complete press contact list for creative commons

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

press release 

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Attachment: CC-TaiwanChinaPress.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

CHINA AND TAIWAN JOIN CREATIVE COMMONS' GLOBAL EFFORTS 

CNBlog.org and the Institute of Information Science at Academia Sinica will spearhead the translation of Creative Commons licenses. 

Palo Alto, USA; Shanghai, China; Taipei, Taiwan; - November 11, 2003 - Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative works free for copying and re-use, announced the expansion of its International Commons (iCommons) project to China and Taiwan. CNBlog.org (China) and the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica (Taiwan) will lead the efforts in these jurisdictions. 

"We're very excited to have CNBlog.org and the Institute of Information Science working with us to bring iCommons to China and Taiwan," said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and professor of law at Stanford. "They are a crucial addition to our growing effort to build and enable access to a global cultural commons."

"Creative Commons has a well-defined architecture for copyright that encompasses both law and code," said CNBlog.org's Isaac Mao, the project lead for iCommons China, "offering a spectrum of options for licensing digital works. CNBlog.org espouses this vision and looks forward to introducing these revolutionary licenses to China." 

Dr. Tyng-Ruey Chuang, project lead for Taiwan said: "The Institute of  Information Science at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, is glad to have this opportunity. We believe Creative Commons' modular design of licensing conditions is ideal for content creators who like to freely distribute their works but at the same time preserve certain rights." 

His co-project lead, Shunling Chen, adds: "The sharing of knowledge is a noble act that has been practiced throughout all of human history. The Creative Commons provides a convenient alternative for people who are not satisfied with the mindset of the existing copyright system, which makes sharing 'unnatural.' With the various indigenous and Chinese legal traditions in Taiwan, the introduction of the CC licenses will induce a re-examination of the culture of knowledge sharing."

First announced in March 2003, iCommons is Creative Commons' project to make its machine-readable copyright licenses useful worldwide. As the lead institutions for their respective jurisdictions, CNBlog.org and the Institute of Information Science at Academia Sinica will coordinate public efforts to literally and legally translate the Creative Commons licenses for use in China and Taiwan. Brazil, Japan, and Finland joined the iCommons effort earlier this year.

CNBlog.org and Taiwan's Institute of Information Science will field comments relating to their specific initiatives in archived email discussions on the Creative Commons website:
<http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#China> <http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#Taiwan>  

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, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Hewlett 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 CNBlog.org and the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

CNBlog.org

CNBlog.org was founded in 2002 to deploy open collaborative research on the Internet, its technologies, and its impacts on society and business. Sponsored by several private funds, CNBlog.org is extending itself from grassroots publishing research to a multidisciplinary Internet research and education center. Since its foundation, CNBlog.org has devoted itself to creating a new kind of open community, and to following closely the emerging social and technological trends. Operating as a volunteering and visiting consortium, CNBlog.org seeks to catalyze new collaborative projects (Social Software, Emergent Democracy and Grassroots Culture, etc.) to spread its ideas and methodologies to other individuals/organizations and to encourage the practical applications of its findings.  CNBlog.org also sponsors Open Education Project (oedu.org) in China. 

For more information about CNBlog.org, visit <http://www.cnblog.org>.

Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

Academia Sinica is the highest government-sponsored academic research institution in Taiwan. The institution supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from mathematical and physical sciences to humanities and social sciences. The Institute of Information Science (IIS) was formally established in September 1982 and is one of the nine institutes within the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. IIS presently has 33 full-time research fellows, 16 postdoctoral fellows and over 160 full-time information technology engineers supporting research and development of information science and engineering. 

The mission of IIS is to conduct quality, fundamental research in information science, to develop cutting edge technologies applicable to advanced information systems, and to improve Taiwan's competitiveness in information technology and its international visibility. Being a member of the most prominent research institution in Taiwan, IIS is obligated to assuming the leadership role in the area of information science, and aiming to establish itself as one of the world's top research institutions.

Currently, IIS is conducting the Open Source Software Foundry (OSSF) project, with the aim of establishing a vital open source community.  OSSF is to serve as a public, virtual common ground where local open source developers are invited to contribute their creativity in software development.

For more information about the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, visit <http://www.iis.sinica.edu.tw>. 

Contacts

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

Isaac Mao (Mao Xianghui) (Shanghai)
Project Lead, iCommons China
CNBlog.org
me AT isaacmao.com 

Dr. Tyng-Ruey Chuang and Shunling Chen (Taipei)
Project Lead, iCommons Taiwan
Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica
trc AT iis.sinica.edu.tw 
shunling AT iis.sinica.edu.tw

Glenn Otis Brown (Palo Alto)
Executive Director, Creative Commons
glenn AT creativecommons.org

http://creativecommons.org

Press Release