All of the videos on our support page are now available as Ogg Theora files. Theora is a high quality video codec that is not patent encumbered. You can read about free formats on Wikipedia. As to why you should care, read Jimmy Wales’ two year old blog post on Free Knowledge requires Free Software…

This weeks’ CC Swag Photo Contest winner was difficult to determine and we thank you all for your very creative submissions – but inevitably we felt compelled to support photography. This weeks’ winning photograph was taking by Franz Patzig who resides in Germany and is an avid supporter of CC and Flickr (he boasts over…

In my last letter, I described some of the ways CC technologies get integrated into Web 2.0 applications. Many of you wrote that you were surprised by the examples, and were especially excited that the applications reached so broadly internationally. That response has led me to tell a bit more about CC as a global…

Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft have united to publish the Sitemap Protocol under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Sitemaps provide a way for webmasters to tell search engines how to crawl and index websites more intelligently. Obviously it is a huge win for search engines and webmasters if all agree to use the same protocol. This…

Barney Boomslang and Bibi Book have brought the game of chess into the virtual world. Play or watch on Thursday, November 16 at 4pm PST. Find us at our usual spot on Kula 4. Residents may sign up to participate in the 32-player game by wearing a chess piece outfit and moving across the board.…

Creative Commons is pleased to announce that Magnatune Records founder John Buckman has joined our board of directors. Magnatune Records is an Internet-based record label that uses Creative Commons licensing to gain wider audiences for its music. Magnatune currently represents over 220 recording artists and released its 500th album in October 2006. Buckman had this…

MAGNATUNE FOUNDER JOHN BUCKMAN JOINS CREATIVE COMMONS BOARD San Francisco, CA, USA — November 16, 2006 Creative Commons today announced that Magnatune Records founder John Buckman has joined the organization’s board of directors. Buckman’s appointment is a reflection of Creative Commons’ growing interest in commercial applications of CC’s licenses and principles. Buckman’s business — Magnatune…

CREATIVE COMMONS, XLR8R MAGAZINE, AND GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCE THE CHRISTOPHER WILLITS / “COLORS SHIFTING” REMIX CONTEST ON CCMIXTER.ORG Winning Remix to Be Featured on Upcoming Compilation CD Released by XLR8R Magazine San Francisco, CA, USA — November 15, 2006 Creative Commons, XLR8R Magazine, and Ghostly International are pleased to announce that the Christopher Willits /…

Today, Creative Commons, XLR8R magazine, and Ghostly International launched the Christopher Willits “Colors Shifting” Remix Contest on ccMixter. The winning remix will be featured on an XLR8R Incite CD compilation, which will be included with a future issue of XLR8R magazine. The contest ends on December 27, 2006 — visit the contest site for more…

This in from CC pal Fred Benenson, current CC Salon NYC organizer: New York City’s next Creative Commons Salon is Friday November 17th, 6:30pm at Fontana’s (105 Eldridge St. between Broome and Grand in the Lower East Side). This salon features Megan Miller from PopSci.com who will be discussing and presenting Popular Science‘s recent foray…