Founded by Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig in 2001, Creative Commons is best known for a set of six copyright licenses.

The goal of these licenses is to provide a “middle ground” that did not previously exist in most copyright regimes. On one side is the traditional “all rights reserved.” At the other extreme is “public domain” - viewed by many as an anarchic free-for-all in which creators have no control over the use of their work. Creative Commons enables creators to opt for “some rights reserved.”

Creative Commons licenses are not intended to replace traditional copyright licenses. Many creators will always choose to retain all rights to their works. However many others prefer to release their works under a more permissive license so that their works can be reused, republished, remixed, or shared freely and broadly by a wider public. The CC license provides an internationally-recognized vehicle through which to do so.

Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. Our licenses help creators keep their copyright while inviting certain uses of their work — a “some rights reserved” copyright.

Creators can choose a set of conditions they wish to apply to their works. The following four conditions can be chosen in six different combinations:

Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.
Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.
No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.
Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

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美國史丹福大學法律系教授 Lawrence Lessig 在2001年創立CC，包括六套授權條款。

CC彈性版權條款旨在開發現時大多數版權制度所沒有的中間地帶。版權制度一端是「保留全部版權」的傳統作法，另一端是無保護，無管制的「公共範疇」。「共享創意」授權條款在兩者中間，既方便創作者保留部份版權，又容許他人使用作品。

「共享創意」授權條款在兩者中間，既方便創作者保留部份版權，又容許他人使用作品。 CC授權條款不是要取代傳統的版權條例。創作者依然可以選擇保留全部版權，但是有許多創作者可選擇以較靈活的方法發表作品，讓更多人自由分享，或是混合衍生改作後再發表。CC授權條款是國際認可的版權工具，以達致共用共享的目的。

「共享創意」授權條款在「保留全部版權」和「公共領域沒有版權」兩端之間，既方便創作者保留部份版權，又授權他人使用作品。

創作者可以選擇不同的授權條款發表作品。以下四種條款可以有六個組合：

署名. 授權他人複製、分發、展示和演出作品，創作衍生改作的作品；但必須保留創作者指定的署名方式。

非商業性. 授權他人複製、分發、展示和演出作品，創作衍生改作的作品；但只限於非商業用途。

禁止衍生. 授權他人複製、分發、展示和演出原作，但不得改動或衍生改作。

相同方式共享. 授權他人發放衍生改作自原創作品，衍生作品的授權條款必須與原作的授權條款相同。

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Creative Commons licenses are not intended to compete with any other existing licensing schemes used in Hong Kong or elsewhere. Rather, they are intended as an extra option, in addition to existing licensing schemes.

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CC授權條款不是和香港或任何地方的授權制度競爭，而是在現有的授權制度之外增多一項靈活的安排。

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Used correctly, CC licenses will broaden the scope for legal usage of creative works in Hong Kong.

Correct use of the license by Hong Kong creators will broaden the pool of creative works that can be legally shared.
Meanwhile, knowledge about how to find and use Creative Commons-licensed works will provide legal alternatives for people who like to share and remix freely.

Educators in jurisdictions where CC licenses have already been localised report that students who learn about Creative Commons gain a greater awareness of copyright issues in general. Not only do they gain a better understanding of what is illegal under copyright law; they also gain awareness of alternative legal sources: CC-licensed music, photos, and other creative works which they are permitted to share legally, which can be found through the search engines on creativecommons.org and other online sources.

Thus, we hope that if CC licenses are widely used and understood in Hong Kong, this will contribute to a reduction in copyright violations by Hong Kong’s young people, amateurs, and creative artists.

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正當使用CC授權條款，擴大在香港合法使用原創作品的範圍。

香港創作者正確使用CC授權條款，擴大可合法分享的原創作品資源。

越多人知道如何尋找和使用「共享創意」作品，即是越多人合法分享、使用、重新創作。

全球有四十多個國家和地區已將CC授權條款本地化。這些地方的教育界都發現使用「共享創意」的學生對版權有更深認識。他們不僅理解版權法律不容許的行為，也學會使用合法的代用資源：CC條款授權的音樂、相片和其他可以合法使用的原創作品。這些都可以利用CC搜尋引擎和其他網上資源找到。

因此，我們期望隨著香港市民更多認識和使用CC授權條款，侵犯版權的行為會隨之減少。

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Creative Commons has a generic international version of the six licenses. Thousands of Hong Kong people are already using this international “un-ported” version. However, in order that local Hong Kong rights-holders can go to court if necessary in the event of a dispute, the license must be “ported” into Hong Kong copyright law. This process is currently underway: our legal team is working on English and Chinese versions of the license which they are endeavoring to make fully compatible with Hong Kong’s Copyright Ordinance.

