San Francisco, USA — May 8, 2006

Creative Commons and Vogele & Associates today unveiled the Podcasting Legal Guide, which was prepared by both organizations together with the invaluable assistance of the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School’s Clinical Program in Cyberlaw. The Guide was prepared as part of the Stanford Center for Internet & Society’s Non-Residential Fellowship. Inspired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Legal Guide for Bloggers, the Podcasting Legal Guide is designed to outline both legal and practical issues that are specifically relevant for podcasters, such as using music and video in a podcast.

The Guide has been published both online and as a PDF under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. A hardcopy of the Guide can also be ordered via Lulu in print-on-demand for $5.37 (black & white) or $10.83 (color). The authors hope that the flexible license chosen will enable practitioners in different jurisdictions to translate and adapt the guide for their own jurisdictions to assist podcasters around the world.

“This is an exciting time,” said Colette Vogele, founder of Vogele & Associates. “With the proliferation of user-generated and user-manipulated content on the web through podcasting and other technologies, anyone has the potential to become a publisher of original or remixed content overnight. At the same time, these new media technologies remain for the most part legally untested. We hope this Guide will encourage readers to take an active role in understanding the legal issues affecting their podcasts, and implement techniques and resources to podcast legally.”

“The body of copyright and related laws that governs the use of other people’s content in a podcast is, as Larry Lessig notes in his foreword to the Guide, ‘insanely complex,’” noted Phil Malone, co-director of the Berkman Center’s Clinical Program. “This Guide seeks to serve as a common-sense overview of some of that complexity and to help podcasters understand the variety of alternatives they might have to safely use music, video and other materials.”

To coincide with the release of the Guide, Creative Commons has released podcast promos from several prominent artists including DJ Spooky, Kristin Hersh, Jonathan Coulton, Finian Mckean, and Au Revoir Simone. These promos are available for podcasters who use CC-licensed music to include in their podcasts. Creative Commons invites other artists to submit promos for inclusion at the site.

About Vogele & Associates

Vogele & Associates advises businesses, non-profits, and individuals on a range of intellectual property issues related to new media and internet technologies. Founder Colette Vogele holds a non-residential fellowship with Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society and writes and speaks internationally on intellectually property issues.

About the Berkman Center Clinical Program in Cyberlaw

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. The Berkman Center’s Clinical Program in Cyberlaw provides high-quality, pro-bono legal services to appropriate individuals, small start-ups, non-profit groups and government entities regarding cutting-edge issues of the Internet, new technology and intellectual property. For information on the Center, visit the Center’s website; to learn more about the Clinical Program visit the Program’s 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 Creative Commons’ website.

Contact

Colette Vogele
Vogele & Associates
415 751 5737
Email

Mia Garlick
General Counsel, Creative Commons
415 946 3073
Email