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  • From: Glenn Otis Brown <glenn AT creativecommons.org>
  • To: cc-info AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [cc-info] Creative Commons News, July 11, 2004
  • Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 05:48:54 -0700

Creative Commons News

July 11, 2004

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(cc) SOME RIGHTS RESERVED

This newsletter is free to copy and build upon under the terms of this
Creative Commons license:

<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/>.

A monthly newsletter (ok, this time, almost monthly) from Creative Commons,
<http://creativecommons.org>.

To unsubscribe, please visit
<http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-info> and scroll down.

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CONTENTS:

(1) What's New
(2) Choice Blog Entries and News from May and June 2004
(3) Press Hits, May 3, 2004 - July 11, 2004

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(1) What's New

--Movin' On Up

We're in the midst of a move from our original home at Stanford Law School to slick new digs in San Francisco, which Mitch Kapor's Open Source Application Foundation and Level Playing Field call home. Exciting stuff.

--iCommons Blossoming

We now offer Creative Commons licenses in six different languages and for six different jurisdictions: original/generic, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Japan. Check out <http://creativecommons.org/license/> and open the "jurisdiction" pull down menu to see the docs.

--Flickr Incorporates Creative Commons

The great photo-sharing service Flickr has incorporated our licenses. See <http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2004/06/creative_common.html>. Read Matt's accounts below for more details, or visit Flickr.com.


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(2) Choice Blog Entries through July 9, 2004

Underbunny's photos
2004-07-09
Matt Haughey

[IMAGE: http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/underbunny.jpg][1]

The photos of "underbunny"[2] show an artful, somber view of the world
and offer a glimpse into what it's like to work at a mortuary. This
photo in particular[3] is quite powerful, telling the story of a life
lived for 102 years. All the photos are available under a Creative
Commons license, to boot.

[1] http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=34279
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/underbunny/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=34279



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Collaboration Across Space (and a Wee Bit of Time)
2004-07-09
Glenn Otis Brown

Here's an interesting blurb[1] from the Stanford Report[2]:

[IMAGE: 'stanford jam'
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/stanford_globejam.jpg]

Music Professor Chris Chafe played his celleto with Berkeley
musician Roberto Morales, left, in Wallenberg Hall during an
intercontinental jam session June 18 that took advantage of
sophisticated teleconference technology. Projected on the screen
are Hogne Moe, left, and Oyvind Berg, who "virtually" joined the
concert from the Royal Academy of Technolgy in Stockholm. The
quartet played three improvisational concerts as part of the
"Point 25" project (the title refers to the one-quarter-second
delay of the Internet broadcast) sponsored, in part, by the
Wallenberg Global Learning Network. Audience members in Stanford
and Stockholm also were able to watch each other.

Does anyone know if the event was recorded?

[1] http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/july7/globejam-77.html
[2] http://news.stanford.edu



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mozCC 0.8.1: a small number with big performance
2004-07-09
Nathan Yergler

mozCC 0.8.0 was an attempt to fix performance problems with many
sites, and it succeeded. For the most part. Shortly after it's
release, users brought to my attention the fact that when browsing
Wikipedia[1] with mozCC, the browser ground to a halt while mozCC
retrieved the CC license information from the web server. This problem
actually effected any page using 'd metadata. Wikipedia was
the most obvious case due to the size of their metadata file (it's
comparatively large).

mozCC 0.8.1, released this morning, fixes these problems. The browser
remains responsive while the metadata is downloaded in the background.

Firefox[2] users can upgrade by simply opening the Extension manager;
everyone else can find installation information here[3]. The full
release announcement is available on the mozCC News page[4].

[1] http://wikipedia.org
[2] http://mozilla.org/products/firefox
[3] http://yergler.net/projects/mozcc/install
[4] http://yergler.net/projects/mozcc/news



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Commoner Sightings -- This Weekend
2004-07-08
Glenn Otis Brown

- Creative Commons board member Joi Ito[1] will address the Flash
Forward 2004[2] conference at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City --
tomorrow, Friday July 9th, at 9:00am.
- Assistant director Neeru Paharia will appear on a panel, "Open
Source and Social Action," at the Awe to Action[3] conference -- this
Saturday, July 10th, at 4:15pm at the First Unitarian Universalist
Church, 1187 Franklin Street @ Geary, in San Francisco.
- I'm looking forward to being in Boston this weekend, where I'll be
doing a presentation on Creative Commons at the American Association
of Law Libraries[4] -- Sunday, July 11, at 1:30pm at the Hynes
Convention Center.

[1] http://joi.ito.com/
[2] http://www.flashforward2004.com
[3] http://awetoaction.org/
[4] http://www.aallnet.org/events/local04/



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Share Your Politics, Whatever Their Color
2004-07-08
James Grimmelmann

ActBlue[1] is a web site that bills itself as an "online clearinghouse
for grassroots action." As the name suggests, it's a site designed to
help Democratic partisans find candidates to support, both with money
and with time. But it also supplies tools to help users band together
with like-minded souls -- creating customized lists[2] of important
races and spreading them around.

What makes the site so cool is that it -- and all of the lists and
other content users upload -- is available under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 license[3]. That means that other
organizations can pick up and work off the grassroots energy of
ActBlue, whether those other groups are the Democrats for a Democratic
Midwest or the Red State Republicans. ActBlue may be Democrat-themed,
but as online grassroots organizing and Internet-sparked individual
involvement in politics spreads across the political spectrum -- from
ActGreen to ActRed -- everyone wins, and so does democracy itself.
Kudos to ActBlue for sharing the love.

[1] http://www.actblue.com
[2] http://actblue.com/lists
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/



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Flickr adds CC moblogging for any weblog
2004-07-08
Matt Haughey

A couple weeks ago, we mentioned Flickr added support for Creative
Commons licenses[1] to their photo uploading and hosting service. This
week, they've announced a pretty amibitious new feature: mobile phone
blogging for almost any blog service[2].

It works like this: you setup an account at Flickr, enable moble
blogging features by inputing details about your blog, choose a CC
license, and you'll be able to post photos from your phone to any
Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, and/or Typepad powered weblog.
Here's a great example blog[3] of CC-licensed photos being posted
through Flickr.

I'm really impressed with this new feature. I've built my own similar
system and it required a weekend of hacking and data spread across
three servers[4]. Now anyone can have a similar setup by simply using
the free Flickr service in just a few minutes.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4287
[2] http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2004/07/turn_any_blog_i.html
[3] http://kathrynyu.com/
[4] http://a.wholelottanothing.org/archives.blah/006737



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The Building Blocks of Culture
2004-07-08
James Grimmelmann

As a tie-in to Spider-Man 2[1], Spite Your Face[2] created a short
movie of Spidey battling Doc Ock, done entirely with Legos[3]. It's a
cracking good little romp, and it made me think of some of the other
great Lego remixes I've seen, such as 2001: A Lego Odyssey[4] and
Monty Python Lego[5]. Legos have become one of the great physical
media for animation, from Michel Gonrdy's innovative music video[6]
for the White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl" to entire
communities[7] of Lego animators.

Why is that? Perhaps because Lego is the original remix toy. A Lego
set isn't some finished plaything: it comes in pieces, and you get to
build it yourself. And then, once you've built the model, you can
unbuild it and put it back together in your own way. You can make
mash-ups in which Harry Potter Lego[8] characters meet Star Wars Lego
[9] characters at a car wash[10].

Think of Creative Commons as Lego for culture[11], helping the
building blocks of creativity snap together in neat new ways.

