CreativeCommons Romanian launch

Yesterday, 2 September 2008, the Creative Commons licenses were launched in Romania. I was invited and used the opportunity to take some photos.

The main talk was delivered by Bogdan Manolea, the main guy behind this initiative (Bogdan is well known for his website about internet and legislation):

There was also some interesting words from Florin Grozea from HI-Q, a band that seems to really get the CC stuff (too bad that I don't care about their music and too bad that NC make their stuff useless for me):


Ioana Avadani, both an established journalist and blogger, representing the host, Center for Independent Journalism added her opinions:


There was also Razvan Rusu, from (ex) Travka, the first Romanian band to license their entire album under a CC license (I have to confess this was the first time when I heard about them):


There was crowd:


Presentations:


Debates:


Swag:


And even the national television:


Of course I saw some downsides:

• I was not happy with the time, at 16:00 a working guy like me had to take a couple hours off from work, not everyone is freelancer or student
• I was amazed to see how the audience was unaware about the Creative Commons licenses, like they were living under a rock for all those years, I can't understand how one can use the web and not know a bit about CC... maybe if all you know about web is hi5, aman2 and pitzipoanca...
• I was somewhat outraged by the questions from the audience about how to add more restrictions on top of the CC licenses, I felt the need to scream "guys! you get it wrong, CC is about freedom!
• It is like the only clause is NC, everybody is concerned about stopping anyone from making some money, the HI-Q guys were looking at me like to a strange animal when I said I will release my photos as CC-BY-SA

I abstained from talking (even if Bogdan tried a subtle invitation) as, coming from a FLOSS point of view, I can be quite radical regarding NC and ND, with large potential to scare the audience. And I could be very technical in the matter, much above the intended level of the presentation.