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["Rebecca MacKinnon" <rebecca.mackinnon AT gmail.com>]

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Steuer <eric AT creativecommons.org>
Date: Jan 3, 2008 2:05 AM
Subject: [CCi] PRESS RELEASE: CREATIVE COMMONS ANNOUNCES PLEDGES MADE TO FULFILL "5x5" FUNDING CHALLENGE
To: cci AT lists.ibiblio.org


PDF attached; text below
===

CREATIVE COMMONS ANNOUNCES PLEDGES MADE TO FULFILL "5x5" FUNDING CHALLENGE
Pledges include promises of support from the Hewlett Foundation,
Omidyar Network, Google, Mozilla, Red Hat, and the Creative Commons
board

San Francisco, CA, USA — January 2, 2008

Today, Creative Commons announced that pledges have been made to meet
the Hewlett Foundation's "5x5" funding challenge to Creative Commons.
The 5x5 challenge, issued in honor of Creative Commons' fifth
birthday, called for the organization to find five funders to each
promise five years of support at $500,000 per year.

In addition to the Hewlett Foundation, Creative Commons received
pledges of $500,000 in yearly support for five years from Omidyar
Network, as well as from an anonymous European trust. Google has
pledged $300,000 in support renewable for five years, while Mozilla
and Red Hat have each pledged to contribute $100,000 annually for five
years.

The final block of support comes from the board of Creative Commons,
which has promised to personally raise or contribute $500,000 to the
organization annually for five years.

"I couldn't be more pleased to make this announcement," said Lawrence
Lessig, CEO of Creative Commons. "The generous support of these
foundations, companies, and individuals ensures that Creative Commons
will be able to continue working to build and support a freer culture
for years to come. I cannot express how fortunate we feel to have the
backing of this wonderful community."

"Omidyar Network is thrilled to support Creative Commons in its
efforts to develop a copyright system that values flexibility,
innovation, and protection for both content creators and users," said
Will Fitzpatrick, Corporate Counsel of Omidyar Network. "We believe
that there needs to be a simple way for people to legally and freely
access, share, and use information, and that Creative Commons' efforts
are crucial to reaching this goal."

"Google is proud to support Creative Commons and its mission of
offering authors, artists, scientists, and educators open and flexible
ways to make their creative works widely available," said Kent Walker,
Google's General Counsel. "At Google, we help people find, organize,
and share information. Creative Commons plays an important role in
facilitating the legal and creative re-use of much of this great
content."

"Mozilla is excited to support the work of Creative Commons with our
5x5 pledge," said Mitchell Baker, Chair of the Mozilla Foundation.
"Creative Commons has empowered people everywhere to help build a
participatory Web by making it easy to share as well as protect one's
creative work."

"Red Hat's dream to act as a force for democratizing content and the
mission of Creative Commons are a natural fit for each other," said
Max Spevack, Fedora Project Leader. "Red Hat hopes that this can be
one of many opportunities to support Creative Commons in the coming
years."

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001,
that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works,
whether owned or in the public domain. Through its free copyright
licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and
educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms
that build upon the "all rights reserved" concept of traditional
copyright to enable a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach.
Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous
support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain,
the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information
about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
mike AT creativecommons.org

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit

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-- 
Rebecca MacKinnon
Assistant Professor, Journalism & Media Studies Ctr.
University of Hong Kong   (http://jmsc.hku.hk)
E-mail: rmack AT hku.hk | Tel: +852-2219-4005
Blog: http://RConversation.blogs.com
Co-founder: http://GlobalVoicesOnline.org
"The world is talking. Are you listening?"

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