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New official translations of CC legal tools published in Danish, Frisian, and German

Licenses & Tools

We are thrilled to announce that the Creative Commons 4.0 License Suite and deeds have been officially translated into two new languages: Danish and Frisian, bringing the total number of official translations of the legal codes to 30! This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication and hard work of our community volunteers. We want to express our gratitude to all the volunteers who have helped us with translation. If you would like to get involved in future translation efforts, contact legal@creativecommons.org.

The addition of these translations is a significant milestone, as it enables even more people to access and use Creative Commons licenses in their native tongue. The Danish translation of CC 4.0 licenses and deeds was first started in 2019 by a team of official translators from the European Commission, coordinated by Pedro Malaquias. In 2022, the Danish Agency for Digital Government requested the translation to be completed, with the aim of recommending the use of CC licenses to public authorities and administrations. Peter Leth led the effort to complete the Danish translation.

Here is the CC BY 4.0 deed.

In addition, the Western Frisian language is now available for CC 4.0 licenses and deeds. Spoken by about 350,000 people in Fryslân, a province in the north of the Netherlands, the Western Frisian language is closer to English than Dutch or German, making it a unique language on the European mainland. This translation was made possible thanks to the initiative of Friduwih Riemersma, a poetry translator, with help from CC Netherlands volunteer and copyright lawyer Maarten Zeinstra. This translation allows for greater inclusivity and accessibility for the Frisian-speaking community.

Here is the CC BY 4.0 deed.

Finally, the CC0 public domain release and deed are now available in German. The lack of an official German translation of CC0 was a significant barrier to the adoption of Creative Commons legal tools in Germany, and the translation will now enable the German-speaking community to use CC0 as a standard legal tool for their work. The German translation was made possible thanks to the hard work of Till Jaeger, Ruth Oppenheimer, Paul Klimpel, Stefan Kaufmann, Maximilian Gausepohl, and John Weitzmann.

Here is the CC0 deed.

We hope these translations will allow more people to understand and use the Creative Commons licenses and other legal tools, leading to a more open and accessible world. Congratulations to all the teams involved in these efforts, and a big thank you to all the supporters and contributors who made these translations possible.

Contributing to the translation of CC licenses is an excellent way to show your support for our work and help make the world a more open and accessible place. To get involved with our future translation projects, please reach out to legal@creativecommons.org.

Posted 06 March 2023

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