As of this writing, the CC licenses have already been ported to 44 different jurisdictions around the globe. Asian jurisdictions that have already “ported” the CC licenses include Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, The Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are currently under development. As Asia’s “World City,” Hong Kong can benefit from a movement that aims to broaden the scope for creative innovation by Asia’s diverse and richly creative people.

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CC的國際版本有六套授權條款。許許多香港創作者已經採用國際版本的授權條款標示他們的作品。為了更好保障香港版權持有人的法律權益，這些授權條款必須因應香港的版權法律本地化。我們的法律小組已完成「香港共享創意」授權條款的中英文版本，完全符合香港版權條例。

至2008年10月，全球44個國家地區已經有了本地化的CC授權條款。亞洲地區有中國大陸、臺灣、日本、南韓、印度、菲律賓、澳洲和新西蘭。新加坡、泰國和越南正在籌備。隨著亞洲各國的創意創新空間擴大，香港作為亞洲國際都會必然會彼此得益。

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Creative Commons Hong Kong is currently a project under the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre, where Assistant Professor Rebecca MacKinnon serves as Project Lead. Our Legal Team is led by Dr. Yahong Li and Ms. Alice Lee, both Associate Professors of the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong.

Supporting and eagerly awaiting localization of the CC licenses is a growing community of Hong Kong people: business owners, artists, software programmers, writers, lawyers, academics, educators, community leaders, and students who believe that CC licenses will enable Hong Kong’s many talented people to create and disseminate their works more broadly and legally. Several dozen community members have volunteered to help promote CC licenses in their communities, assist with the creation of educational materials and organize a launch event in October. Ben Cheng is CC-HK’s Community Coordinator.

In the months leading up to the CC-HK October launch, we will be forming an Executive Committee made up of active community members as well as an Advisory Board.

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「香港共享創意」是香港大學新聞及傳媒研究中心主持的項目。籌備期間專案主持人為中心助理教授麥康瑞女士（Rebecca MacKinnon）；法律小組主持人為香港大學法律系副教授李亞虹女士及李雪菁女士。在籌備過程中，小組得到香港各界熱心人士支持：商界、藝術界、軟體發展社群、作家、律師、學者、教育家、社區領袖以及學生。他們相信「共享創意」授權條款可以促進香港的創作人才以合法方式更廣泛發佈他們的作品。經過一年多的努力，「香港共享創意Creative Commons Hong Kong」在2008年10月25日成立。

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We now live in the copy-and-paste Internet age. Creative Commons is a copyright licensing option that promotes legal sharing of creative works, and whose use has been growing steadily worldwide since its launch in 2001. Its founders believed it necessary to create this option because of the impact that the Internet has had on public attitudes and approaches to intellectual property, and its use is made possible largely thanks to the Internet.

We believe that Hong Kong’s copyright holders will benefit from the localization of this license - no matter whether they choose to retain traditional “all rights reserved” copyright, or choose CC’s “some rights reserved” option.

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在互聯網時代，剪貼轉載資訊已成為日常生活的一部分。CC授權條款作為版權管理的新方案，可以促進大家合法分享原創作品。自2001年成立以來，「共享創意」運動在全球發展迅速；我們相信互聯網的運作方式正在改變公眾的知識產權觀念，必須建立新方案應對新形勢。創立CC運動也是得益於互聯網無遠弗屆的力量。
我們相信，對香港的版權持有人而言，無論採用傳統的「保留全部版權」，還是採用「保留部份版權」的共用創意形式，CC授權條款本地化對他們都有好處。

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The Creative Commons website at creativecommons.org, makes it very easy for creators to select the license they need, and for users to find CC-licensed works.

To select a license, creators simply visit http://creativecommons.org/license/, where they select the correct jurisdiction from the drop-down menu, then select the various combinations of rights and options they would like in order to generate the correct license. If the created work in question is online, the creator can copy and paste auto-generated code into their website. This code enables the work to be found and identified as CC-licensed work by search engines. The code also links back to a web page with the original legal language and deed of the correct license for reference by lawyers and potential users. For works that are not online, a logo indicating the components of the license is generated, including a web address at which the legal language and license deed can be found. This logo can be embedded onto any visual work, CD case, powerpoint presentation, etc.

