(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

On 26 May 2007 the Swiss version of Creative Commons licenses were launched in Zurich at a ceremony held as the finishing highlight of this year's Tweakfest, Switzerland's Festival for Media, Culture, and Digital Lifestyle.

The launch was hosted by Digitale Allmend, a Swiss NGO focused on access to digital information and creativity. Openlaw and Digitale Allmend are co-leading the Swiss Creative Commons project in a joint effort. With Switzerland, the Creative Commons licenses are now offered in localized versions in a total of 37 countries around the world.

John Buckman, Creative Commons board member and founder of magnatune.com, gave the keynote address, explaining how he developed his website as a successful example of a Creative Commons based business.

There was live audio and visual performances by DJ Soult and VJ Set from Pixelpunx.ch who released a number of works under the new Swiss Creative Commons licenses that evening.

Urs Gehrig from Openlaw explained the system: "The Creative Commons licensing system simplifies the exchange of cultural goods such as music, video, text and other creative media."

"We see the porting of Creative Commons licences to Switzerland as an important step - firstly because the swiss cultural movement will be able to contribute a variety of interesting works to a global creative community and secondly in achieving a more balanced choice for creators when deciding how their works is distributed and accessible." was the declaration of Martin Feuz from Digitale Allmend.

During the launch, Creative Commons Switzerland announced several upcoming projects that plan to use the Swiss Creative Commons licenses, including netlabels (starfrosch.ch, sonicsquirrel.net), two online cultural TV channels (kulturtv.ch and rebell.tv) or a video art website (lenarmy.ch).

Creative Commons Switzerland
http://www.creativecommons.ch/

Digitale Allmend - News and videos from CC Switzerland launch (only in German)
http://blog.allmend.ch/

Openlaw
http://www.openlaw.ch

Tweakfest
http://www.tweakfest.ch