Today marks a turning point in the campaign to fund the CCi Affiliates thanks to a VERY generous donor. It also marks the first time that we’ve highlighted two jurisdictions in one day. Both of these jurisdictions and projects are very active so it is my pleasure to post this lengthy yet amazing and inspirational account from Ignasi Labastida. I’ve been so touched that there is nothing else to say on my end. Except to please help support CC by giving to the campaign and telling others to help support us as well.

Catalonia

A year ago, CC Catalonia was involved in an amazing project called Música lliure aimed to emulate the success of the Wired CD. The release of the double CD with music magazines Enderrock, Folc and Jaç, has instigated a huge debate amongst musicians about distribution. Conxita, one of the bands featured on the first CD has won an award for her first album released under a CC license. This year dozens of bands have opted to CC license their work and utilize platforms like musicalliure.net or netlabels like Costellam.

The debate about Creative Commons has also reached the Catalan government as they are considering publishing departamental works. Both Australia and the UK have recognize the benefit and potential of the CC licensing infrastructure. The Justice Department and its web sessions are a good example of this approach.

Another amazing project is Barcelona Visio hosted by the Barcelona City Council website and developed by Deboom. This project offers the space to show your point of view of Barcelona as you captured it with your camera.

Freesound is a high profile project that came out of a Catalan university. The project has received many awards this year but maybe the most impressive story is that Alonso Cuaron’s last movie “Children of Men” featured content found on Freesound.

Yet another way to show how far your work can go when you share it.

Spain

The copyright debate in Spain is alive and well. It is currently being fueled by the fact that the modification that the Spanish IP law went through last July left it with some gaps. The use of levies is the main point of discussion but copyleft and new methods of knowledge dissemination are being addressed as well. And of course, CC Spain is significantly involved in these discusssions.

We explain how the commons movement philosophy and the use of the licenses is applicable to more than just authors but institutions as well. We help to spread the word but without authors (individuals and institutions) continuing to illustrate the importance and relevance of CC – we will be nothing.

Lately the main advice seekers have been musicians. Most of them are very disappointed in the traditional publishing process and are seeking new models of distribution and renumeration. There are a number of netlabels and portals, such as Miga-label, Dpop, Autoeditados, dedicated to helping musicians. The bands that began to release their music under a CC license like Stormy Mondays or Lamundial.net are not alone anymore. The adoption rate of CC licensing is growing exponentially, as illustrated by musicalibre.info, another good portal to find good music.

High profile stories of CC licensed content come from other genres besides music as well. For instance the short movie “Lo que tu quieras oir” has reached the top of the rankings on YouTube. Guillermo Zapata, the director of the short, has been very vocal about the link between making content “open” and achieving success.

Traficantes de sueños, a publisher company based in Madrid is another brilliant example of how to publish good books under free licenses. Last September they published a copyleft manual for those interested in this issue.

The CC success stories within art, science, and content in general are numerous and I could write at length about all of them. But I think that this anecdote is best to leave you with:

There is a small village in Andalusia, Niebla. A few weeks ago I was introduced to the San Wabalonso school and the work that the children and teachers are accomplishing together. If I was to share one thing from that experience it is this statement (translated) “We build learning for the free knowledge society. Many hands together, even small ones, can make huge things.” I can not add anymore.