Creative Commons Launches 2nd Annual Fundraising Campaign

San Francisco, USA — October 17, 2006 —  Creative Commons has just launched its 2nd Annual Fundraising Campaign.

The second annual campaign features new support pages [ http://creativecommons.org/support/ ] on the Creative Commons website which offer new swag [ http://creativecommons.org/support/donate ] including a new T-shirt design, new vinyl stickers and hipster CC buttons. In addition, bloggers and others with an online presence can incorporate “Support CC 2006” buttons [ http://creativecommons.org/support/supportcc ] into their site. More details about the campaign can be found here [ http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/6101 ]. CC has also launched a new Creative Commons store [ http://creativecommons.org/support/store ] where you can purchase the “Commoner Shirt” and the new “Support Your Favorite Licenses” shirts, which showcase the different Creative Commons license icons, so that people can choose the shirt that corresponds with their favorite license.

Another feature of this campaign are the letters that Creative Commons CEO and Chairman – Lawrence Lessig – will be writing to anyone subscribed to this list [ http://creativecommons.org/support/letters ]. This series of 6 email letters will address what Creative Commons has achieved over the past 12 months and what the organization plans to achieve over the next 12 with the help of the funds raised during this campaign. Lessig will be featuring stories from the CC communities in different jurisdictions around the world in order to actualize what’s happening internationally. To date, Creative Commons licenses have been ported to over 30 jurisdictions around the world.

“With the number of Creative Commons licenses reaching 145 million this year, CC has demonstrated that many authors and artists around the world invite use and reuse of their creativity,” said CEO & Chairman Lawrence Lessig, “This fundraising campaign allows Creative Commons secure valuable support needed to allow us to continue to serve and enable the interests of these authors and artists and the general public who benefits from flexibly licensed content.”

Last year Creative Commons raised over US$250,000. This year it hopes to raise $300,000 to continue work on their ongoing projects and to initiate new and exciting endeavors.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licences provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. It is sustained by the generous support of various organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation [ http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.855229/k.CC2B/Home.htm ], Omidyar Network [ http://www.omidyar.net/ ], the Hewlett Foundation [ http://www.hewlett.org/Default.htm ], and the Rockefeller Foundation [ http://www.rockfound.org/ ] as well as members of the public [ http://creativecommons.org/support/supporters ]. For general information, please visit our website [ http://creativecommons.org/ ].