One of the highlights in the Sapporo Convention Center during the 2008 iSummit was the exhibit of more than one hundred photographs, part of the CC China Mainland photography contest held in China in 2007. All the photos, from both amateur and professional photographers, were licensed under the China Mainland version of the Creative Commons licenses.

This exhibition is unique in bringing together the works of grass roots and professional photographers in China. They not only are documenting the social, human and daily lives of the Chinese people, they are also joining forces in supporting the ideals of open access, as promoted by Creative Commons.

This exhibit is particularly important in reflecting some of the creative changes which have taken place in the new China. From the 1950’s to the 1980’s, Chinese photography was used mainly as a political instrument of the government. So China has not really had a visual history of its ordinary people until recently.

This unique collection of CC licensed Chinese photography has received wide press coverage in China. Examples include stories on China’s leading web site for professional photographers, CPhoto, the official site of the China Photographers Association, China Photograph Online, the FotoMen site, Art News, and China Visual.

This photo exhibition consists of two parts. The first part is made up of the best submissions to the CC-licensed photographic works contest held in 2007. It was, jointly sponsored by CC China Mainland and Nphoto.net.

The majority of these works beautifully capture the social, cultural, and scenic flavor of contemporary China, as rendered in the eloquent portraits of its people. Coming from diverse communities of Chinese photography amateurs on the mainland, these photographs bear witness to the trials, tribulations and celebrations of the times, catching the pulse of Chinese society in a visual language which embodies the grass roots spirit of the people.

The second part of the exhibition includes the works of the ten most important  professional Chinese photographers who chose to release  their works under the  China Mainland version of the CC licenses.  Like their amateur counterparts, these photographers also bore testimony to the exciting transformations of Chinese society.

Every image in this collection tells the story of different social and cultural groups in the various regions of China. As pioneers who led a significant movement in the history of Chinese photography, the contributions of these photographers do not stop at just creating images. More importantly, these photographs have awakened a sense of social conscience for the Chinese people and opened up whole new horizons for their successors.

We are delighted that visitors to the exhibit expressed their appreciation for the photographs, as evidenced by these wonderful comments from our visitor guest book:

A beautiful exhibition!    
Congratulations on such a successful competition.
The work is very inspiring for the iCommons community.
What a wonderful space, full of very special images.
Thank you for amazing photos! I love them.
Great pictures!
Stunning photos that capture the spirit and lives of people in China.
Great photos!

This exhibit is here at the suggestion of Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito. The curator for the exhibit is Xiaobo Chen. The members of the CC China Mainland team who mounted the exhibit are Handong Zhu, Yi Zheng, and Song Shi. They had the very difficult task of very carefully boxing up more than one hundred photos, making sure they survived the flight from Beijing, and then guiding them through Japanese customs! Support for this exhibition was also provided by CC China Mainland Advisory Board members Professor Jing Wang and Dr. Stewart Cheifet. The entire project was created and managed by Professor Chunyan Wang, Project Lead for CC China Mainland. Funding for the exhibit was provided by the Ford Foundation.

This is a compilation of works from participants of Mini Midi 2008.

Including live recordings, field recordings and works exclusively for this compilation.

It was produced by Creative Commons China Mainland and Sub Jam/KwanYin Records. Will be released under license of “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike”.free mp3 will be available on this site soon.

the release conference will be hold on June 17th, 2008 at 2Kolegas Bar.

artists: Wang Fan + 718, Li Tieqiao, Li Zenghui, Fujui Wang, MiguelSantos, Andy Guhl, 10, The Wedding Beast, Xiao He, Hong Qile,TronOrchestra+SAM2+xinix+VacuumCar’Ori+ShiYang+ Yan Jun

From December 17 to 18, 2007, the International Conference on Information Technology & Social Responsibility took place in the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

The conference, jointly organized by CUHK, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Creative Commons China Mainland, was hosted by the School of Journalism and Communication of CUHK. Over thirty experts, scholars and professionals from America, Britain, Canada, Australia, China Mainland, and Hong Kong attended this event.

