Sometimes people ask us why we created the Creative Commons, and we often say that we wanted there to be an easy way for you to share your creations and also to build a large pool of creative work that is easy to redistribute, print, (and if the license allows) collage, remix, or even sell to others.
If you’re wondering what the world without Creative Commons is like, check out this helpful primer on the question “How Can I Tell Whether a Book Can Go Online?” The answer, as you can see, is quite complicated, including the various laws around the world. The page doesn’t mention CC, but if it did, one of the top bullets would be “look for a Creative Commons mark” and the permission and legal questions that take up the rest of the page would be solved.
A New York Times article recently pointed to Tell Tale Weekly, an audio book site selling MP3s as cheap as $0.25 each. They’ve also committed to licensing the books under a Creative Commons license after 5 years or 100k downloads, whichever comes first.
It’s not easy to find good, cheap, DRM-free audiobooks and Tell Tale Weekly looks like a pretty cool new provider of such work.
Everyone in Silico is a futurist sci-fi novel set in Vancouver, 2036. It came out a couple years ago, but this week the author decided to license it under Creative Commons and produce free downloadable ebook versions. As the author says “So if you like the book, send pals this link, e-mail it to friends, fileshare it on illegal networks — you’ll be helping me out. I know from experience that I’ll reap dividends.”
The Institute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) will lead the license translation and work to expand global access to Germany’s culture.
Palo Alto, USA, and Berlin, GERMANY – April 5 – Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative works free for copying and re-use, announced today that it would expand its International Commons (iCommons) project to Germany.
The Institute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany, will lead the effort.
First announced in March 2003, iCommons is Creative Commons’ project to disseminate its machine-readable copyright licenses worldwide and make them useful in a variety of legal systems.
As the lead institution, the Institute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) will coordinate a public effort to translate the Creative Commons licenses literally and legally for use in Germany.
“We are very pleased to be able to work with the excellent Institute at Karlsruhe,” said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford University, where the organization is headquartered. “Germany will play an important role in bringing the International Commons to fruition in Europe.”
“We are tremendously excited to be involved in bringing the Creative Commons movement to Germany,” explained Professor Dr. Thomas Dreier, the iCommons Germany project lead and an acclaimed authority on German copyright law.
“There is already strong demand within the German community for a legal means for facilitating the distribution of Open Content as an innovative alternative to traditional forms of distribution based on payment of royalties. Creative Commons will be a great platform on which to build these protocols and agreements. Thanks are due to Dr. Till Jaeger, who provided the first draft of the license.”
The Institute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) will field comments on an archived email discussion at the Creative Commons website, http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#germany.
Germany joins Australia, Brazil, China, Croatia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom in the iCommons effort.
More about Creative Commons
A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works, whether owned or in the public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation. Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society.
For general information, visit https://creativecommons.org.
For more information about iCommons, see https://creativecommons.org/projects/international/.
More about the Insitute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany
The Insitute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) within the Center for Applied Legal Studies (Zentrum fuer Angewandte Rechtswissenschaft, ZAR) was founded in 1999. Its task is to provide teaching and research focusing on legal issues at the intersection of law, technology, and economics. Together with the departments of computer science and economics, the Institute for Information Law supports a unique diploma course in the field. Furthermore, the Institute participates in a research project on ‘Information Management and Market Engineering’, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG). The Institute also houses the secretariat of the German Computer Law Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Recht und Informatik, DGRI). Publications of the Members of the Institute concentrate on issues in intellectual property law, internet law and corporate law.
Website: http://www.z-a-r.de
Contact
Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)
iCommons Coordinator, Creative Commons
christiane@creativecommons.org
Prof. Dr. Thomas Dreier (Karlsruhe)
Director, Institute for Information Law
dreier@ira.uka.de
Oliver Meyer (Karlsruhe)
Research Assistant, Institute for Information Law
oliver.meyer@ira.uni-karlsrue.de
Ellen Euler (Karlsruhe)
Research Assistant, Institute for Information Law
ellen.euler@ira.uni-karlsruhe.de
Glenn Otis Brown (Palo Alto)
Executive Director, Creative Commons
glenn@creativecommons.org
Joel Blain recently wrote in with an interesting observation:
“I’ve been reading a bio on Woody Guthrie. It’s pretty interesting. The book reprints one of the “Copyright Warnings” he included on his recordings in the ealry 40’s
“This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”
It just made me think of Creative Commons. I dunno if you’ve seen or heard it before, but I thought I’d pass it along.”
Nice find, thanks Joel!