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Alma Swan and Lawrence Lessig remind us that Creative Commons is celebrating its 5th birthday this December.

Alma writes:

Creative Commons (CC) is celebrating its 5th birthday. Lawrence Lessig has written to all supporters describing its 'dramatic' growth during the last quinquennium and yet acknowledging that as CC works to strengthen the underpinnings of participatory culture 'others are working equally hard to make sure culture remains proprietary'. Although this way of putting it is rather starkly black and white, and there remains a need for proper protection of creative rights in a number of circumstances, there is no doubt that CC has tapped into the new world view of many people, including creators of works of all kinds, that there is great worth (and satisfaction) in opening up and sharing what they produce, at a personal level as well as for humanity as a whole.

Lawrence asks that people help CC celebrate the past 5 years, and plant the seeds for the next five, by helping to grow the commons in 5 ways:
- use 5 CC-licensed works
- license 5 new works
- spread the word and send CC your story of why you support it
- introduce 5 new people to Creative Commons
- increase your previous gift to CC by 50% to help sustain its operations for 2008

The Calendar-for-Open-Access that I have just produced carries a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence (attribution-noncommercial-sharealike). I want as many people as possible to print it out and enjoy it next year. You can find it by following the link on our website.

There has been some demand for professionally printed copies, so I am about to place an order with the printer but I need to know the final numbers. If you would like one, I will mail it to you in a card envelope by airmail. Please let me know by email (aswan AT keyperspectives.co.uk) and I will tell you the final price. The cost will be about US$15, €11 or £7, and it could be less if the print run is big enough. These prices are selling at cost - I've built no profit into them - but I've rounded up to the nearest dollar/euro/pound for simplicity. The extra cents and pennies will be sent to Creative Commons along with my donation for 2008.

So, five times five! Let's do it!