San Francisco, CA, USA; Berlin, GERMANY; and Bogotá, Colombia — August 22, 2006 — Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative work free to share and build upon today announced the launch of its licenses in Colombia.

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 Carolina Botero, Andrés Umaña, Jaime Rojas and Alfredo Vargas in Colombia to adapt the standardized licenses to Colombian law. Creative Commons Colombia (whose website will be available shortly here) was hosted by Universidad del Rosario – Colombia.

“The Colombian version of the Creative Commons licenses will be launched in a one day session Program being held during the morning at Universidad Politécnico Grancolombiano, Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University, CEO & Chairman of Creative Commons, will deliver the keynote speech on the importance of the launch of the CC licenses in Colombia” says Andrés Umaña.

“Later in the evening a special open content session will be held in the Virgilio Barco Public Library with the participation of Colombian artists. All sessions will be webcasted vía Renata (Colombian Network of Universities) and/or using free streaming via Internet, to allow everyone around Colombia to participate”, adds Alfredo Vargas.

“CC has turned to be an important reference point in vital sectors like education, science and journalism where the commons approach has a strong influence, we will show examples of Colombian experiences in the adoption of CC licenses that we believe are important steps for free culture in South America and even in a more global context” points Carolina Botero.

“We believe CC will provide Colombians a new medium to express ourselves bringing us closer to Latin America and the world with all the amazing talents this country has through its rich artistic heritage, biodiversity and imagination. CC will also enhance the open access that is going to have a direct impact (publicly and privately) in the: cultural, scientific, entrepreneurial and education sectors. This is a success for the community we built around the project, and it is a big step for Colombian creators”, adds Jaime Rojas.

About Universidad del Rosario

Universidad del Rosario is a non-profit educational institution founded in Bogotá in 1653. As one of the most important Colombian universities, el Rosario influenced the political and civil Colombian society during its life. Its interest in supporting the CC licenses translation into the Colombian legal frame is to promote the research and education in new issues of the information society. For more information about Universidad del Rosario in Colombia visit this 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, Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation. For general information, visit its its website.

Contact

Carolina Botero
CC Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia
Email

Christiane Henckel von Donnersmarck
Berlin
Email

Mia Garlick
General Counsel & COO, Creative Commons
Email

The CC Colombian launch is possible thanks to the support of different entities, mainly:

Universidad Politécnico Grancolombiano: its involvement in the technological development of the Colombian educational sector became an important key aspect of its dedication to promote the use of ICTs in a socially responsible way. The University leads the Internet 2 University networks and is involved in the development of digital contents in higher education. For more information visit this site. And for the event’s webcast visit this site.

eltiempo.com: Colombia´s main internet news portal launched in July 15th, 2006 it’s social participation section where bloggers and photobloggers and general public can participate building the new Colombian media landscape. And from the 22nd of august this citizen journalism site will use CC as its community tool. For more information this site.

Support was also given by: Ministerio de Educación Colombiano, el directorio Free Software Community and Fundación Karisma.

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