[1] http://spiderman.sonypictures.com/
[2] http://www.spiteyourface.com/
[3] http://www.lego.com
[4] http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/1338602
[5] http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2405283
[6] http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2422360
[7] http://www.brickfilms.com/
[8] http://www.lego.com/harrypotter/
[9] http://www.lego.com/starwars/home.asp
[10] http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=6472&cn=22&d=7&t=3
[11] http://framasoft.net/article2389.html



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"A combination of innovation and infringement"
2004-07-07
Matt Haughey

Annalee Newitz has a great article in Alternet about Mash-ups[1],
going over the copyright laws involved and how the laws are viewed in
the mash-up scene. It's an interested clash, where restrictive laws
loom over digital musicians armed with low-cost computers and software
that makes mixing easy. In this realm, Newitz sees mash-ups as a form
of protest, where DJs knowingly violate laws in order to spread their
art in the world.

As a masher on [Get Your Bootleg On] recently posted, "Everything
is illegal." Under an I.P. regime where artists feel like nothing
goes, it seems that everything could. The infringement generation
aims to mash up copyright law in pursuit of better music. But it
also has a chance to challenge social divisions more profound than
the distinctions between hip-hop, rock and electroclash.

[1] http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/19164/



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New books under CC licenses
2004-07-07
Roland Honekamp

The German Heise-Verlag, a publishing house specializing in books and
magazines on the IT industry, has adopted the CC licensing model. Two
books are currently being offered as free downloads under the CC
licenses. The first book, Mix, Burn & RIP [1]
(http://www.mixburnrip.de) by Janko Roettgers, looks into the future
of the recording industry. The second book, Freie Netze: Geschichte,
Politik und Kultur offener WLAN-Netze [2] by Armin Medosch
(http://www.freifunk.net/wiki/FreieNetze), deals with the rise of free
community wifi networks in Europe and elsewhere. The two books serve
as a good example of how the Creative Commons model is gradually
conquering non-English speaking countries. The German licenses were
launched on June 10 and have since been extensively discussed in a
variety of different forums, the most important of which was an
academic workshop at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin on June 24 (a
summary of the workshop’s discussion with future lines of research
will be posted soon).

[1] http://www.mixburnrip.de
[2] http://www.freifunk.net/wiki/FreieNetze



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Miscegenation Remixed
2004-07-05
Mike Linksvayer

J. LeRoy noticed[1] two hours of audio arguments from _Loving v.
Virginia[2]_ (a 1967 U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned an
anti-interracial marriage law in Virginia) at Oyez, available under a
CC license.

A couple days ago LeRoy released[3] a remix[4] of the arguments. The
real-life contemporary remixreplay of the same arguments is readily
apparent.

[1] http://www.soundbag.com/leblog/ 2004_06_01_archive.html#108683854698782696
[2] http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/214/
[3] http://www.soundbag.com/leblog/ 2004_07_01_archive.html#108888477325265037
[4] http://www.soundbag.com/musictest/Supreme_Hits/ JLeRoy_InterracialMarriage.mp3



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Do the Recombo. In Brazil. Now.
2004-07-05
Glenn Otis Brown

[IMAGE: 'mombojo'
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/mombojo.jpg]

Ronaldo Lemos, project lead extraordinaire of Creative Commons Brazil
[1], reports:

Mombojó[2] is one of the most interesting new bands in
Brazil. They mix traditional Brazilian music like samba and bossa
nova with electronic beats and rock. Their album, "Nadadenovo"
(meaning: "nothing new"), is available online at
www.mombojo.com.br. Even if they say there is "nothing new" about
their music, that is not true. They are responsible for indicating
new bold directions to Brazilian music.

Mombojó is an enthusiast of the Creative Commons. They have
just announced that one of their tracks, "Nem Parece," is now
under the Recombo Plus[3] license. They will be releasing three
other tracks under the Recombo Plus, one each month. They have
also licensed their first video, "Cabidela," under Recombo. And
everything can be found online[4].

Last, but not least, Mombojó works closely with Re:Combo[5],
the pioneer Brazilian collective that inspired Creative Commons[6]
to rename its "sampling" license "Recombo."

Radical. Now everyone get out there and do the Recombo.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/br/
[2] http://www.mombojo.com.br/
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0/
[4] http://carlota.cesar.org.br/mabuse/ newstorm.notitia.apresentacao.ServletDeSecao?codigoDaSecao=1127
[5] www.recombo.art.br
[6] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4234


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A Wikipedia of Free Culture?
2004-07-02
Mike Linksvayer

_Q: How to plan a wiki? A: Hash out ideas on a wiki._

So we set up a wiki[1] and we're holding a barn raising[2] there.
You're invited[3].

Our objective is to plan a "Get Content" wiki, a scalable catalog of
"some rights reserved" and "no rights reserved" works.

A truly international catalog of CC and PD works. A Wikipedia[4] of
Free Culture, democratically maintained and curated.

Can this work? We have a hunch that it can, but we've doubtless missed
many solutions and innumerable problems.

What we have thought of is of course on the wiki[5], where you should
go[6] without further adieu and add your ideas[7].

Note for anyone excited about the idea: we're planning at this stage.
The wiki we're using for the planning may not be the one we use to
implement the "Get Content" wiki (do help us figure that one out) --
so you may wish to curb your enthusiasm for raw cataloging just right
now.

Now dive in![8]

[1] http://wiki.creativecommons.org
[2] http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?BarnRaising
[3] http://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Get_Content
[4] http://wikipedia.org
[5] http://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Get_Content
[6] http://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Get_Content
[7] http://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Get_Content
[8] http://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Get_Content



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Australia Creative Resource Online
2004-07-01
Neeru Paharia

Australia Creative Resource Online[1], a project funded by the
Australian government, has launched its pilot site. Their aim is to
create a digital junkyard[2], and have articulated a very compelling
economic argument as to why this should exist. Currently, they are
taking submissions[3] for content, and are even willing to
(selectively) digitize your content for free. They plan to go live in
September, and will use Creative Commons Australia licenses[4].

[1] http://www.uq.edu.au/acro/
[2] http://www.uq.edu.au/acro/information.html
[3] http://www.uq.edu.au/acro/contribute.html
[4] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/au/



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DJ Spooky's new book Rhythm Science
2004-07-01
Neeru Paharia

DJ Spooky[1] (aka Paul Miller), early supporter of Creative Commons,
has recently released his new book, Rhythm Science[2]. The subject
matter is very Creative Commons in philosphy as he explores ways to
think about rebuilding culture. Here's an excerpt from the site:

"Taking the Dj's mix as template, he describes how the artist,
navigating the innumerable ways to arrange the mix of cultural ideas
and objects that bombard us, uses technology and art to create
something new and expressive and endlessly variable."

He's also in the process of releasing Rebirth of a Nation[3], a remix
of D.W. Griffith's 1915 Birth of a Nation[4]. Since the original film
is from 1915, it is now in the public domain. More to come on this
soon.

[1] http://www.djspooky.com/
[2] http://www.rhythmscience.com/
[3] http://www.djspooky.com/art.html
[4] http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html



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Welcome Nathan Yergler
2004-07-01
Mike Linksvayer

Early last October we launched a revamp[1] of the Creative Commons
website, including the addition of a new technology challenges[2]
section. A few days later someone called Nathan Yergler[3] wrote with
questions concerning two of the challenges. A week later Nathan
announced[4] that ccValidator[5] was ready for testing.

