complete press contact list for creative commons

["Glenn Otis Brown" <glenn AT creativecommons.org>]

http://creativecommons.org

Press Release

CREATIVE COMMONS BEGINS WORK ON FINNISH VERSIONS OF COPYRIGHT LICENSES

The Helsinki Institute for Information Technology Will Drive Public
Discussion from the Silicon Valley Nonprofit’s Website

Palo Alto, California, USA — June 3, 2003 — Creative Commons, a nonprofit
dedicated to building a layer of reasonable copyright, announced today
that it
would begin development of Finnish versions of its copyright licenses as
part of
its ongoing International Commons (iCommons) project. The Helsinki
Institute
for Information Technology (HIIT), an authority on law and technology in
Finland, will lead the effort.

Announced in March 2003, iCommons is Creative Commons’ project to make
its
machine-readable copyright licenses useful worldwide.

“With iCommons, we are building a system for promoting creativity across
borders,” said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and
professor
of law at Stanford. “If you imagine different countries as legal
‘operating
systems,’ iCommons will port our licenses for use across the world.”

As project lead, HIIT will coordinate a public effort to literally and
legally
translate Creative Commons’ licenses for use in Finland. HIIT will field
public
comments on an archived email discussion at the Creative Commons website,
<http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#finland>.

“HIIT is enthusiastic to host iCommons in Finland,” said Martti Mäntylä,
research director of HIIT and a professor at Helsinki University of
Technology.
“Creative Commons could do the same for the entertainment and publishing
industries that free software and open source did for the software
business.”

Christiane Asschenfeldt, the iCommons Coordinator at Creative Commons,
commented: “It is great to get the iCommons drafting process underway
with a
project lead of HIIT's experience and expertise. Finland will set an
excellent
precedent for many other iCommons countries, which in the near future
will
include Brazil, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.”

“Finnish copyright law doesn’t differ much from the U.S. system,” said
HIIT
project lead Herkko Hietanen. “But by translating the licenses to
Finnish, we’ll
make it even easier for Finnish artists and authors to adopt Creative
Commons
licenses and share their works with the world.”


More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of
intellectual works — whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by
the
generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur 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 <http://creativecommons.org>.

For more information about iCommons, see <http://creativecommons.org/
projects/international/>.


More about HIIT

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, founded in 1999, is a
joint
research institute of the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki
University of
Technology. HIIT represents high expertise both in computer science and
law
and has close institutional bonds with academic legal science,
law-courts, and
The Finnish Bar Association.

HIIT conducts internationally high-level strategic research in
information
technology, especially in areas where Finnish IT industry has or may
reach a
significant global role. HIIT works in close co-operation with
universities and
industry, aiming to improve the contents, visibility, and impact of
Finnish IT
research to benefit the competitiveness of Finnish IT industry and the
development of the Finnish information society.

For more information about HIIT, visit <http://hiit.fi>.


Contact
Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)
iCommons Coordinator, Creative Commons
christiane AT creativecommons.org

Herkko Hietanen (Helsinki)
Helsinki Institute for Information Technology
herkko.hietanen AT hiit.fi

Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director (Palo Alto)
1.650.723.7572 (tel)
1.415.336.1433 (cell)
glenn AT creativecommons.org
---------------------
Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director
Creative Commons
glenn AT creativecommons.org
+1.650.723.7572 (telephone)
+1.415.336.1433 (mobile)

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