Digital Content News Application of Creative Commons licenses in Portugal Application of Creative Commons licenses in Portugal
- 09/09/2006
The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), in collaboration with the Faculty of Economic and Entrepreneurial Sciences of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and INTELI – Intelligence and Innovation began the process of applying Creative Commons licenses in Portugal in March 2006. These licenses enable knowledge and authors’ works to be shared openly in an efficient and highly flexible manner. The iCommons summit that took place in Rio de Janeiro between 23rd and 25th June 2006 approved a preliminary translation of the licenses into Portuguese and their respective adaptation to Portuguese legislation. The Portuguese version of the licenses is available for public discussion on the Creative Commons page for Portugal on the Internet. At the end of this discussion, the necessary changes shall be made for the final version to be approved by iCommons, after which the respective version shall be launched in Portugal.
It is estimated that Creative Commons licenses have already been used more than 140 million times throughout the world since they were launched some four years ago by Professor Larry Lessig. The Microsoft Corporation has recently launched an “add-in” that enables users to license any Microsoft Office document with Creative Commons licenses. The first document to be licensed with this technology was the speech given by the Brazilian Minister for Culture, Gilberto Gil, at the Creative Commons Summit.