Since then Nathan has been our most prolific volunteer, adding Python
[6] and JavaScript[7] language APIs for CC metadata, mozCC[8], and
ccSaver[9] to his portfolio. None of these have been throwaway
projects. Nathan keeps making them better[10].

The last couple months Nathan has been working on ccTag[11] for
Creative Commons. Now we're very pleased to announce that he has
joined the Creative Commons staff as a software engineer[12]. He'll
continue to create more and better CC tools, as well as help us with
internal and external web projects.

How can you welcome Nathan? Try mozCC[13]. If you can find a bug, send
him a report[14].

[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3856
[2] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3859
[3] http://yergler.net
[4] https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/cc-metadata/2003-October/000175.html
[5] http://www.yergler.net/projects/ccvalidator/
[6] http://yergler.net/projects/ccrdf
[7] http://yergler.net/projects/ccrdf/javascript
[8] http://yergler.net/projects/mozcc
[9] http://yergler.net/projects/ccsaver
[10] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4288
[11] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4279
[12] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#31
[13] http://yergler.net/projects/mozcc
[14] http://mozcc.mozdev.org/bugs.html



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Open Media Streaming With CC Metadata
2004-06-30
Mike Linksvayer

The Open Media Streaming Project[1] has added CC metadata support to
their streaming audio server and player.

[IMAGE: http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/nemesi.png] _OMSP's
NeMeSi player displaying license info for a stream._

They say:

Please note that the CC stuff in the source code is in very alpha
stage: no more than IETF's-style "running code" to test a
soon-to-be-released specification proposal for streaming Creative
Commons licensing meta-data over RTSP/RTP protocols.

[1] http://streaming.polito.it/



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mobloguk
2004-06-30
Neeru Paharia

Check out mobloguk[1], a great moblogging application that supports
Creative Commons licenses. The system is very easy to use -- you
simply email images, audio, or text from your cell phone, or other
device, to your own mobloguk email address, and it automatically gets
posted on the site. You can even restrict your searches to Creative
Commons licensed content[2]. The source code is also under Creative
Commons[3].

[1] http://moblg.net/
[2] http://moblg.net/search.php?s=411810g5&cc=1
[3] http://moblg.net/help.php?thesite



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Dave Kim and James Grimmelmann
2004-06-30
Mike Linksvayer

Dave Kim[1] and James Grimmelmann[2], hailing from Georgetown and Yale
law schools respectively, are Creative Commons' summer interns this
year. They're both doing great work. So great that we forgot to blog
their presence until now.[Ok, so this is a non sequitur -- I needed an
excuse!]

[1] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#30
[2] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#29



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Wikipedia Publishing CC Metadata
2004-06-30
Mike Linksvayer

Wikipedia[1] now publishes license metadata, using the Creative
Commons license metadata vocabulary[2] to describe the GNU FDL[3]
license.

[IMAGE:
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/mozCC-0.8.0-wikipedia.png] _
Browsing Wikipedia with mozCC[4] installed._

MediaWiki[5], the software that runs Wikipedia, now has support for CC
metadata built in. WikiTravel[6], a CC-licensed world travel guide
also already uses this capability.

Many thanks to Brion Vibber[7] and Evan Prodromou[8] for adding CC
metadata support to this important software.

[1] http://wikipedia.org
[2] http://web.resource.org/cc/
[3] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
[4] http://yergler.net/projects/mozcc
[5] http://www.mediawiki.org
[6] http://wikitravel.org
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Brion_VIBBER
[8] http://www.wikitravel.org/en/article/User:Evan



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mozCC 0.8.0: Faster & More Fetching
2004-06-30
Mike Linksvayer

A major upgrade to mozCC[1], the Creative Commons metadata companion
for Mozilla-based browers, is now available[2]. This version looks
better, fixes a performance problem with some pages, and sets the
stage for version 1.0. See Nathan Yergler's blog post[3] for details.

[IMAGE:
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/ccMoz-0.8.0-status.png] _
Mozilla status bar: browsing a CC-licensed page._

[IMAGE: http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/ccMoz-0.8.0-info.png]
_Click on status bar icons, see metadata details._

Also see additional CC browser accessories[4].

[1] http://yergler.net/projects/mozcc
[2] http://yergler.net/blog/archives/2004/06/29/mozcc-080-now-available
[3] http://yergler.net/blog/archives/2004/06/29/mozcc-080-now-available
[4] http://creativecommons.org/technology/accessories



-----------------

Flickr adds Creative Commons support
2004-06-30
Matt Haughey

Over at the new Flickr blog[1], they've announced support for Creative
Commons in Flickr. Flickr's a site to share photos like no other: it's
a social software application that lets you define friends and family,
you can annotate photos[2], share photos in a live chat[3] using an
innovative interface, form groups around topics, and now you can
license your photos[4].

If you've got a digital camera or camera phone, and don't have any
place to post your photos, consider signing up for Flickr and applying
a CC license to all your shots.

[1] http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2004/06/creative_common.html
[2] http://www.flickr.com/learn_more_2.gne
[3] http://www.flickr.com/learn_more_3.gne
[4] http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=12779



-----------------

In Sacramento tomorrow
2004-06-29
Glenn Otis Brown

I'll be at the California state capitol tomorrow morning to talk to
the state senate's education committee about the public domain and
Creative Commons. I'll be there in a purely informational capacity to
provide some context for a broader discussion about community
colleges, higher ed, and royalty-free educational materials. More
soon.



-----------------

Gnome, Longhorn, Tiger, ..., and CC metadata
2004-06-28
Mike Linksvayer

We are happy to hear that current and upcoming operating systems will
have built-in support for application-level metadata. Gnome[1]
(Linux), Longhorn[2] (next version of Windows) , and Tiger[3] (next
release of OS X) all will be offering some way to store and search
metadata for files and applications. Google[4] is also expected to get
into search applications on the desktop.

How can Creative Commons take advantage of these technologies to
enable CC-aware search and applications on the next generation
desktop? Challenge[5]: write a research brief on how to expose CC
license info for objects in each major OS or framework.

[1] http://developer.gnome.org/arch/file/metadata.html
[2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/understanding/pillars/winfs/ default.aspx?pull=/msdnmag/issues/04/01/WinFS/default.aspx
[3] http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/searchtechnology.html
[4] http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/19/186257
[5] http://creativecommons.org/technology/challenges#challenge_entry_4285



-----------------

Why free for commercial use?
2004-06-27
Mike Linksvayer

A-list blogger and CC board member[1] Joi Ito has posted a thoughtful
mini essay[2] on why he uses a license that allows commercial use for
his blog. He also writes about the decision of whether or not to use a
license with the ShareAlike provision.

Of course you can always make your own choice[3] via the Creative
Commons website.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#22
[2] http://joi.ito.com/archives/2004/06/28/why_free_for_commercial_use.html
[3] http://creativecommons.org/license/



-----------------

Wicket Cool
2004-06-25
Glenn Otis Brown

Cricket fans, take note: CaribbeanCricket.com[1]'s photo journals
feature user-submitted pics of cricket matches from the West Indies,
all licensed under a Creative Commons license[2]. Here's a nice
mid-bowl action shot.

[1] http://www.caribbeancricket.com/modules.php? name=News&file=article&sid=1427
[2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/



-----------------

CC Search Plugins
2004-06-25
Mike Linksvayer

Earlier today Steve Griffin announced a CC Search Sidebar for
Mozilla-Based Browsers[1]. Previously Steve has worked on a C# API[2]
for CC metadata.

A mycroft search plugin[3] for the CC search engine[4] is also
available.

[IMAGE: http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/cc-mycroft.png][5]

The mycroft plugin adds a new search engine to those available from
the Mozilla Firefox[6] toolbar.

[1] http://www.delegatetechnologies.com/blog/index.php?p=33
[2] http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/workspaces/workspace.aspx? ID=7F2C7EBB-3716-4A4D-B8A9-3012A90C4100
[3] http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html? name=creativecommons&submitform=Find%20search%20plugins
[4] http://search.creativecommons.org
[5] http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html? name=creativecommons&submitform=Find%20search%20plugins
[6] http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/



-----------------

CC MP3 GUI Tagger
2004-06-24
Mike Linksvayer

Creative Commons has a simple strategy[1] for linking licensing
information in mp3s and other media files often found on P2P networks
back to the web. Until now implementing that strategy was rather a
pain for publishers. The only tools were command line, and those
depended upon a gaggle of libraries not already installed on a typical
machine.

Thanks to work by Nathan Yergler, we have a new application that
attacks both problems. ccTag 0.5.2[2] offers a cross plaform GUI that
works on Linux[3], OS X[4], and Windows[5]. The command line[6]
version has no dependencies apart from Python 2.x.

[IMAGE: 'ccTag screenshot'
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/ccTag-0.5.2.png]_Ye
obligatory screenshot._

Long term one vision is to have a desktop tool that one could drag any
media one wanted to license over. The tool would ask the user about
licensing, embed any metadata appropriate, and have the ability to
publish metadata and the licensed media to the web. ccTag is one small
step along that road.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/technology/nonweb
[2] http://yergler.net/projects/cctag/releases/
[3] http://yergler.net/projects/cctag/releases/ccTag-0.5.2.tar.gz
[4] http://yergler.net/projects/cctag/releases/ccTag-0.5.2.dmg.tgz
[5] http://yergler.net/projects/cctag/releases/ccTag-0.5.2-win32.exe
[6] http://yergler.net/projects/cctag/releases/cct-0.5.2.tar.gz



-----------------

Fix Web Multimedia
2004-06-24
Mike Linksvayer

Lucas Gonze[1]:

What I am thinking is that we need a tech social movement to fix
web multimedia by insisting that web standards be followed. REST
was such a movement in the protocol space. The Zeldman-inspired
movement to use structural HTML and CSS only did the same thing
with design. This would be a direct analog for multimedia. Use
real URLs that are not hidden behind javascript. Use correct mime
types -- no making them up because you don't have time to look up
the answer. Use standard data formats -- no proprietary types. Use
correctly formatted playlists -- if you have a ram playlist, the
extension must be .ram rather than .rm.

Well said. Creative Commons likes multimedia[2] and believes in
building on standards[3]. The web will benefit from this movement.
Those interested in building a commons will benefit in particular.
Trivial example: It can be a big pain to share and reuse content
mediated by a maze of javascript. If you want your content to be
shared and built upon, do license it[4], then follow Gonze's advice.
One way to do this is to take advantage of the Internet Archive[5]'s
ability to host Creative Commons licensed audio and video content.

[1] http://gonze.com/weblog/story/6-24-4
[2] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/
[3] http://creativecommons.org/technology/usingmarkup
[4] http://creativecommons.org/license/
[5] http://www.archive.org



-----------------

Wilco pays for spycasts
2004-06-23
Matt Haughey

Wired has a bizarre story of music and sampling royalties[1] involving
found sound recordings by one person sold as CDs which the band Wilco
sampled from. What is unusual about the case is the company claiming
copyright on the sounds, Irdial Discs[2], didn't perform or write the
shortwave broadcasts of what is reportedly hours of spy messages.
Irdial simply recorded (and obtained recordings from others) four
discs full of it and released it as a compilation[3]. While they
embrace free downloading and sharing[4] of the tracks, they do
prohibit commercial use, which Wilco looped on a successful 2002
album. As the article states, many legal experts are unsure if Irdial
had the rights to demand royalties and point out that future musicians
may be wary of using found sounds such as these.

[1] http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63952,00.html
[2] http://www.irdial.com/
[3] http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm
[4] http://www.irdial.com/free_and_easy.htm



-----------------

SpaceShipOne event recollections
2004-06-23
Matt Haughey

Early this week, SpaceShipOne became the first manned private flight
into space. The event was covered by industry news organizations[1] as
well as the general media, but personally, I find this first-person
account[2] and these sets of photos and movies of the launch[3] more
compelling than the general news coverage so far.

[IMAGE: 'space ship'
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/DSC07985.jpg]

_Photo of SpaceShipOne by Bruce Damer[4]._

[1] http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/SS1_touchdown_040621.html
[2] http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/33838#690584
[3] http://www.damer.com/pictures/events/04-06-SpaceShipOne/index.html
[4] http://www.damer.com



-----------------

A few select photos from Software Livre
2004-06-23
Neeru Paharia

As mentioned earlier[1] on the blog, Creative Commons took part in 5th
Annual Software Livre Conference[2] in Porto Alegre earlier this
month. Here are some select photos from the event:

The IBM booth. The pillar says "the future is open" in Portuguese:
[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/SoftwareLivre/419.jpg]

A conference sign:
[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/SoftwareLivre/422.jpg]

The Minster of Culture's booth, displaying both of our stickers:
[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/SoftwareLivre/423.jpg]

A view of the audience:
[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/SoftwareLivre/428.jpg]

Professor Lessig, and Professor Fisher waiting for the panel to begin:
[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/SoftwareLivre/426.jpg]

Minister Gil, next to Jon Maddog Hall, giving his address:
[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/SoftwareLivre/433.jpg]

[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4236
[2] http://portal.softwarelivre.org/



-----------------

Street Memes
2004-06-23
Neeru Paharia

Street Memes[1] is a new Eyebeam[2] R&D project designed to track the
spread of street art. All submissions are licensed under the
Noncommercial-ShareAlike[3] licence.

Read more about it[4], or just grab a camera!

[1] http://www.streetmemes.com/
[2] http://eyebeam.org
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/nc-sa/1.0/
[4] http://www.eyebeam.org/reblog/archives/001413.html



-----------------

XMP embedding for pdflatex
2004-06-22
Mike Linksvayer

Maarten Sneep[1] has created a pdflatex macro[2] for embedding XMP in
PDF files generated from LaTeX[3] source, the _de facto_ standard for
scientific documents. As Maarten's documentation points out, one may
obtain XMP[4] suitable for embedding via choose license process[5].

We have a tech challenge[6] calling for Creative Commons and XMP
support in open source applications. Follow Maarten's lead!

Update: The software above is available via CTAN: the Comprehensive
TeX Archive Network[7]. The package is called xmpincl[8] (the second
link in this post points to a CTAN mirror). Also of note, xmpincl is
licensed under the CC-GNU GPL[9].

[1] http://www.nat.vu.nl/~sneep/index.php
[2] http://www.math.utah.edu/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/xmpincl/
[3] http://www.latex-project.org/
[4] http://creativecommons.org/technology/xmp-help
[5] http://creativecommons.org/license/
[6] http://creativecommons.org/technology/challenges#challenge_entry_4005
[7] http://www.ctan.org
[8] http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/xmpincl/
[9] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/



-----------------

President Bush public domain audio project
2004-06-18
Matt Haughey

Though the graphics on this project probably reveal the author's
personal positions on the President, it is pretty cool that someone
went to the trouble of creating an audio archive of every speech
President George W Bush has made publicly[1]. They're available for
download as mp3, or you can get all 10 Gb of audio on three DVDs from
the site.

It'd be cool if the Library of Congress site[2] had this level of
detail on all presidents, but this will do for now. They're even
throwing a little music remix contest[3] based on the speeches.

[1] http://www.thebots.net/GWBushSampleArchive.htm
[2] http://www.loc.gov/
[3] http://www.thebots.net/BushRemixContest.htm



-----------------

Center for Cooperative Research
2004-06-18
Neeru Paharia

The Center for Cooperative Research[1] is building a database
application which will allow the public to conduct grassroots
investigations, and participate in the documentation of public
historical records by contributing data to their history engine. All
the entries will be under an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike[2]
license.

[1] http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index.jsp
[2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/



-----------------

ccSaver
2004-06-18
Mike Linksvayer

Our most prolific[1] technical volunteer (soon to join the CC staff,
more on that shortly) strikes again[2] with a cute hack -- ccSaver[3],
a screensaver for Linux and Windows that displays random CC-licensed
images from OpenPhoto.net[4] at times when your display really ought
to power down, but you want eye candy instead.

This development merits a new tech challenge -- more "art" programs[5]
.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3922
[2] http://yergler.net/blog/archives/2004/06/11/because-i-need-another-t- shirt
[3] http://yergler.net/projects/ccsaver/
[4] http://openphoto.net
[5] http://creativecommons.org/technology/challenges#challenge_entry_4265



-----------------

Creative Commons, a wedding beneficiary
2004-06-18
Neeru Paharia

We were honored to get this letter, and a check, from the recently
married Joanna and Jaroslaw, of Warsaw, Poland:

_

We (Joanna and Jaroslaw) had decided, that during our wedding we want
people to donate for charity instead of buying flowers, and as people
somehow connected with copyleft/free_content movement we have chosen
CC as a beneficiary. We hope, that this money may be spent on starting
iCommons Poland.

Our professional-looking charity box was made from one plastic pot,
parts of tea can and lots of duck-tape (see enclosed photos :-))).
Response was pretty good, and we collected 552 polish zloty (pln) and
6 Euro (e). With 1e = 4,662pln that made 579,97pln. Bank and sending
cost was 30,30pln, what made 549,67pln. With 1$=3.94pln we were able
to send you 139,52$.

BTW our wedding took place on 24th April, but i took us some (too
much) time to send a check. Finally we did it yesterday, on May 25th.
Please let us now, when (and if) money will arrive. We don't want it
to get lost somewhere over Atlantic :-)

Few words about us: Joanna Maksymiuk is a student of philosophy at
Curie-Sklodowska University[1] (Lublin, Poland). Jaroslaw Lipszyc is
an editor of Warsaw daily Zycie Warszawy[2], but also a poet (all
works avalaible under GNU GPL), part of the Copyleft Art[3] project
and one of translators[4] of Lawrence Lessig book "Free Culture."

Thank you for all your efforts in making our world a better place.
Supporting you is a pleasure.

Joanna and Jaroslaw from Warsaw, Poland

PS. more photos from our wedding you will find here[5].

[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/1.jpg]

[IMAGE: http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/10.jpg]

_

[1] http://www.umcs.lublin.pl/
[2] http://www.zw.com.pl/
[3] http://copyleft.art.pl/ project
[4] http://terminal.n17.waw.pl/freeculture/
[5] http://www.mleko.barmleczny.com/4/motylem/foto.php?co=motylem...&id=1



-----------------

CC Remix Music -- Simple Flower
2004-06-18
Neeru Paharia

Los Angeles-based soul band Simple Flower[1] has released the source
tracks for their song Flowers and Pain[2] under the
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike[3] license. They're also offering
to host remixes. Give it a shot!

[1] http://www.simpleflower.com/index.php
[2] http://www.simpleflower.com/remix.php
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/



-----------------

FAIRCOPY lets your fans make you money
2004-06-18
Neeru Paharia

FAIRCOPY[1] has developed an innovative way for musicians to
distribute their content over P2P networks and get paid. They've also
built in a way for fans to leverage the power of P2P to resdistribute
[2] their favorite FAIRCOPY artists, and make a commission. Musicians
can also offer free samples of their work under Creative Commons
licenses.

[1] http://faircopy.com
[2] http://www.faircopy.com/action/explain



-----------------

CC-Netherlands
2004-06-18
Mike Linksvayer

Legal ports of Creative Commons licenses to the copyright law of the
Netherlands are now available via our choose license[1] app. A launch
event[2] was held today in Amsterdam.

Thanks to the Instititute for Information Law[3] (IViR) in
collaboration with DISC[4], a public domain initiative by Nederland
Kennisland[5] and Waag Society[6], funded by the Dutch Ministry of
Culture, for making CC-Netherlands a reality.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/license/?jurisdiction=nl
[2] http://www.ivir.nl/agenda/creativecommonslaunch.html
[3] http://www.ivir.nl/
[4] http://www.disc.nl/
[5] http://english.kennisland.nl/
[6] http://www.waag.org



-----------------

Towards a global people's culture
2004-06-16
Heather Ford

The Wizards of os conference[1] in Berlin proved a veritable feast for
Creative Commoners around the world gathering to discuss the future of
the digital commons last week.

Creative Commons Germany was launched on Friday with an emotional
tribute by filmmaker, Michael Grob, who released his full-length
feature film, CH7[2] under a CC license. Along with presentations from
author, Armin Medosch and DJ, Bjoern Hartmann, a "Creative Commons
Summit"[3] enabled conference participants to find out more about
other country projects currently in the mix.

Project leads from Brazil, Finland, France and South Africa talked
about their experiences with the Creative Commons license porting or
transposition and about local applications by authors, educators and
creators. As each person spoke, we became aware of how important both
the local and global processes are as each country establishes the
relevance of the licenses according to the peculiarities of local law
and culture, but is still intrinsically connected within the global
iCommons community. There are very few international initiatives that
display such tremendous unity and cooperation, and it was really
positive to see how volunteers of this movement are so united towards
the growth of a people's culture.

I have never been more proud to be a Creative Commoner than at this
global celebration.

[1] http://www.wizards-of-os.org/
[2] http://www.freierfilm.ch/filme/052004_0887.html
[3] http://www.wizards-of-os.org/index.php?id=1444



-----------------

Choose License Web Integration Updates
2004-06-16
Mike Linksvayer

If you have a website or web-aware application where users create or
contribute content, Creative Commons has a service[1] that allows
users to choose a license for their works from your site via a popup
[2], redirect[3], iframe[4], or web control[5].

One may now specify or allow users to choose an iCommons[6]
jurisdiction-specific legal port via this interface by using one or
two additional variables[7].

A new complementary service[8] can generate HTML and RDF metadata
specific to a licensed work. This service can be used to avoid having
to manually build appropriate HTML and metadata after a user has
chosen a license.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/technology/web-integration
[2] http://creativecommons.org/technology/web-integration#popup
[3] http://creativecommons.org/technology/web-integration#redirect
[4] http://creativecommons.org/technology/web-integration#iframe
[5] http://creativecommons.org/technology/web-integration#control
[6] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/
[7] http://creativecommons.org/technology/web-integration#jurisdiction
[8] http://creativecommons.org/technology/web-integration#html-output- request



-----------------

iCommons & iPress
2004-06-15
Glenn Otis Brown

The International Herald Tribune has a nice story[1] on the explosive
growth of iCommons, with a focus on the recent launch in Germany. The
Register UK also has a nice piece[2]. Hats off to Christiane
Asschenfeldt, Roland Honekamp, and the many iCommons project leads[3]
for the recent boom. More to come.

[1] http://www.iht.com/articles/524710.html
[2] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/15/german_creative_commons/
[3] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/



-----------------

Upcoming conference on Fair Use
2004-06-15
Matt Haughey

The New York Times has a great story[1] about the painful process a
college professor went through to clear the rights for a short,
informative video to be given to incoming students:

"It's crazy," Professor Turow said of the labyrinth of
permissions, waivers and fees he navigated to get the roughly
three minutes of video clips included on the CD, which was paid
for by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The
process took months, Professor Turow said, and cost about $17,000
in fees and royalties paid to the various studios and guilds for
the use of clips. The film used ranged from, for example, a 1961
episode of "Ben Casey" to a more-recent scene from "ER."

As a result of the project, this Friday the Annenberg School for
Communication at University of Pennsylvania will be holding a
conference called Knowledge Held Hostage[2] that will explore issues
of Fair Use in education. The full program[3] features Creative
Commons co-founder and board member Hal Abelson. [via furdlog[4]]

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/business/media/14fair.html? ex=1402632000&en=a8d4b62f3b6fe347&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
[2] http://www.knowledgehostage.org/
[3] http://knowledgehostage.org/program.htm
[4] http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/



-----------------

Movies for Music Contest
2004-06-15
Mike Linksvayer

Downhill Battle[1] and p2pnet[2] have announced a new video contest[3]
.

The goal is to encourage people to make short movies and
animations about the music industry, filesharing, and the
potential we have to change the system. The right video can be the
best way to explain these issues and get someone involved, and as
always we like to hit from every direction we can. Please tell all
your video artist friends!

Unless otherwise specified all entries[4] are to be licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike[5] license.

No submissions are currently up, so their gallery[6] features Building
on the Past[7] by Justin Cone, winner of a recent Creative Commons
moving images contest.

[1] http://downhillbattle.org/index.php?p=154
[2] http://p2pnet.net/story/1679
[3] http://moviesformusic.org/enter.php
[4] http://moviesformusic.org/enter.php
[5] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
[6] http://moviesformusic.org/gallery.php
[7] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/movingimagecontest



-----------------

MacJams adds Creative Commons
2004-06-14
Matt Haughey

Several months ago, Apple released the music software Garageband[1],
allowing anyone with a mac to make some music. Soon after the release,
community websites sprang up to allow Garageband users to share music
with each other, and build songs together. This is a perfect use for
Creative Commons licenses, and earlier we noted[2] that the site
Macband[3] added our licenses to their site. We were delighted to hear
that MacJams has also incorporated Creative Commons licenses[4] into
their song uploading process.

So if you're a Garageband user that needs some drum loops or other
song parts to share, check out Macband[5] and MacJams[6].

[1] http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
[2] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3997
[3] http://macband.com/
[4] http://www.macjams.com/article.php?story=20040417194505674
[5] http://macband.com/
[6] http://www.macjams.com/



-----------------

Naropa Collection
2004-06-14
Victor Stone

The writings of William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg may be amongst
the most important in the 20th Century but it's the sound of
Burroughs' growl and the haunting lilt in Ginsberg's recitals that
have compelled turntablists to use samples of their speaking voices.
Sampling pioneers and Ninjatune entrepreneurs Jonathan More and Matt
Black (a.k.a. Coldcut) have used Burroughs and Ginsberg for a while[1]
and continue to do so[2].

Thanks to the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics from Naropa
University[3], you can hear hundreds of hours of lectures and readings
by Burroughs, Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Amiri Baraka and others all of
which have been posted to the Archive as part of the Naropa Collection
[4]. As of this writing there are 147 (!) uploads to the stunning
collection.

Burroughs is of special interest due to his exploration of assembling
fragments of writings and audio tape (what he called "cut-ups") in the
1960's and 70's that lead directly to follow-up projects by Brian Eno,
David Bowie, Plunderphonics and hence the mainstreaming of tape
sampling as a music genre. His 1976 lecture at the Kerouac School[5]
should be required listening as a background on cut-ups.

Of course the lectures are of invaluable literary value. Burroughs and
others delve deep into their personal relationships with various works
of literature ranging from Conrad to Fitzgerald[6], Wordsworth to
Whitman.

And finally there is the sheer entertainment value of many of these
uploads. For example, you don't want to miss Ginsberg reading the
complete "Howl."[7].

The entire Naropa Collection is licensed under a
Attribution-NonDerivs-NonCommerical license.

[1] http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/release.php?id=134
[2] http://www.ninjatune.net/solidsteel/show.php/321/0
[3] http://www.naropa.edu/
[4] http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-searchresults.php? searchAll=yes&collection=&submit=main&search=naropa&limit=100&start=0
[5] http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php? collection=naropa&collectionid=76P019
[6] http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php? collection=naropa&collectionid=79P040
[7] http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php? collection=naropa&collectionid=75P095A



-----------------

This Week in Amateur Radio
2004-06-14
Victor Stone

People from all around the world get together via a technology medium
that allows them to form relationships through a global, far-flung
community even though they have never met face to face. It may not be
the first thing that comes to your mind, but amateur radio is alive
and well thank you very much.

Just ask any one at "This Week in Amateur Radio[1]" which produces a
weekly show devoted to nothing else. A 100% volunteer effort, a
typical show will be at least 80 minutes. "You wouldn't think there is
that much information week in and week out about a _hobby_," says
George Bowen, Executive Producer of TWIAR "but other than Christmas
and Thanksgiving week it's there." There are plenty of stories about
government regulations in broadcasting but you are just as likely to
hear stories like the one this week about the military radio
broadcasting that is jamming garage door openers all over Florida.

Segment producers will record their own stories and then upload to one
of the mirrored ftp sites which George then downloads and compiles for
the show. The result is broadcast on bandwidth made available by
commercial satellite feeds but according to George more and more
listeners are simply picking up the MP3 version from TWIAR's website.

These MP3s and all the material on the site used to be marked with an
"All Rights Reserved" copyright because "that's what everybody else
was doing. Then I saw this piece on Creative Common on TechTV[2] and I
thought 'Hey, that's what we're doing!'"

Indeed, segments are regularly shared with one of the other six such
shows produced around the world from New Zealand to Europe. They are
now free to do so legitimately thanks to George having put all the
shows on the web under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

[1] http://www.twiar.org/
[2] http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/ 0,24330,3344681,00.html



-----------------

German licenses launched
2004-06-11
Matt Haughey

We've recently flipped the switch on German Creative Commons licenses.
Like the recent Brazil, Finland, and Japan licenses, in addition to
the rewritten legal code that is now based on German law, the license
interface is now available in German[1], as well as the licenses
themselves[2].

Thanks goes out to the folks at both The Insitute for Information Law
at the University of Karlsruhe[3] and Institut für Rechtsfragen
der Freien und Open Source Software (ifrOSS)[4] for all their help
along the way. This press release[5] has more details about the
launch.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/license/?lang=de
[2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/de/deed.de
[3] http://www.z-a-r.de
[4] http://www.ifross.de
[5] http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/4249



-----------------

cc-community
2004-06-11
Mike Linksvayer

Following many requests on cc-licenses[1] for a list with a more
general charter, we've created cc-community[2]. If you have a burning
question or discussion point related to Creative Commons that doesn't
seem to fit the specific description of any of our many discussion
lists[3], hold back no longer.

Subscribe to cc-community.[4]

Read the cc-community archives.[5]

Note: cc-licenses[6] is still the best for feedback and questions
specific to one or more of our mainline licenses[7].

[1] http://creativecommons.org/discuss#license
[2] http://creativecommons.org/discuss#community
[3] http://creativecommons.org/discuss
[4] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community
[5] https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/cc-community/
[6] http://creativecommons.org/discuss#license
[7] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/



-----------------

Nature on open access publishing
2004-06-09
Matt Haughey

One of the kings of scientific publishing, the journal Nature[1], has
recently launched a forum[2] to bring together articles and
information about open access publishing. They've even got an RSS feed
[3] for updates to the forum.

It's great to see a top journal open a dialogue about a somewhat
controversial issue in the scientific publishing industry. In an age
of ever increasing journal subscription costs and shrinking library
budgets, many smaller journals have embraced the concept of open
access publishing[4] and a prominent journal[5] started with the issue
at heart, but many larger publishers have distanced themselves from
the topic. [via furdlog[6]]

[1] http://www.nature.com/
[2] http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/
[3] http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/rss.rdf
[4] http://www.doaj.org/
[5] http://plos.org/
[6] http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/



-----------------

World's Coolest Man?
2004-06-07
Glenn Otis Brown

Cabinet minister by day, mover of souls by night. At total ease
bouncing from baritone to falsetto and back again. As nimble on stage
as those half his age. Master of a crowd and, in person, friendly as
can be. Gold-selling and Creative Commons-adopting[1]. Is Gilberto Gil
[2] the world's coolest man?

[IMAGE: 'Gil and Team'
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/gil-cc.jpg]

_Minister Gil with assistant director Neeru Paharia, CC video director
Danny Passman, cinematographer Andrew Sachs, and me._

[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4236
[2] http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/



-----------------

Garageband adds Creative Commons
2004-06-07
Matt Haughey

Wired has a short write-up[1] of the GarageBand[2] (the website for
musicians, not the Apple software) annoucement to include a Creative
Commons license during song uploads. If you've never tried out
GarageBand, sign up and give it a whirl. Listeners rate song samples
as one vs. another, and you can view the top rated songs in numerous
genres. There's an impressive array of music, all from unsigned bands.
On the musician side of things, you can upload music and get feedback
and ratings from fans, sort of like a musical HotOrNot.com.

[1] http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63720,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5
[2] http://garageband.com/



-----------------

Brazil Re-cap
2004-06-07
Glenn Otis Brown

A few more words about the iCommons Brazil launch. It is hard to do
the event justice. It was completely overwhelming, a true celebration,
and we've only now recovered from the whole thing and regrouped.

As you know, iCommons Brazil made its debut at the 5th Annual Software
Livre[1] conference in Porto Alegre. An afternoon plenary, attended by
an audience of about 1000, was the stage for the announcement.

Claudio Prado, Coordinator of Digital Culture of the Ministry of
Culture of Brazil and one of the visionaries behind Brazil's many tech
initiatives, moderated the dozen-or-so panelists. The first to speak
was Joaquim Falcao, Dean of FGV Law School[2], iCommons Brazil[3]'s
lead institution. Prof. Falcao told a story about Amerigo Vespucci,
the explorer, and his famed correspondence from his travels in the
"New World." Vespucci's letters gained life, and a broad and prominent
readership (including Sir Thomas More and Machiavelli), only as his
readers and re-publishers began to build upon his letters. Some added
illustrations to Vespucci's original text. Others translated the
Italian into Latin. Someone gave the collection of letters a zippy new
title. In an early example of adaptation, Thomas More drew from
Vespucci in writing his _Utopia_. So central were the letters to the
early identity of the land that it later became his namesake. But not
before being feminized (that is, once again re-tooled): America. In
the modern age of maximalist copyright, said Joaquim, such collective
authorship would stand little chance.

Lawrence Lessig followed Falcao on the dais. (You may recall that
Lessig has allowed free derivatives of his new book _Free Culture_,
and that a downright Vespuccian flourishing of formats[4] has
resulted.) Lessig stirred the crowd with a theme ("free speech, free
markets, free software, free culture, free will"), marveled over the
conference's teeming enthusiasm for _software livre_, and said the
U.S. should learn to follow Brazil's example in the field.

Next came Ronaldo Lemos, iCommons Brazil[5]'s leader and director of
FGV Law School's Center for Technology and Society[6]. Ronaldo
introduced the excellent Portuguese versions of Get Creative[7] and
Reticulum Rex[8], and I giddily watched from the cheap seats,
high-fiving FGV staffer Jorge Rosa, who along with Ronaldo, Carlos
Affonso de Souza, and Bruno Magrani, translated the cartoons.

Ronaldo explained the natural match between Creative Commons and
Brazil, noting that CC's collaborative ethos echoes that of
Tropicalism[9], an artistic and political movement of the '60s and
'70s that celebrated Brazilian culture as a hodgepodge of high and
low, indigenous and import, old and new. Ronaldo then announced the
retirement of the name "Sampling license" and the birth of Recombo[10]
, a change I explained in an earlier post[11].

Berkman Center faculty director William Fisher[12] also spoke,
sketching out the many possible futures of music online and putting
the day's events in context. Linux International president Jon Maddog
Hall received the warmest audience welcome . . . until Minister
Gilberto Gil, delayed by a cabinet meeting in Brasilia, entered the
massive room from the back and made his way up the center aisle like a
prizefigher approaching the ring, waves of body guards, flashbulbs,
and admirers trailing him. Gil took the stage and shook Maddog's hand.
Maddog wrapped up his address -- about the birth of the piano as
open-source instrument, among other things -- and received a standing
ovation. (Read Maddog's account[13] of the conference.)

Minister Gil then spoke, waxing eloquent about technology and culture
and even performing a dramatic reading of John Perry Barlow's "Selling
Wine Without Bottles[14]." A handful of speakers followed Gil, among
them my friend and free software force Marcelo Branco and
anthropologist/music expert Hermano Vianna, and the session concluded
with Gil's ceremonial signing of the Recombo license as his song
"Oslodum" played over the PA.

Later Gil rocked the Santander Cultural Center in downtown Porto
Alegre with a powerful show: classic crowd pleasers (e.g. "Aquele
Abraco"), a cleverly re-arranged Marley cover or two, and plenty of
audience participation. VJ Pixel[15] poured psychedelic images across
the stage, including some mind-bending manipulations of the Creative
Commons animations and icons (Ryan Junell[16]'s original handiwork).
It was an amazing media moment when Gil's live image hovered on the
wall alongside his animated likeness, from Reticulum Rex[17], as the
crowd danced with abandon.

Finally, a Creative Commons camera crew was onhand to capture all the
action. We'll keep you posted on the short video we'll produce from
the event. In the meantime, we cannot thank the iCommons Brazil team,
the Software Livre conference participants, and Mr. Gil enough.

(Here's another account[18], if you read Portuguese.)

[1] http://softwarelivre.org
[2] http://www.fgv.br/
[3] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/br/
[4] http://free-culture.net/remixes/
[5] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/br/
[6] http://www.fgv.br/
[7] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/br/
[8] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/reticulum_rex/br/
[9] http://www.artbureau.com.br/BrazPopMusic.htm
[10] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling/1.0/
[11] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4234
[12] http://www.tfisher.org/
[13] http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6129
[14] http://www.eff.org/IP/idea_economy.article
[15] http://e-noise.com.br/
[16] http://www.junell.net
[17] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org
[18] http://ecodigital.blogspot.com/



-----------------

Harry Potter and Wizard People
2004-06-06
Matt Haughey

The NY Times has an interesting story of a new movie project called
Wizard People, Dear Reader[1]. It's a derivative work where the first
Harry Potter movie plays while artist Brad Neely creates his own
soundtrack to the film. It falls into a gray area of law and Warner
Brothers declined to comment on it.

