Creative Commons licensing in Vimeo and SoundCloud

A very exciting thing happened in July, when the popular video sharing site Vimeo launched formal support for Creative Commons licenses. Now if you want to add a CC license to your Vimeo video, you can do so quickly and easily by choosing it from a menu inside your publishing settings. This is a big deal for video creators who want to grant usage rights to the public, as it makes sharing on your own terms easier than ever. It's also great news for people looking for high quality videos that they can easily find and legally use and repurpose. It was a great pleasure for Creative Commons to work with Vimeo on this project, and we're looking forward to seeing new CC-related features and functions roll out on the site in the coming months.

Speaking of new CC-related features, SoundCloud recently added a bunch of 'em. Last month, the audio sharing site, long a favorite among musicians who share tracks under Creative Commons licenses, launched advanced search functionality that makes it easy to find audio based on its CC permissions, added a CC portal that enables you to browse the latest and greatest in CC sounds, and redesigned the SoundCloud audio player to prominently display each track's CC license. To celebrate the revamp, the site published a series of interviews with SoundCloud members who use Creative Commons licenses, including electronic composer Stretta, field recording team London Sound Survey, and children's book publisher Pratham Books, which uses the site to distribute audiobooks under CC licenses. Meanwhile, we posted a check-in conversation with SoundCloud's Parker Higgins on the Creative Commons site, in which we discussed the past, present, and future of the site.

Catalyst Grant Recipients Announced!

It’s with great pleasure that we announce the recipients of the first CC Catalyst Grants Program. Out of a grant pool consisting of more than 130 applications, seven projects have been selected for awards up to $10,000 each, to catalyze projects that contribute to the commons. Thanks to your generous support during the Catalyst Grants campaign, we raised almost $50,000, 100% of which will directly fuel the grant awards. Recipient projects include an Arabic Open Educational Resources (OER) Platform, the 2010 Creative Commons Latam Conference to bring together CC Latin America chapters, and a remixable art exhibition in Australia.
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Case studies project: See what's new and improved and share your CC story

Last year, we kicked off our global case studies effort, inviting you to share your stories—individuals, projects, and companies who use Creative Commons for different reasons and to solve different problems. Thanks to your contributions, the Case Studies project has grown into an incredibly valuable resource. But like all wikis, the Case Studies wiki is evolving. Everyday, more people and projects are using CC, and existing projects are continuously making themselves over. Find out how we've made the Case Studies project easier to navigate and ultimately more useful and participatory for the community.
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Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, Google, LuLu, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla Corporation, The Omidyar Network, Red Hat, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of the public (you!).