Joi Ito Takes Lead At Creative Commons

The five year old Creative Commons nonprofit organization announced a new CEO this afternoon as founding CEO Lawrence Lessig steps down: Joi Ito.

The organization is devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to legally build upon and share by creating consensus driven copyright license forms. Users can set terms for copyright usage without complex negotiations using CC approved licenses. These licenses restrict only certain rights (or none at all) of the work. The initial set of Creative Commons licenses was published on December 16, 2002.

In 2007 Lessig announced that he would be defocusing his attention on copyright law, and announced Change Congress, an organization to build support for government reform.

Joi Ito, who was born in Kyoto, Japan, is a well known investor and Creative Commons board member. Founding board member and Duke law professor James Boyle will become chair of the board, replacing Ito.

The full press release is below.

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