Dear Fellow Creative Commoner:

A week ago, Japan suffered its most devastating earthquake and tsunami in modern history. This disaster has left thousands of people dead, many others injured and displaced, and an estimated 1.5 million more without access to power. Furthermore, the compounding catastrophe with the country’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant will affect the environment for decades.

Japan has long been at the core of the Creative Commons movement. It was the first country to port our licenses. Many of the most important commoners, including Yuko Noguchi, Chiaki Hayashi, Tomoaki Watanabe, Dominick Chen, and CC’s chairman, Joi Ito, have come from Japan.

All of us send our prayers to the Japanese people. But if you can send more than prayers, it would mean a great deal. Japan needs urgent help. Please do what you can. Your support will help in concrete ways, and will also be critical to raising the spirits of the Japanese people as they face the challenges ahead.

There are several worthy aid organizations to select from on Google’s Crisis Response page. And please consider contributing to Architecture for Humanity’s Japanese reconstruction effort.

Thank you,

Lawrence Lessig and the Creative Commons Team