Former president of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Kenneth Young, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. During the conference, Professor Clement Y. K. So, Dean of Journalism and Communication School, and Professors Joseph M. Chan, Eric K. W. Ma and Kenneth W. Y. Leung presided over different sessions of the meeting. The attendees delivered keynote speeches and had in-depth discussions on the following topics: The Future and Present of Information Society; Citizens’ Responsibilities and the Digital Media; Pursuing Common Interests: Public Domain in Digital World and Intellectual Property in Politics; State Responsibility; Corporate Social Responsibility and the Internet. They promoted their perspectives on each issue and reached broad consensus with the audience.

During the Conference, Chairperson of Advisory Board of CC China Mainland, Professor Jing Wang from MIT delivered a speech “Creative Commons for the Socially Marginalized? Model Building for a Developing Country”; Board member Professor Hal Abelson from MIT delivered a speech entitled “The Responsibility of the University in the Age of the Information Commons”; and Project Lead of Creative Commons China Mainland, Professor Wang Chunyan presented her speech “Some Rights Reserved: A Creative Commons Approach to Copyright in the Information Age”. Those speeches aroused great interest among the audience and provided them a comprehensive understanding of Creative Commons and its development in China Mainland. All three speeches won much attention and support from the conference participants.

On December 15, 2007, CC Salon & CC 5 Years Global Birthday Party (Beijing) was successfully held in Beijing, Camp Club. It was part of a global ceremony, during which a series of parties were held sequently through some dozen of cities including Beijing, Berlin, Seoul, San Francisco and Los Angeles, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the release of CC Licenses. It was jointly organized by Creative ommons China Mainland and Mozilla Online and was presided over by Zhu Handong, Project manager of CC China Mainland. About 80 participants from various areas such as the art, information technology and the law have attended this event.Its supporting media, Sohu.com reported the event with living word broadcast  (Link: http://hztop.news.sohu.com/news/s2007/0278/s254104612/).
The event featured two sections: the CC Salon and the Global Birthday Party. The first part featured several keynote speeches delivered by: Wang Chunyan, Professor from Law School of Renmin University of China, Project lead of CC hina Mainland; Wang Fun-den, President of China Open Resources of Education (“CORE”); Ou Ning, a renowned curator; etc.

Professor Wang Chunyan delivering a keynote speech.

Professor Wang Chunyan, project lead of CC China Mainland introduced the concept and origins of CC, and reviewed its worldwide development and significant achievement in various areas including photography, the art, Internet, and blog over the last five years. Most recently, there have been 42 jurisdictions officially launched a local version of CC licenses. Since CC 2.5 China Mainland version was officially released, the number of CC users in China Mainland had increased rapidly. Professor Wang further addressed the upcoming promotion strategy of CC with emphasis that in addition to the promotion among creators and elite communities in urban areas, CC will be introduced to the people of China Midwest as an instrument helping their cultural enrichment. CC has a bright outlook; its future is full of promises.

Wang Fun-den, President of China Open Resources of Education

Wang Fun-den, President of China Open Resources of Education described the development of open education at home and abroad, and addressed the practical significance of its concept. He announced that there will be a long-term communication between CORE and CC, which will be dedicated to bring forward an easy acquisition of educational resources for more people.

On behalf of the blog community, Liu Xinzheng, the executive chief editor of SOHU Blog discussed with the guests on the protection of copyright for bloggers in the context of the Internet, and noted that CC Licenses could be a feasible approach for settling this issue. HIPIHI, the creator of a 3D digital world in China has sent its representatives, Li Chaoqun, senior manager of International Department and Ding An, senior manager of Policy Department, to present a short movie of HIPIHI world. Mr. Ding said that there has been a profound relationship between HIPIHI and Creative Commons, and that they’re looking forward to develop an approach applying CC License to HIPIHI to settle the problems of intellectual property in the virtual world. He expected more intensive cooperation between HIPIHI and CC China Mainland.

