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cc-lessigletter - [cc-lessigletter] Creative Commons @ 5 Years

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Subject: An announcement list for letters from Creative Commons CEO/Founder Lawrence Lessig.

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  • From: "Lawrence Lessig" <larry AT creativecommons.org>
  • To: cc-lessigletter AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [cc-lessigletter] Creative Commons @ 5 Years
  • Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 15:16:59 -0700

Five years ago this December, we launched Creative Commons. At a party
with music by DJ Spooky, and video endorsements by John Perry Barlow
and (the late) Jack Valenti, we began to implement a gaggle of legal
hacks to let the copyright system better reflect the views of many
artists, authors, educators, and scientists. Some of those ideas
bombed. But the core flourished -- far beyond the wildest dreams of
any of us back then. We have taken the insight of the Free Software
Movement, and made it real in the space of culture, science, and
education. There is now a language to signal the freedoms creators
support, and a set of legal and technical tools to make those freedom
stick.

In the five years since our launch, we have grown up fast. In 2004, we
incubated an international movement supporting the ideals of the
Internet and cultural freedom (iCommons). This year we spun that
organization out as an independent UK-based charity. In 2005, we
launched a project to support a commons within science (Science
Commons). This year Science Commons launched the Neurocommons, an
e-research project built exclusively on open scientific literature and
databases, and the Materials Transfer Project, an extension of the
ideas of the commons to physical tools such as gene plasmids and cell
lines. And just two months ago, we announced a significant grant that
has enabled us to launch a project focused on learning and education
(ccLearn). There is now a staff of over 30 in four offices around the
world, supporting thousands of volunteers in more than 70 local
jurisdiction projects around the world, who, in turn, support the
millions of objects that have been marked with the freedoms that CC
licenses enable.

Our work so far has provided a legal infrastructure to support what
our chairman, Joi Ito, calls the "sharing economy." It recognizes that
in addition to the amazing creativity of authors and artists who want
to sell their work, there is amazing creativity by scientists,
teachers, authors, artists and the rest of us who simply want to share
our creativity. CC has provided this economy of giving an
infrastructure to support that giving. We have enabled a platform that
makes the choice clear, and literally millions of creative works have
been offered on that platform.

But this year we have added one more important layer to our tools.
Building upon our metadata architecture, we have added a simple way
for creators to both share, and profit from the creativity that they
share. This is the CC+ project. An artist, for example, can release
her work under a CC Attribution-Noncommercial license, but then, using
the CC+ infrastructure, enable those who want commercial rights (or
anything else beyond the freedoms granted in the license) to link to a
site that can provide those other rights. In this way, CC now helps
support a hybrid economy of creativity. We provide a simple platform
to protect and enable those who want to share; and we've built a
simple way to cross over from that sharing economy for those who want
to profit from their creativity.

This December will also mark my fifth year leading CC, first as
Chairman of the Board, and now as CEO. It has been wildly more
amazing and more difficult than I ever expected. It is extraordinary
to see the success of a powerful and successful team. Yet it is
extraordinarily difficult to feel the constant obligation to make sure
the organization continues to have the financial support it needs to
keep the work going.

I will continue to devote every hour I can to supporting the work of
CC. Though my academic focus has moved beyond copyright -- see
http://lessig.org/blog/2007/06/required_reading_the_next_10_y_1.html
-- I remain committed to this organization, and to its success. I will
remain its CEO. But my primary aim now is to put Creative Commons on a
solid financial footing, to guarantee the next five years at least.
That security will begin if we can meet the goal we have for this
campaign -- $500,000.

Over the next few months, we will share five stories by five prominent
members of the CC community. They will give you a fuller idea of where
we are, and where we are going. But as we have done for three years
now, these missives have a mission. We want them to inspire you to
support us again.

If you'd like to be spared these five emails over then next three
months, visit http://creativecommons.org/about/lessigletter#unsubscribe

Otherwise, please enjoy the story of CC @ 5. And please help us secure
another 5 at http://support.creativecommons.org

----------------------------------

This email is part of a bi-weekly series of letters written by members
of the Creative Commons community. If you would like to be removed
from this list, please click here:
http://creativecommons.org/about/lessigletter#unsubscribe

Alternatively, if you know others who might find these interesting,
please recommend they sign up at
http://creativecommons.org/about/lessigletter

Support the Commons
http://support.creativecommons.org

To link to this message, go to:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7693

Archive of Lessig Letters
http://support.creativecommons.org/letters

Learn about CC, including comics and movies
http://creativecommons.org/learnmore



  • [cc-lessigletter] Creative Commons @ 5 Years, Lawrence Lessig, 10/01/2007

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