New America Foundation and Creative Commons Hold Copyright Talk

The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative along with Creative Commons co-sponsored an event June 29 to discuss the challenges of copyright laws in a digital age.

Catherine Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons, delivered the keynote speech in which she presented the mission of Creative Commons, its growth beyond early adopters into the mainstream and the organization’s new book, The Power of Open. Creative Commons is a non-profit company that provides authors, creators and innovators with a set of tools within the boundaries of copyright law to allow for their work to be easily distributed, edited, remixed and built upon. Casserly, and other members of Creative Commons, are currently on a world tour to promote the new book. The book highlights case studies of successful uses of Creative Commons licenses in the fields of education, medicine, automobiles, journalism and art.

The licenses are intended to reduce the costs of maintaining and protecting copyrights, reduce the redundancy of intellectual property in the marketplace, allow for the creation of dynamic assets that can be easily innovated upon, said Casserly. The organization’s licenses, which are scalable, facilitate exchange across a global marketplace where copyright laws of each country are different and complex.