Creative Commons Receives Support

Creative Commons, one of the most prominent organizations involved in the free culture movement, brought in big bucks through its latest fundraising campaign. The organization met its lofty $500,000 goal despite the current economic downturn.

“It has also been a tough year for Creative Commons. It has been particularly challenging for us as corporations and major donors have had to slash, if not completely cut, their philanthropic support. However, we have had more individual and smaller corporate donors than ever in our history,” he wrote. “In addition, our project funding has become difficult in many areas and needs more support to survive and any funds past our annual campaign target will go to providing very needed resources.”

The latest fundraising effort got a big boost from Jonathon Coulton, a popular geek musician who distributes all of his works under Creative Commons licenses. He produced an album comprised of his most popular songs as a promotional hook for Creative Commons donors. Contributors who gave more than $50 received a special USB memory stick with the contents of the album.

Coulton’s involvement helped draw in a record number of individual donors, but there were many corporate donors, too. Microsoft, which has made significant donations to Creative Commons for the past four years, upped its donation to $15,000 to help the organization reach its goal.

The strong support that Creative Commons has received from individual and corporate donors reflects growing recognition of the need for copyright reform and the value of unencumbered sharing.

And while we are on the topic of Creative Commons, we found an interesting video here:

When Larry Lessig appeared on Colbert last week, the host said no one should remix the show. Of course, right on cue….