A few months ago, hip-hop artist Jay Z released what is reportedly his last album, titled The Black Album. He also released a vocals-only version, specifically for DJs to incorporate into new mixes. One of those mixes was done by DJ Dangermouse, using only samples from The Beatles’ White Album. This new mix was dubbed…

You can now add Creative Commons license metadata to PDFs and image files, enabled by XMP (eXtensible Metadata Platform). XMP is an open, RDF/XML-based format developed by Adobe for managing metadata embedded in files. Please see information about Creative Commons metadata in XMP, instructions for marking files with Creative Commons metadata for users of Adobe’s…

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow’s first novel released a little over a year ago, has just been relicensed under an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license. Previously the book did not allow derivative works and any “lost chapters” or comic versions were unauthorized. With this change in place, the door is wide open to people…

mozCC, an extension for Mozilla-based browsers that exposes Creative Commons license metadata as you surf, got noticed by Slashdot last weekend. The resulting surge of new users brought new bug reports, fixes for which creator Nathan Yergler has already incorporated in mozCC 0.7.7 along with new features. The new version looks for license metadata in…

Neeru Paharia, our assistant director, will be in Holland over the next few days to attend the Third Zwolle Conference, entitled “Optimal management of copyright: Making it happen,” on February 13 and 14. Neeru will also be checking in with friends of CC in Holland. Meanwhile, iCommons coordinator Christiane Asschenfeldt will be visiting Switzerland over…

Keep an eye out for Creative Commons at the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference this March in Austin, Texas. We’ll be hosting two panels, announcing two projects that encourage collaboration and distribution of music and film. Details coming soon.

Never thought I’d say this, but the Super Bowl got me thinking. Why shouldn’t every advertiser release every print, audio, or multimedia ad they create under a Creative Commons license? Choose BY-NC-ND, and make clear you’re protecting your trademark. Forget the cultural effect — I’m talking pure business: What principle drives someone to enforce the…

Last month, Apple released Garageband at MacWorld, letting any budding musician create music from its suite of sophisticated but simple audio tools. Given the potential for thousands of musicians recording new songs at home, we knew it was a great fit for Creative Commons and we’re very happy to see a new community has sprung…

Government documents supplied by Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Ron Suskind for his book, The Price of Loyalty, are now available online. The site makes use of the Creative Commons public domain mark. These documents, drawn from a collection of 19,000 files, are called “The Bush Files” and Suskind…

Once upon a time, Apple’s slogan “Rip. Mix. Burn.” meant “make as many copies as you want of your legally purchased music.” Now it means “make the limited number of copies we deem appropriate.” All that’s being ripped, mixed, and burned are fair-use laws Annalee Newitz writes about the current state of P2P and DRM…