Kosovo: Long way to go for CC

Luan Ibraj

28 April 2006

While Creative Commons has entered, is practiced and regulated in the other countries in the region and the world - in Kosovo its application still depends on individuals' desire to push it forward.

Unfortunately, usage of Creative Commons from not for profit number of organizations can easily be counted in fingers, while artists seem to not be aware of its existence.

On the other hand, property rights and copyright are not protected either by Law to date. The Law on Copyrights has been adopted by Kosovo Parliament, while the process for its final adoption is on the hands of United Nations Secretary General - Special Representative for Kosovo.

As a result piracy has "blossomed" especially in the post-war period, while the actions taken against them were never evident and enforced.

Taking into account that Albania and Kosovo use the same language many activities and efforts for localizing of the GNU General Public License into Albanian overlap.

It is evident that more joint efforts have to take place in order for the public to understand the benefit of using Creative Commons, GNU General Public License, and other open contents licenses.