One of the largest book fairs in the world, the Frankfurt Book Fair, was held this year on October 10-14th in Frankfurt am Main. The city’s fair is the annual host of 300,000 visitors to over 7,000 exhibitions celebrating literature and cultures from around the world. The event also functions as a global meet-up for authors, publishers, and other members of the book industry to chat over coffee and negotiate deals for publishing rights, licensing fees, and translation.

This year, Creative Commons was an active participant at the Frankfurt Book Fair and helped raise awareness about alternative licensing and literature online. Catharina Maracke joined a panel about licensing on the internet, in which she discussed possibilities for fostering a hybrid economy with literary texts and existing content curators.

CC Chairman Joi Ito presented his vision of an open internet and shared culture in a discussion with the Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, at an event to promote the book “German Dream – Träumen für Deutschland,” a collection of essays about diverse wishes and expectations for Germany. Also on the panel was Hunter Lovins, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Institute; Hafsat Abiola, Nigerian human rights activist; and Dr. Monika Henzinger, Director of Research at Google.

Podcasts for the interviews are available in German.

On an Open Internet and Germany’s Future, photo by creativecommons licensed under CC BY.