Category Archives: creative commons

Angela Gunn of USAToday on YouTube, MySpace and CC. Continue reading →

I am very proud to report (and not because I used to be a conservative) that Tom Delay has launched a blog, with a new CC license. There’s not much I agree with Tom Delay about — except the freedoms he means his words to carry. Bravo. Continue reading →

The best news is the stuff that just happens. Here’s an example: As reported by Lisa Williams on Jay Rosen’s site, GateHouse Media, a conglomerate “that owns 75 daily and 231 weekly newspapers” has rolled over 96 of its newspaper sites to a Creative Commons license. Continue reading →

My retirement plaque, presented by Jimmy Wales. (click to enlarge)

Last week, culminating Friday night, in parties around the world, Creative Commons celebrated its fourth birthday. Hundreds of people helped mark this event. My 3 year old son, Willem, and I cut the first cake at the party in Portugal.

Five hours later, in the Creative Commons party in the virtual world of Second Life, I made (for me an announcement. As I removed the CC torch from my bag of objects, I told those in world, and in San Francisco, that Joi Ito, a venture capitalist from Japan and a key driver in the “sharing economy,” would be replacing me as Chairman of Creative Commons. I will remain on the board, and as CEO. But from the moment I handed him the torch, he is CC’s new Chairman.

This is a very happy moment for CC. I’m not going anywhere — CC will continue to get everything I can give. But we are movement, not a cult. And it is important that movements have leaders. I have had enormous respect for Joi since first meeting him in Japan in early 2000. It was a real coup when I was able to convince him to join our Board. Joi’s whole ethic has been to build the sharing economy. That ethic of building is precisely where CC is going right now.

This has been the best job I will have had. I can’t describe how extraordinary it has been to watch this organization grow, nor how rewarding it has been to see the passion and energy it has inspired. We have tried to show the world something about how creativity works — not through obsessive control, but by creators inviting others to create and share as well. More and more, this is a message the world seems to get.

But for now, let me leverage a bit the opportunity that the ambiguity of new leadership creates. After the thermometer is updated to reflect a very generous anonymous gift we just received, we will have just $100,000 left in our campaign. That’s a lot to raise in two weeks, but I think we can do it. Indeed, you can look at this change in leadership in two ways, each of which gives some of you a reason for one last push:

Some of you have been loyal supporters of me from the very beginning. I can’t begin to express how grateful I’ve been for this support, or for the generous thanks you’ve offered. To you, please show that support one more time, by supporting CC in this final two weeks of our drive.

Some of you have been loyal critics, with a different vision of copyright, or CC, and with a strong hope that the organization move beyond the particular vision I’ve offered. Now you have your chance: please celebrate the change, by supporting CC in this final two weeks of our drive.

Either way, what both I and CC need most just now is your support. A simple click is all we need to get that going.

Finally, thanks to all of you, and the Board of CC in particular, for allowing me this extraordinary opportunity. And join me in helping, and supporting, Joi Ito in his new role. Continue reading →

Creative Commons turns four tomorrow. On December 16, 2002, in San Francisco, we launched this licensing project. Within a year, there were a million licenses. Within two years, 12m. Within three years, around 40m. At four, Google reports us close to 150 million licenses. I’m in Portugal to launch the 34th country ported — with Willem (age 3), who proudly marched around the event with a sticker on his shirt, explaining to everyone that it meant “ke-ative koms.”

I’ll be in Second Life at the CC pod at 10pm San Francisco time (6am Portugal time) to join the party, and make at least one announcement. But meanwhile, enjoy this fantastic card from one of CC’s better ideas — iCommons.

(here’s the original) Continue reading →

Creative Commons is turning 4 on December 16. To celebrate, there are a host of parties springing up around the world. You can read about it on this blog entry. I’ll be in Portugal to launch CC Portugal, but will be getting up early to make a Second Life appearance at the San Francisco event. If you can’t make it to a physical party, come virtually. I’ll be making a pretty significant announcement (for me at least) at the party. Continue reading →

My CC fundraising letter this week describes the launch of CC Labs — a test bed for new CC technologies. There’s a new licensing engine that emphasizes more clearly the freedoms you’re enabling. Toggling through the options gives you a very clear sense of the contours of the CC licenses.

The most important experiment, however, is also the hardest to describe. We’ve begun testing an architecture that will enable people to specify (in the metadata attached to the license) where to go for rights, or stuff, beyond those specified in the license. Thus, for example, if you’re a Flickr snapper, and license your photos under a noncommercial license, you can specify in the metadata who or where someone should go to clear commercial rights. (See, e.g., Scoopt)

So here’s an example. Gary New Vision‘s got a mySpace page. On that page, you can download some of his music. That music is licensed under a CC BY-NonCommercial license. But if you click on the CC icon, the Commons Deed now tells you where you can go to license the music commercially.

As I explain in the extended entry, this “rights beyond” link need not be to commercial rights. It could be a tip jar, or t-shirts, or even another CC license. Thus, anyone offering content under a CC-NC license should, in my view, offer an alternative licenses as well — CC-BY-SA — which would mean the content could also be included within copyleft projects. But more on that soon …

The tech here has been tricky, no doubt. But the hardest part will be to begin to make clear the potential this added capacity adds. Read below, and if you’ve got any great ideas, I’d be eager to hear them.

(continued) Continue reading →

So we’ve just passed the half-way mark on the CC fundraising campaign, and I’ve cleaned out my inbox of people to thank for their contribution (too many $3.50 contributions, to which I’ve not been personally responding as I assume these are Flickr contest entries, and one $10k contribution this morning, to which I responded very well). So feel free to fill the inbox again.

Just as last year, we have a continuing obligation to demonstrate public support to the IRS. And also to me. So let this campaign invade the Christmas season. And fear not — we’ve not sold so many t-shirts that they won’t still be cool.

Give and give again. Continue reading →

This is easily the coolest technology I’ve seen in years: Go to the Creative Commons search page. Click on the OWL Music Search tab. (Depending upon the browser, you might need to run a fake search to get it to come alive — we’re working on this, but just type anything in the search bar). You’ll then see OWL’s Music Search interface. Drop an MP3 on OWL. It will analyze it and show you similar sounding Creative Commons licensed music. You select the part of the song you want to match; it finds the closest match it can find.

Glyn Moody agrees.

(Note, this is version .3, so enjoy to get the concept clear. ) Continue reading →

From CC:

Today, Creative Commons launched the first CC Swag Photo Contest on Flickr to promote our Annual Fundraising Campaign. The photo must be of CC Swag (t-shirts, buttons, stickers, etc. — all available from the Support the Commons store) and the winners will have their photos used on Creative Commons’ informational postcards, which will be distributed internationally to promote CC and the winning photographers. Winners will receive 100 copies of the postcard with their photo. The winners will also be able to choose a Creative Commons board member to record a personalized outgoing voicemail announcement — that’s right, your friends can be greeted by Jimmy Wales every time they call you! For more information, please visit the contest page and read the rules.

Continue reading →