CC (Creative Commons) Iftar Cairo

Last night Cairo held its first Creative Commons Iftar (CC Iftar). I was very kindly invited by Ms Ranwa Yehia from the Arab Digital Expression Foundation, so how could I turn down such an invitation. I headed over to Darb1718 in Fostaat expecting a handful of people gathered around a table in a basement. To my surprise I found over 50 young, hippie professionals from all walks of life. I was also happy and surprised to see and meet journalists who were enthusiastic about CC.

Cairo was not alone in organising a CC Iftar. This event was supported by Creative Commons and Aramex throughout the Middle East. Similar events occurred in Dubai, Amman, and Damascus.

I still hear you asking what is ‘CC Iftar’? Well from the CC website ‘CC Iftar is primarily a social gathering where people meet up to consume a nice iftar meal all together, get to know new people, enlarge their social networks and capitalize for new ideas to come in the future.’

Cairo being Cairo and its true sense the Iftar in Cairo was a late Iftar and an early ‘Sahoor’ which lasted from 9pm till midnight.

Through the night CC Iftar Cairo showcased “music, light presentations and talks about how people could share legally that content that they create….many Egyptian and Arab examples, such as Al Masri Al Youm portal and the Al Jazeera Creative Commons repository.” There was even a Lebanese band called ‘Meek’ that was distributing its music under the CC licence. In other words we got to leave with a free Music Album by an up and coming new Arabian band.

CC licence as a concept is simply where people are easily able to change their copyright terms from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved” or if you want “no rights reserved”. Its your work, you choose how you want to licence it. Further conditions about CC Licence can be found here.

If you’d like to see the pics for the night then click here

CC everybody