complete press contact list for creative commons

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

CREATIVE COMMONS EXPANDS TO GERMANY WITH THE INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION 
LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KARLSRUHE (TH)

The Institute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) 
will lead the license translation and work to expand global access to 
Germany's culture.

Palo Alto, USA, and Berlin, GERMANY - April 5 - Creative Commons, a 
nonprofit dedicated to building a body of creative works free for 
copying and re-use, announced today that it would expand its 
International Commons (iCommons) project to Germany.

The Institute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH), 
Germany, will lead the effort.

First announced in March 2003, iCommons is Creative Commons' project to 
disseminate its machine-readable copyright licenses worldwide and make 
them useful in a variety of legal systems.

As the lead institution, the Institute for Information Law at the 
University of Karlsruhe (TH) will coordinate a public effort to 
translate the Creative Commons licenses literally and legally for use 
in Germany.

"We are very pleased to be able to work with the excellent Institute at 
Karlsruhe," said Lawrence Lessig, Chairman of Creative Commons and 
professor of law at Stanford University, where the organization is 
headquartered. "Germany will play an important role in bringing the 
International Commons to fruition in Europe."

"We are tremendously excited to be involved in bringing the Creative 
Commons movement to Germany," explained Professor Dr. Thomas Dreier, 
the iCommons Germany project lead and an acclaimed authority on German 
copyright law.

"There is already strong demand within the German community for a legal 
means for facilitating the distribution of Open Content as an 
innovative alternative to traditional forms of distribution based on 
payment of royalties. Creative Commons will be a great platform on 
which to build these protocols and agreements. Thanks are due to Dr. 
Till Jaeger, who provided the first draft of the license."

The Institute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) 
will field comments on an archived email discussion at the Creative 
Commons website, <http://www.creativecommons.org/discuss#germany>.

Germany joins Australia, Brazil, China, Croatia, Finland, France, 
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom in 
the iCommons effort.


More about Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use 
of intellectual works, whether owned or in the 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 the Insitute for Information Law at the University of 
Karlsruhe (TH), Germany

The Insitute for Information Law at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) 
within the Center for Applied Legal Studies (Zentrum für Angewandte 
Rechtswissenschaft, ZAR) was founded in 1999. Its task is to provide 
teaching and research focusing on legal issues at the intersection of 
law, technology, and economics. Together with the departments of 
computer science and economics, the Institute for Information Law 
supports a unique diploma course in the field. Furthermore, the 
Institute participates in a research project on 'Information Management 
and Market Engineering', funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft 
(DFG). The Institute also houses the secretariat of the German Computer 
Law Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Recht und Informatik, 
DGRI). Publications of the Members of the Institute concentrate on 
issues in intellectual property law, internet law and corporate law.

Website: http://www.z-a-r.de



Contact

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

Prof. Dr. Thomas Dreier (Karlsruhe)
Director, Institute for Information Law
dreier AT ira.uka.de

Oliver Meyer (Karlsruhe)
Research Assistant, Institute for Information Law
oliver.meyer AT ira.uni-karlsrue.de

Ellen Euler (Karlsruhe)
Research Assistant, Institute for Information Law
ellen.euler AT ira.uni-karlsruhe.de

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

http://creativecommons.org

Press Release

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