Silicon-Valley-based NGO now offers licenses in 35 jurisdictions around the world

San Francisco, CA, USA and Berlin, Germany — January 26, 2006 — Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative work free to share and build upon, today unveiled a localized version of its innovative licensing system in India.

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.

With Creative Commons India joining the effort, Creative Commons is proud to announce that its licenses now are offered in localized versions in a total of 35 jurisdictions around the world.

Staff at Creative Commons’ offices in San Francisco and Berlin worked with project leads Lawrence Liang from the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) in Bangalore and Shishir K.Jha from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) to adapt the standardized copyright licenses to Indian law.

Today the Indian versions of the Creative Commons licenses will be launched in the IIT Bombay’s auditorium in Mumbai, at a ceremony held as part of the ‘IIT Techfest’, IIT Bombay’s Annual International Science and Technology festival. The Techfest with its lectures, workshops and exhibitions offers students a platform to explore the realms of science and technology in the 21st Century.

At the launch Joichi Ito, Chairman of Creative Commons, will give the keynote address. Speakers Nandu Pradhan, President and Managing Director of Red Hat India, film director Anurag Kashyap, Professor Deepak Phatak of IIT Bombay, project lead Lawrence Liang as well as Catharina Maracke, Creative Commons International Coordinator, will speak about topics related to culture, law and technology.

Says Project Lead Shishir Jha, “Creative Commons India will seek to inspire everyone to share the subcontinent’s abundant wealth of visions and ideas by standing tall on the shoulders of her intellectual and creative giants.”

About IIT Bombay

IIT Bombay, set up by an Act of Parliament, was established in 1958, at Powai, a northern suburb of Mumbai. Today the Institute is recognised as one of the centers of academic excellence in the country. The institute has 12 departments of engineering, basic sciences and the humanities, 11 research centers, 3 postgraduate degree schools and 5 interdisciplinary programs. IIT Bombay is largely a residential institution with over 4 thousand students and over 400 faculty. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees. Over the years, there has been dynamic progress at IIT Bombay in all academic and research activities, and a parallel improvement in facilities and infrastructure, to keep it on par with the best institutions in the world.

For more information, visit the IIT Bombay website.

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 organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation as well as members of the public.

For general information, visit the Creative Commons’ website.

Contact

Catharina Maracke
International Coordinator
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
Email
+49.30.280.93.909

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