[Commons-sense] invitation: APC Creative Commons workshop - 15 March, Cape Town

[Heather Ford]

An APC Creative Commons Cape Town Workshop: Tuesday 15 March at Bridges.org

The Creative Commons South Africa Johannesburg workshop was so successful in
eliciting response from the Johannesburg intellectual property community
http://za.creativecommons.org/blog/archives/2005/03/09/joburg-workshop-helps-iron-out-ccsa-licence/
that the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has decided to
conduct a similar workshop in Cape Town.

When? Tuesday, 15 March 2005: 9.30am - 1pm

Where? Bridges.org, 1 Plein Street, Cape Town

Who? Intellectual Property lawyers, broadcasters, the media and policy
experts in South Africa

What? Learn about Creative Commons in South Africa and add your responses to
the draft licence here:
http://creativecommons.org/worldwide/za/english-changes

RSVP: Heather Ford, Project Lead, Creative Commons South Africa;
ford.h at pdm.wits.ac.za by Friday, 11 March


More about Creative Commons in South Africa:

The BBC is creating a digital archive that allows people to make use of
their vast news archive for non-commercial purposes. IBM has pledged 500
patents for an industry "Software Commons" which will allow developers to
grow innovative products using technical knowledge that has been released
into the public domain. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
is being forced to consider alternative mechanisms for encouraging
innovation and creativity in countries around the world.

So what do all these events signify? And who is fuelling these changes?

A radical new development in intellectual property law is the licensing of
work for public, non-commercial use. The idea was so successful in the
software industry with the development of "free and open source" software,
that it is now being applied to licencing other types of creative works. At
the head of this movement is Creative Commons, an organisation founded by
Stanford Law Professor, Larry Lessig, who inspired the BBC Creative Archive
to release thousands of television programs to the British public on the
internet for non-commercial sharing and re-use.

Through a set of 'open content' licences, Creative Commons enables authors
to release works to the public for copying, distribution and re-use under
terms (non-commercial, no derivatives etc) set by the authors themselves.
Creative Commons works (4.5 million of them) are being used in a variety of
ways - by non-profits, in education, and even in new business models -
encouraging lawyers and visionaries around the world to adapt the American
licence to suit their national jurisdictions.

Creative Commons South Africa (http://za.creativecommons.org), hosted by the
LINK Centre at Wits University (http://link.wits.ac.za), is creating a
series of specifically South African licences, and now seeks input from the
legal and intellectual property communities in order to develop a watertight
South African version.

Many other countries such as the USA, Brazil, UK and Australia
(http://creativecommons.org/worldwide/) have released Creative Commons
licences, so by helping out, you'll be joining a global movement of
individuals pioneering intellectual property developments in the information
age.

Please help us to make South Africa the first African nation to produce a
jurisdiction-specific Creative Commons licence.

You can add your voice to the discussion by:

1)      Attending the Cape Town workshop on 15 March at Bridges
AND
2)      Subscribing to Creative Commons South Africa e-mail newsletter (at
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-za) where we will advise you of
on-line discussions and of Creative Commons events.

Please forward this message to colleagues who may take an interest.

Best regards,

Andrew Rens and Heather Ford
Creative Commons South Africa

For more information on the APC, see www.apc.org

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