Users can easily find CC-licensed work via several search engines available at http://search.creativecommons.org/. It is CC-HK’s intention to work with Chinese-language web service companies to provide more search options for Chinese-language content specifically.

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以CC授權條款發佈作品之前，創作者請到訪 CC授權條款網頁，從選單中選擇不同的版權項目，就可以得出正確的條款。如果是線上作品，只需把生成的代碼貼到網站或網頁。該代碼方便搜索引擎尋找和確認這是CC授權的作品，也連接到原來的法律文本和授權標章，供法律界人士和使用者參考。非上線作品也可利用標示條款的符號圖形來表示授權條款要素，以及連結原來的法律文本和授權標章的超連結。符號圖形也可以嵌入視覺作品，例如文本、相片、幻燈片、唱片封套等。

利用CC網站就可以尋找以CC授權條款發表的作品。一些流行的網上搜索引擎和網站的進階功能可以把搜索範圍依授權方式來篩選。

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Anybody is free to use the Creative Commons licenses. People in Hong Kong who have expressed greatest enthusiasm to use the licenses include:

• primary, secondary, and tertiary educators
• legal music-sharing services
• internet start-up companies
• cultural entrepreneurs
• photographers
• artists
• student media and arts clubs
• independent and amateur filmmakers
• independent, semi-professional and amateur musicians
• non-governmental organizations
• public information programmes
• hobbyists
• citizen media organizations
• community organizers

We believe that Creative Commons is of great value to Hong Kong’s education and public sectors, both of which have the goal of educating the public and disseminating knowledge and information as broadly and effectively as possible.
One example: The Massachusetts Institute of Tecnology (MIT) in the United States uses CC licenses to publish courseware for free global use as part of the MIT OpenCourseware project. MIT has found that publishing course materials for free public access under a CC license does not reduce public interest in obtaining an MIT degree; rather it actually strengthens the MIT brand and generates greater public interest in attending MIT.

There are also a number of for-profit businesses benefitting from strategic use of CC licenses. They include Flickr, a business based on the sharing of user-created content by its community of users; Jamendo and Magnatune are both online businesses which deal in CC-licensed music in different ways.

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任何香港市民都可以自由選用CC授權條款。從經驗所知，CC授權條款的使用者包括：

• 教育界
• 合法分享音樂
• 互聯網公司
• 文化創業者
• 攝影界
• 藝術界
• 學生媒體及藝術學會
• 獨立及業餘電影製作者
• 獨立及業餘音樂人
• 非政府組織
• 公共資訊
• 興趣小組
• 民間媒體組織
• 社區組織

我們深信CC尤其方便香港教育界和公營部門，以最便捷的方式發佈供大眾使用的資訊和知識。

一個很好的例子：美國麻省理工學院把全校1,800門課程的教學內容，全部以CC條款在網上發佈。這些開放式課程除了提升學院的聲譽，還吸引更多學生申請入讀。開放式課程已發展為全球性運動；在2008年，全球共有200所專上院校線上發佈六千門課程。有許多課程已翻譯為多國語文。這是「改作衍生─相同條款分享」的CC條款最佳應用例子。開放式課程中文版本參見開放原始碼理念的開放式課程原型計畫OOPS 和中國開放教育資源協會CORE的網站。

商業網站也有利用CC條款，例如由用戶提供內容的Flickr相片網站，以不同方式處理CC音樂的 Jamendo 和 Magnatune 網站。

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Yes, while we don’t have exact numbers, we know that thousands of Hong Kong people are using the generic un-ported CC licenses. They include:

• Hong Kong users of Flickr, an international online photo-sharing service
• An unknown number of bloggers
• Daayu, a local internet startup based on user content sharing
• DotAsia, a Hong Kong-based Internet domain registry
• OpenRadio Hong Kong
• 自學書院
• New Media course materials and student work at Hong Kong University’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre

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肯定有數以百計的香港創作人和企業已經使用CC的國際條款，但我們沒有準確資料。以我們所知，這包括:

• Flickr相片網站的香港組群
• 許多香港博客，網誌
• 大魚，用戶分享創作成品的本地網站
• DotAsia，一間以香港為基地的互聯網亞洲域名登記公司
• 開台，網上電臺
• 自學書院，配合關放式課程的輔助教室
• 香港大學新聞及媒體研究中心的新媒體課程和學生作業

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No, they are provided for free.

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全部免費，自由使用。

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