Zhao Wen, representative from Mozilla Online Ltd congratulated CC’s 5th birthday on behalf of her company. She introduced the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary in China, Mozilla Online Ltd. Implementing the concept of openness, she said, the company has dedicated itself to the promotion of openness, share, freedom and creation, which is consistent with CC’s concept of “Share, Reuse and Remix legally”, to the extent of building a harmonious cyber world.

Ou Ning, curator and founder of Get It Louder

Then Ou Ning, curator and founder of Get It Louder, presented the most notable works from Get it Louder exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, arousing intense interest among the audience. He addressed that the ideas of many forms of contemporary art serve the same as some of CC’s concept. CC is not merely a legal tool, he added, it has influenced people’s thinking on property rights in the internet era, and provided an ideal model for distribution.

Volunteers from Renmin University of China

Afterwards is the birthday party. From American, artist Cao Fei instructed the on-site staff to play her CC-licensed multi-media work, the video of RMB City, as a gift celebrating CC’s 5th birthday. Meanwhile, Project lead of Creative Commons China Mainland, Professor Wang Chunyan lit up five candles symbolizing CC’s development over the last five years. As volunteers from Renmin University sang the HAPPY BIRTHDAY song, all guests toasted the fifth anniversary of the release of CC Licenses.

CC Salon is a platform designed for communications with openness and accessibility. People from various areas who are interested in CC will deliver speeches and have discussions on topics around arts, education, technology and their experience of using CC. Everyone is welcomed to state comments or raise questions to discuss the development and utilization of CC licenses. 
 Following the Salon is the Global CC 5 Year Birthday Party, which will provide a comforting atmosphere for all guests to celebrate the 5^th anniversary of the release of CC Licenses. 

DATE & TIME

    13:30~18:00, Saturday December 15, 2007

VENUE

    Camp Club (South gate, Beijing Worker’s Stadium, Chaoyang District, Beijing)

SPONSOR

    Creative Commons China Mainland

    Mozilla Online Ltd.

CO-SPONSOR: Camp Club

SUPPORTING MEDIA

    SOHU.com, Nphoto.net, TODAY ART (ARTNOW), Fotosay.com, Arttp.com, etc.

SCHEDULE

1. CC Salon

Speakers are listed as following:

CAO Fei , Artist

GONG Li, Chair & CEO of Mozilla Online Ltd.

OU Ning, Artist and Curator

Fun-den Wang, Chair of China Open Resources for Education

WANG Chunyan, Project Lead of CC China Mainland

XU Hui, Founder & CEO of HIPIHI

ZHAO Mu, principal of SOHU Blog  

2.  Ceremony of Global CC 5 Year Global Birthday Party
3. Demonstration of art works licensed under CC licenses
4. Free discussion

If you are interested in participating in this event, please fill out the following form of return receipt for reserved seats. Please send it to info@cn.creativecommons.org  before 17:00, December 12. 
 

CC Salon & Global CC 5 Year Birthday Party (Beijing)

Return Receipt 

I would enjoy the opportunity to participate in this Salon. Please reserve seats for me. 

NAME:

WORK UNIT (EMPLOYING UNIT):   

OCCUPATION:

TELEPHONE:      FAX:

E-MAIL:

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 

PLEASE CONTACT WITH:

E-mail to: info@cn.creativecommons.org  

Contact: ZHU Handong　 

Creative Commons China Mainland

Mozilla Online Ltd.

Appendix: introduction of the sponsors

Creative Commons China Mainland

Creative Commons China Mainland is the official local project under Creative Commons International (http://creativecommons.org/worldwide/) in China Mainland. It is responsible for porting and promoting the China Mainland version of the Creative Commons Licenses, which are designed to frame a reasonable and flexible copyright system. The China Mainland version of Creative Commons licenses was officially launched on March 29, 2006 in Beijing. Since then, the ported CC licenses have been gaining increasingly wide acceptance by creators from various areas.

Creative Commons China Mainland is maintained by a project team consisting of volunteers from various areas of expertise, such as law, the arts, and technology. The project is also supported by an International Advisory Board which is composed of leading scholars, judges, senior government officials and key participants in the public sector. The host institute for the project is Renmin University of China Law School.

Official website: http://cn.creativecommons.org/

Mozilla Online and Firefox

Mozilla Online Ltd is not a traditional software company, it is a global community dedicated to improving web-surf experience for Internet users all over the world. Beijing Mozilla Online Ltd, the sub-company of Mozilla was established in July, 2007 in Tsinghua Science Park of Beijing. As a sub-company of Mozzila, it is in charge of promoting Mozilla products in China and supporting community activities conducted by Chinese developers and fans. By implementing the concept of openness, Mozilla Online Ltd is developing technologies and popularizing the products of Mozilla through a highly organized and collaborative process with ultimate transparency. The web browser Firefox is a Mozilla product.

Official website: http://www.mozillaonline.com/

The first Creative Commons Photography Contest Awarding Ceremony and Exhibition of Award-winning Works was held in the Wenhui Hall of National Library of China on Nov. 4th.

The event was hosted by WANG Chunyan, associate professor of RUC Law School and project lead of Creative Commons China Mainland.

We have honorable guests presenting at the event including Joichi Ito, Chairman of Creative Commons, Prof. HAN Zishan of Fine Arts School of Tsinghua University, Chair of the Panel of judges for the contest, Dr. XU Chao, Deputy - Director General of Copyright Division of National Copyright Administration of PRC, and. many other notable people. Also, there were journalists from Sohu.com, Popular Photography Magazine, Foto-video Magazine, Artnow.com, and Nphoto.net, as well as a lot of photography fans.

Mr. Ito, Prof. HAN and other guests gave their congratulations to the success of the first photography contest that adopts the Chinese Mainland version of CC licenses. Meanwhile, they expressed their view on the following aspects—— Creative Commons, copyright protection and photographic creation, etc.

Co-organized by Creative Commons China Mainland and nphoto.net, and sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the contest is dedicated to spreading the word to share ,remix and reuse legally. The contest received enthusiastic support from amateur photographers and from professional phtographers as well.

There were 10,000 submissions of professional and amateur works licensed under various localized CC licenses. There were three categories: “Society & humanity”, “Nature and Landscape” and “Portraits”. Winners were chosen by a panel of judges consisting of 5 notable people in the photography area in China including Prof. HAN Zishan, Ms. CHEN Xiaobo, Mr. ZHANG Tao, Mr. CHAI Xuan and Mr. CAI Qing, There is a web page of the winning photographs.

The first- place under the category of Society went to “School at basement courtyard” by LI Yufeng from Shanxi province, China, the first place under the category of Nature went to “Nurture” by MA Jun from Inner Mongolia, and “Jump Series” by LING Shisheng from Shanghai won the first place under the category of Portraits. Together with some other winners, the three first prizes winners were presenting at the ceremony.

After the awards ceremony, we had a CC Salon with presentations from an illustrious and interesting group of speakers including Mr. Joichi Ito, Dr. Catharina Maracke, Dr. Stewart Cheifet, ,Prof. Daniele Bourcier. Prof. HAN Zishan, Ms. ZHAO Xiaobo, and Mr. GAO Lei. Moderated by Mr. LI Xu, a member of Creative Commons China Mainland, the speakers discussed with attendees on topics such as “how to choose a license” , “the CC porting system”,“how to make money with your photos ”, “the Power of Image”, “Current State of China’s Documentary Photography” and “International Dialogue of Visual Culture and Art”. These topics attracted extensive interests from the attendees.

CC licenses are to create a reasonable and flexible copyright system and help solve problems in traditional copyright systems, especially meeting the need of protection and use of copyright in digital era. So CC China Mainland licenses have been widespread concerned since their launch in March 2006 by many communities such as open education resources, creator groups and web communities, such as China Open Resources for Education, www.qiji.cn and nphoto.net.

Further information about CC licenses and  the award-winning photos, please contact:

Mr. ZHU Handong  Mobile: +86-13601136018   E-mail:zhuziphoto@yahoo.com.com

Mr. SHU Jianwei  Mobile: +86-13810664302   E-mail: shujianwei@cn.creativecommons.org

Or visit the contest website (in Chinese): http://cc.nphoto.net/

Oct.12th, 2nd World Forum on Music and 32nd GA of the International Music Council open at Shanghai Hall of Xinhai Jinjiang Hotel in Beijing, with nearly 100 participants in music, business, education and law circles from Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa. Messages of congratulations come from CHEN Zhili, state counsellor of PRC, SUN Jiazheng , minister of Culture and president of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Indrasen Vencatachellum, director of UNESCO.

Hosted by Richard Letts (Executive Director of the Music Council of Australia) and Peter Rantasa (Executive Director of the Music Information Centre Austria), the forum on the opening day centres on “Development in Music, Music in Development” and “Intellectual Property Rights”, with different countries’ speaker’ presentations heard and commented by participants.

WFM sessions 2 in the afternoon has nine speakers from authors, musicians, collective management organization, Creative Commons, Electronic Frontier Foundation, on-line business and music industry, and WIPO who express in their respective point of view ideas to the questions about intellectual property rights in music industry and related sophisticate solution models in global policy layer.

The forum also introduces and discusses five kinds of rights the IMC endeavors to secure: the right for all children and adults to express themselves musically in all freedom; to learn musical languages and skills; to have access to musical involvement through participation, listening, creation, and information; the right for musical artists to develop their artistry and communicate through all media, with proper facilities at their disposal; to obtain just recognition and remuneration for their work.

WANG Chunyan, project lead of Creative Commons China Mainland and associate professor from law school, RUC, addresses in the afternoon. She introduces in her speech the Creative Commons licenses (CC licenses) and its use in music works, especially in various on-line music platforms. She also introduces CC plus, and explains how it can help make music prosper and develop while uphold musicians’ interests. Besides, she answers questions from collective management organization and other artists who are doubt “whether CC causes artists to give up their rights” or “whether CC is favorable for artists’ remuneration.” She adds, CC actually offers artists who are willing to share their artistic creations with others a legal and technological alternative which is easy and free. Meanwhile it helps artists obtain economical interests from their artistic creations, through CC plus. Danny O’Brien from Electronic Frontier Foundation illustrates CC puts favorable influence on users’ economical interests by some cases. All views above arouse participants’ great concern.

Themes for the following days are: “Many Musics-the UNESCO Convention of the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions”, “Many Musics-Sustainable Futures for Musical Traditions”, “Our Musical Future-Challenges and Chances” and “Our Musical Future-Is Music Education Prepared?”

(Text by SHU Jianwei, project assistant of Creative Commons China Mainland; Photo by ZHU Handong)

The first CC licensed Photography Contest in China has been launched on September 1^st, 2007.The contest is co-sponsored by Creative Commons China Mainland, nphoto.net and sohu.com. It also gets support from many well-known media, such as Popular Photography Magazine，Chip Foto-Video Digital and artnow.com.cn.

The contest is designed as an annual event to promote the China Mainland version of the Creative Commons licenses and aims to help more Chinese people know about the idea of Creative Commons: share, reuse and remix-legally, and to finally help build a sound and orderly environment for creation. Read more »

On August 22th, 2007, Creative Commons China Mainland Launched the new version of its website http://cn.creativecommons.org .

The new web is of a web 2.0 site , providing the function of interaction with visitors, allows visitors to make comments on posts that intersted them. RSS has also been added on the website, which makes subscribers knowing about our latest news in time. There are also some new columns, such as the Featured Commoners, introducing people who use CC licenses in every creative field.

Meanwhile, we will upgrade our website more frequently so as to provide more information about CC for visitors, including the activities held by CC China Mainland and the latest news from the counterparts of CC China Mainland in other jurisdictions.

Through the new website, CC China Mainland will strengthen the relationship with the creators and users, thus to promote the development of CC on the Chinese Mainland.