By Thrishni Subramoney

JOHANNESBURG-- If copyright laws are the heavy-duty locks shackling Africa's art and information instead of letting them bask in the attention of a global audience … well, Heather Ford has the key to freeing the continent's creativity.Sitting in her small office at Mwalimu House at Wits University, Johannesburg - Ford, an energetic Rhodes graduate is on a mission to change the way Africans view intellectual property and the rights that come with it.Ford is the director of Creative Commons South Africa – a project (started in the United States) that has developed unique copyright licenses with only "some rights reserved". Instead of declaring the copying, sharing and altering of original work illegal, Creative Commons licences enable creators to share their work on the Internet under a set of conditions of their choosing. "Our vision is to enable musicians, artists and creators to have a real voice on the internet, because right now they don't have a real voice in this medium at all."Ford says tight legislation regulating how artistic works are appreciated are strangling creativity. She says people on the continent need to cease thinking of art as something that must be protected and instead see the benefits in sharing and inspiring new creations."It benefits new artists in that they get free exposure," Ford said. "There are also sites like Magnatune.com that allow users access to artists' work, while putting the CD on sale – and the artist is paid 50% of all profits. You don't see artists getting such a big share of the profits in the music industry anymore."However, Ford says while the project is purely "experimental" in the commercial sense at this stage, the new licencing option was something that all academics needed to seriously consider."Academics and people in education should ethically make their work available in order to build on knowledge," Ford stressed. A number of educational institutions, including the Shuttleworth Foundation and the national education department have agreed to use one of four Creative Commons licences in the course of their business.A number of artists have also given the initiative a firm thumbs up. In November last year Creative Commons released The Wired CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share. – featuring top artists like the Beastie Boys and David Byrne. The contents of the CD are designed to be freely copied online as well as sampled or remixed by others for use in their own recordings.The conference runs from the 25-27 May at the Graduate School of Public & Development Management, Wits University, Johannesburg.