Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

[Lawrence Lessig <lessig AT pobox.com>]

[This email is part of a weekly series written by Lawrence Lessig and
others about the history and future of Creative Commons. 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 ]

And so this is the final of these letters explaining the origin and aims
of Creative Commons. When I started this writing about three months ago,
I wasn’t sure I’d have something to say each week through the end of
2005. But as the year comes to an end, I realize I could continue
writing these emails to you through all of 2006 and still not be
finished with everything there is to say.

These letters have been part of a campaign to build a diverse base of
financial support for the organization, Creative Commons. That
organization has just under 20 employees working in offices in Berlin,
London, Boston and San Francisco. About a quarter of the staff builds
the technical infrastructure. Another quarter coordinates the spreading
of the project internationally. One (and soon two) work on the Science
Commons project from Boston. And the balance of the staff working in San
Francisco keep the trains running on time, and help spread the message
and the infrastructure into as many places as we can.

If you had asked me four years ago what the chances were that I’d be
helping to direct a 20 person staff, I would have said exactly zero. My
father was the entrepreneur. I was to be the academic. But though these
years have been difficult, the most rewarding part has been to build an
organization that is hard working, and committed. This is an underpaid,
overworked staff that I am extraordinarily proud of. They have
accomplished more in these last years than anyone — certainly I —
even imagined they would.

But the part that is missing from even a complete description of the
organization, Creative Commons, is the part that in my view will
ultimately be the most important. That is the growing number of
affiliate organizations around the world that have first ported Creative
Commons licenses to their local jurisdictions and are now pushing the
movement far beyond licenses.

As I described in week 7, we initially thought we would spread Creative
Commons internationally by simply porting licenses to local
jurisdictions. But that process sparked a network of creators, scholars,
librarians and activists who all recognize that they share a common set
of interests that Creative Commons can help organize. iCommons was thus
launched to be the infrastructure of this network. The iCommons Summit
last June marked its birth. And the most important work that we will do
over the next few years is to support this international network. Not
everyone within the iCommons network will be from Creative Commons. But
I want Creative Commons to help build a broad federation of individuals
and organizations, from the Free Culture Movement that has been
launched at universities across the world[1], to WikiPedians[2] and
others who want to make the protections of the law that we call
“copyright” make sense in a digital age.

This ultimately will be the real contribution of Creative Commons, if in
fact we can make it work. As I’ve traveled to the launches of Creative
Commons projects across the world, I’ve met literally thousands
working on a common set of ideals. Every one of them sees a promise in
the creative potential that the Internet could enable. Every one of them
sees a reason to work now to make that potential real. Some have spent
literally hundreds of hours spreading the work of CC, not as staff, but
as volunteers. Others have just begun this work, both within CC, and
outside it.

I could never say anything that would adequately thank these volunteers.
The most that we all can do is to make their project work. We are
extremely close to meeting the targets we set for this campaign. We must
meet those targets if we are to continue. Thank you for allowing me to
invade your inbox every week over these past months. But please help us
in these remaining three days to meet our challenge, and spread CC.

One final word of thanks: I am grateful to Maria Cristinia Alvite and
the iRights.info project for their work in translating these letters.
Some day we will find a leader for this movement who can speak all the
languages of the movement. I promise, I am looking.

Thanks again for your time, your help, and your inspiration.

[1] http://freeculture.org
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedians

-------

To link to or comment on this message, go to:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5743

Week 12 - Lawrence Lessig on New Projects
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5734

Week 12 - Lawrence Lessig on New Projects - Spanish Version
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/translations/lessig-letter-12-es.pdf

Thanks to Maria Cristinia Alvite for translation.

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

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

Learn More
http://creativecommons.org/learnmore

For comics and movies: http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/how1,
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/

_______________________________________________
cc-lessigletter mailing list

To unsubscribe visit
http://creativecommons.org/about/lessigletter#unsubscribe

Or send email with "unsubscribe" as subject to
cc-lessigletter-request AT lists.ibiblio.org

Creative Commons newsletters are also posted to the CC Weblog.  For back
issues please visit http://creativecommons.org/weblog/