CREATIVE COMMONS ANNOUNCES PLEDGES MADE TO FULFILL “5×5” FUNDING CHALLENGE
Pledges include promises of support from the Hewlett Foundation, Omidyar Network, Google, Mozilla, Red Hat, and the Creative Commons board

San Francisco, CA, USA — January 2, 2008

Today, Creative Commons announced that pledges have been made to meet the Hewlett Foundation’s “5×5” funding challenge to Creative Commons. The 5×5 challenge, issued in honor of Creative Commons’ fifth birthday, called for the organization to find five funders to each promise five years of support at $500,000 per year.

In addition to the Hewlett Foundation, Creative Commons received pledges of $500,000 in yearly support for five years from Omidyar Network, as well as from an anonymous European trust. Google has pledged $300,000 in support renewable for five years, while Mozilla and Red Hat have each pledged to contribute $100,000 annually for five years.

The final block of support comes from the board of Creative Commons, which has promised to personally raise or contribute $500,000 to the organization annually for five years.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to make this announcement,” said Lawrence Lessig, CEO of Creative Commons. “The generous support of these foundations, companies, and individuals ensures that Creative Commons will be able to continue working to build and support a freer culture for years to come. I cannot express how fortunate we feel to have the backing of this wonderful community.”

“Omidyar Network is thrilled to support Creative Commons in its efforts to develop a copyright system that values flexibility, innovation, and protection for both content creators and users,” said Will Fitzpatrick, Corporate Counsel of Omidyar Network. “We believe that there needs to be a simple way for people to legally and freely access, share, and use information, and that Creative Commons’ efforts are crucial to reaching this goal.”

“Google is proud to support Creative Commons and its mission of offering authors, artists, scientists, and educators open and flexible ways to make their creative works widely available,” said Kent Walker, Google’s General Counsel. “At Google, we help people find, organize, and share information. Creative Commons plays an important role in facilitating the legal and creative re-use of much of this great content.”

“Mozilla is excited to support the work of Creative Commons with our 5×5 pledge,” said Mitchell Baker, Chair of the Mozilla Foundation. “Creative Commons has empowered people everywhere to help build a participatory Web by making it easy to share as well as protect one’s creative work.”

“Red Hat’s dream to act as a force for democratizing content and the mission of Creative Commons are a natural fit for each other,” said Max Spevack, Fedora Project Leader. “Red Hat hopes that this can be one of many opportunities to support Creative Commons in the coming years.”

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. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit https://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
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