Organisation spotlight: what’s up at CCi?
When Creative Commons saw that its ideas and licenses met with enthusiastic interest around the world, its international licensing project was set up in 2003. Since then, Creative Commons International (CCi) made many friends all over the globe. With Finland, Brazil and Japan being the first jurisdiction projects, volunteering experts around the globe started collaborating with Creative Commons to adapt the licenses to their local copyright. But what exactly is this all about?
Creative Commons Jurisdiction Projects
Creative Commons International works to ‘port’ the core Creative Commons licenses to different international jurisdictions. The aim of this project is to produce high quality versions of the Creative Commons core licenses within as many jurisdictions around the world as possible.
The idea of localized national Creative Commons licenses could never be realized by Creative Commons alone. Volunteer project leaders, who are experts in intellectual property and in technology fields take responsibility for the adaptation of the licenses to their local copyright and promotion of Creative commons’ ideas within their respective jurisdictions. To coordinate this process most effectively, each Creative Commons jurisdiction project works with the procedure described in the ten steps system of guidelines, which you can find here.
Since the establishment of Creative Commons International in 2003, a total of 35 Creative Commons jurisdiction projects launched their localized Creative Commons licenses. Portugal and India were the most recent and very welcome addition to this international network.
Besides the license porting process, Creative Commons International works towards intensive collaboration with the project leaders after the adoption and the official launch of the licenses. This includes collaboration on new versions of the Creative Commons licenses, dissemination of information about the licenses, as well as collaboration on specific legal research topics such as: moral rights, collecting societies or questions regarding interoperability and international private law. A specially created mailing list to which all of the project leaders and affiliate institutions have access, helps to coordinate the open discussion. Last but not least, collaboration with international organizations like the European Union or WIPO is playing an increasingly important role in CCi activities.
Perspective
Creative Commons International will continue to work with its network of experts and contacts to establish and maintain the international license architecture of Creative Commons. In 2007, with the release of the new version 3.0, CCi aims to bring as many of the established CCi projects as possible up to speed in versioning as well as to expand the post launch support and ongoing collaboration with its affiliates. CCi’s activities aim to assist CCi jurisdiction projects to promote and critically discuss Creative Commons licenses in their respective countries.
And what about iCommons? CCi works closely with iCommons to stimulate discussion and develop awareness around legal issues important for the growth of the global commons. The next important step in this collaboration is the iSummit, to be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in June 2007. We expect CC project teams and international community representatives to attend and to contribute to a global strategy of encouraging creativity while sharing their unique cultural perspectives. A special ‘Legal Day’ on June 14, will allow the legal project leaders to meet in person and to discuss specific legal topics.
Reflecting on all the exciting activities around the world, what really comes to my mind is a big “thank you”!
Photograph: Volunteers at the ccIndia launch, Shishir Jha, CC BY 2.0