In
cooperation with the Centre for Research on Computer Law (CRID) at the
University of Namur, Creative Commons has worked to adapt the copyright
licenses for use under Belgian law. CRID
intellectual property experts Séverine Dusollier, Philippe Laurent, and
Loïc Bodson have produced the French language draft, and Mélanie Carly,
a researcher at the University of Leuven’s Center for Intellectual
Rights (CIR), will publish a Dutch language draft later this month.

“We
are honored to work with these two great institutions,“ said Lawrence
Lessig, Professor at Stanford Law School and Chairman of Creative
Commons.

The Belgian drafts are available for review and public comment at <https://creativecommons.org/projects/international/be>.

“We are thrilled to be join the International Commons and to contribute in bringing it to Belgium,” said Dusollier.

About Creative Commons

A
nonprofit founded in early 2002, 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. Mac Arthur? Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

For general information, visit <https://creativecommons.org>.

About the Centre for Research on Computer Law (CRID) at the University of Namur

Founded in 1979 by Prof. Yves Poullet, the CRID, linked to the University of Namur, is a research centre dedicated to computer law and information law. The Objective of the CRID
is to foster the legal thinking in the field of cyberlaw and to create
awareness of the legal and social issues engendered by the use of new
technologies. 35 researchers are currently working on a broad range of
issues, from IPR, privacy, fundamental
rights to e-commerce, telecommunications law, use of technologies in
the medical sector, computer crime and contract law. The IPR Department is headed by Severine Dusollier.

For more information about CRID, visit .

Contact

Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)
iCommons Coordinator, Creative Commons

christiane@creativecommons.org

Glenn Otis Brown (San Francisco)
Executive Director, Creative Commons
glenn@creativecommons.org

Dr. Severine Dusollier (Namur)
Project Lead Belgium, CRID

severine.dusollier@fundp.ac.be

Press Kit
https://creativecommons.org/presskit/