complete press contact list for creative commons

[Eric Steuer <eric AT creativecommons.org>]

PDF attached; text pasted below.

Attachment: CCPressRelease-CopyrightCriminals.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Creative Commons Announces Copyright Criminals Remix Contest
Winning Track to Be Featured in Film; Top 12 Tracks to Appear on CD

San Francisco, CA, USA – December 6, 2005

Creative Commons, along with filmmakers Kembrew McLeod and Ben  
Franzen, today announced the Copyright Criminals Remix Contest. The  
competition encourages producers, DJs, and remixers from around the  
world to use audio snippets from the upcoming documentary film  
Copyright Criminals (http://copyrightcriminals.com) in new, original  
songs. One winner will have his/her music featured prominently in the  
final edit of Copyright Criminals. The winning track, along with 11  
runners-up, will be included on the film’s companion CD. The contest  
will be hosted at ccMixter (http://ccMixter.org) from Tuesday,  
December 6 through Tuesday, February 28.

Drawing from more than fifty interviews with prominent musicians,  
artists, scholars, lawyers, and music industry representatives,  
Copyright Criminals looks at the development of sound collage (also  
known as sampling). The film explores the complicated impact that  
copyright law has had on the creative practice of sampling and  
studies the conflicting opinions artists and others have about  
appropriation.

“This contest, like our documentary, examines what it means to be  
creative in an age of digital reproduction,” says Kembrew McLeod, co- 
director of Copyright Criminals. “Artists have traditionally borrowed  
from each other and have been directly inspired by the world around  
them. But what happens when digital technologies allow for very  
literal quotes to be inserted into new works?”

Samples of dialogue by artists like De La Soul, DJ Qbert, and members  
of Public Enemy, as well as Matmos, Coldcut, and members of  
Negativland – all taken from interviews conducted for Copyright  
Criminals – are available online at the popular remix community  
ccMixter for use as source material to be included in entrants’  
songs. The audio snippets are available to the public for free  
through the use of Creative Commons licensing, which allows for the  
sharing of and building upon existing creative works. Entries will be  
judged by McLeod, Franzen, and author/producer Jeff Chang. Contest  
rules and details are available at http://ccmixter.org/ 
copyrightcriminals.

About the judges

Kembrew McLeod is a professor at the University of Iowa and an award- 
winning independent documentary filmmaker. McLeod has written music  
criticism for Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, and MOJO; and has  
authored two books, most recently Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous  
Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity (Doubleday).

Ben Franzen is an Atlanta-based artist who owns an independent  
production company called Changing Images LLC, which specializes in  
video, photography, and multimedia. Franzen edits the animated TV  
program Squidbillies, which appears as part of the Cartoon Network’s  
Adult Swim line-up.

Jeff Chang is the author of the American Book Award-winning Can't  
Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. In 1993, he co- 
founded and ran the influential indie hip-hop label, SoleSides (now  
called Quannum Projects), helping launch the careers of DJ Shadow,  
Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and Lateef the Truth Speaker. He has  
helped produce over a dozen records.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that promotes the  
creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works by empowering  
authors and audiences. It is sustained by the generous support of the  
Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur  
Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and the Hewlett Foundation. For more  
information, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact

Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
eric AT creativecommons.org
+1-415-946-3039

Kembrew McLeod
Co-director, Copyright Criminals
kembrew AT kembrew.com
+1-319-621-4620

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit