A cultural brand, a challenge to traditional perceptions of authorship or a new approach to ownership in the digital age? The Creative Commons license has been called by many names since its creation in 2001. Over 60 countries have adapted the licenses and in June 2006 it was also launched in Denmark. The Non-profit organization Creative Common’s Danish sibling is based at the Copenhagen Business School where 4 researchers have been in charge of the adaptation of the Creative Commons licenses to the Danish judicial system.

Digital media provide people with the tools to copy, download and exchange knowledge and ideas and thus challenge the concept of the original author and copyright as we know it. In particularly, children and young people use digital media to download and copy digital material. In a survey conducted by the Danish Children’s Council in 2006, 79.5% of 911 youngsters between 13-15 years answered that they had been downloading music and films on the internet.

Creative Commons is a more flexible form of claiming copyright; a middle course between total control (all rights reserved) and total release (no rights reserved). The concept takes its starting point in the potential for the exchange of ideas and knowledge that the internet holds. In connection with the launch of the license in Denmark, the Danish Creative Commons team emphasized the possibilities for cultural exchange that the new approach to copyright holds:

”The Creative Commons licenses will benefit the cultural life in Denmark. The creators and users of everything from music, weblogs and webpages for art and books will benefit from the licenses. They give more freedom to the exchange of creative works and make it easier, faster and more easy to manage…” (ed. translation)

Since the Danish launch in 2006, the use of the licenses has become widely popular in Denmark. Today, a search on the Yahoo Creative Commons Search provides over 10,000 hits for Creative Commons publications in Denmark. The licenses are used on a variety of publications including everything from personal blogs, innovative concepts for mobile content to recipes for beer.

On Safer Internet Day 2007, the Media Council for Children and Young People (the Danish Awareness Node) published a theme magazine with articles on various aspects of children’s use of the internet and new technologies under a Creative Commons license. Find the articles here:

Gry Hasselbalch, The Media Council for Children and Young People

About Creative Commons:
Creative Commons was founded in 2001 by Professor Lawrence Lessing (Stanford Law School) and is today represented in more than 60 countries. Creative Commons is a voluntary offer to artists, writers etc. With a Creative Commons license one allows others to copy and distribute one’s publication as long as they credit the author of the work. One can choose different versions of the license granting different types of rights for the use of the publication, but always under the condition that they publish the work under the same Creative Commons license. According to Creativecommons.dk there are today more than 50, 000, 000 works (text, music, video, photo etc.) on the internet licensed under Creative Commons:
www.creativecommons.org