If you can't make it out to one of the live shows, the Illegal Art
site has the soundtrack available for download[2], which you can set
up to watch at home if you have a copy of the Harry Potter DVD.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/movies/07POTT.html
[2] http://illegal-art.org/video/wizard.html



-----------------

Copyright and the death of Public Enemy's sound
2004-06-06
Matt Haughey

Stay Free Magazine has a great interview with Chuck D and Hank
Shocklee from Public Enemy[1]. In it, they discuss how lax copyright
laws of the late 1980s allowed them to produce thickly sampled songs
for their first two major label releases. "It Takes a Nation of
Millions to Hold Us Back" and "Fear of a Black Planet" were
revolutionary albums that changed the landscape of hip-hop, but due to
groups sampling larger portions of songs, record companies came back
against their own rap artists, demanding higher and higher license
fees for each and every sample.

As Chuck D and Hank Shocklee attest, this change in licensing and law
changed the sound of Public Enemy forever as license fees for samples
became prohibitively high. They describe their more recent releases as
sounding "soft" because they've resorted to recreating samples in the
studio using live instruments, to get around master sampling license
fees.

[1] http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/public_enemy.html



-----------------

Recombo Brazil
2004-06-04
Glenn Otis Brown

In about an hour the official launch celebration of Creative Commons
Brazil[1] will begin. Neeru and I are here at the 5th Annual Software
Livre[2] conference in Porto Alegre with the iCommons Brazil team from
Rio's FGV Law School, as well as William Fisher, faculty director of
Harvard Law School's Berkman Center[3]. Our chairman, Lawrence Lessig,
arrives shortly. The event will feature addresses by Lessig, Fisher,
Jon Maddog Hall, FGV dean Joaquim Arruda Falcao, and many more, plus
the debut of FGV's Portuguese translations of the Creative Commons
animations. (Watch them now[4]. They're totally amazing.) And for the
grand finale, Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil will officially release
a few of his songs under the License Formerly Known as Sampling,
which, from this moment forward, will be called Recombo[5], a name
inspired by the Brazilian art collective re:combo[6]. Minister Gil was
in Lisbon last week, playing with Paul McCartney and others, and just
earlier this week he inaugurated the Brazil v. Argentina _futebol_
match with song on national television. Needless to say we are humbled
and thrilled beyond belief to have him preside over this important
day. And as if that weren't enough, Mr. Gil is playing a live show
later tonight. Recombo-licensed songs will be featured.

Brazil offers two gifts to the world today: Recombo[7] creativity, and
the music of Gilberto Gil.

More soon. Stay tuned.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/br/
[2] http://softwarelivre.org
[3] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu
[4] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org
[5] http://creativecommons.org/license/results-one? lang=en&license_code=sampling&stylesheet=%2fincludes%2fccliss%2ecss&part ner_icon_url=%2fimages%2fremote_logo%2egif
[6] http://www.recombo.art.br/
[7] http://creativecommons.org/license/results-one? lang=en&license_code=sampling&stylesheet=%2fincludes%2fccliss%2ecss&part ner_icon_url=%2fimages%2fremote_logo%2egif



-----------------

Panorama Ephemera
2004-06-03
Matt Haughey

This week's featured content is Rick Prelinger[1]'s new film Panorama
Ephemera[2], produced entirely with short government clips from the
1940s-1970s. For those in the Bay Area, it will be shown at the San
Francisco Cinematheque on Sunday, June 13 at 7:30 pm. The clips range
from the everyday normal to the absolutely bizarre and together form
an amusing collage of how life used to be.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/rick
[2] http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php? collection=feature_films&collectionid=panorama_ephemera



-----------------

CC-Brazil!
2004-06-03
Mike Linksvayer

Legal ports to Brazilian law of Creative Commons 2.0 licenses are now
live[1].

Commoners Glenn Otis Brown[2] and Neeru Paharia[3] are at Software
Livre 2004[4] in Porto Alegre for the launch celebration. Chairman
Lawrence Lessig[5] will arrive later this week for the official
announcement[6], which will be led by Brazilian Minister of Culture
Gilberto Gil.

Thanks to iCommons[7] partner institution Fundação Getulio
Vargas' Law School[8] in Rio de Janeiro and project lead Ronaldo Lemos
da Silva Júnior for making CC-Brazil a reality.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/license/
[2] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#10
[3] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#16
[4] http://www.softwarelivre.org/forum2004
[5] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#0
[6] http://www.softwarelivre.org/news/2307
[7] http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/
[8] http://www.fgv.br/



-----------------

BBC opens up to CC
2004-06-02
Matt Haughey

The BBC recently announced[1] they'll be opening up their archive and
applying "Creative Commons-like" licenses to the works. A group of interested
folks[2] have started a list to talk about the release and produced a
petition to support the decision.

[1] http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/rupertgoodwins/0,39020691,39155936,00.htm
[2] http://www.public-domain.org/?q=node/view/36



-----------------

CC Featured at Ibiblio
2004-06-02
Mike Linksvayer

Creative Commons is one of this month's features on the Ibiblio home
page[1].

Ibiblio hosts Creative Commons' movies[2] and mailing lists[3], among
many other resources. "The public's library and digital archive" lives
up to its tagline. Browse[4] their virtual stacks.

[1] http://www.ibiblio.org
[2] http://mirrors.creativecommons.org
[3] http://creativecommons.org/discuss
[4] http://ibiblio.org/collection/



-----------------

Metadata Tune Up
2004-05-28
Mike Linksvayer

Upgrading to one of our version 2.0 licenses[1] or selecting one for
the first time? Consider providing optional metadata about your work
via the choose license[2] process.

[IMAGE: ''
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/blimg/metadata-tuneup.png][3]

Specifying a format will help people find[4] your work via
format-specific searches (e.g., a picture of the Eiffel Tower[5]).

If your work is derived from another, you might provide a URL for the
source work. There aren't yet any tools to take advantage of this
metadata, though one can easily imagine using it to navigate a trail
of works that build upon each other.

In the future we'll probably add metadata support for location,
tipjar, and other work, creator, and copyright holder information.
Suggestions welcome on the cc-metadata[6] mailing list.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4216
[2] http://creativecommons.org/license/
[3] http://creativecommons.org/license/
[4] http://search.creativecommons.org
[5] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4166
[6] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-metadata



-----------------

Remixing creativity
2004-05-27
Matt Haughey

CC staff favorite and Magnatune[1] artist, Brad Sucks[2] recently
started releasing the source to his most popular song[3], Making Me
Nervous, and asking folks to contribute remixes. Like the Jim's Big
Ego remix project[4] we're got going on here (which can get your remix
onto national radio[5]), Brad's now got six remixes (1[6], 2[7], 3[8],
4[9], 5[10], 6[11]) and someone making a video[12] for the original.

It's pretty cool when artists open up the process to their fans, and
let creativity flourish. Heck, even a commercial success like Jay-Z
can see there's money to be made in providing remixes[13] that provide
eventual benefit to both remixers and the original artists.

[1] http://magnatune.com/
[2] http://www.bradsucks.net/
[3] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000477.php
[4] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4162
[5] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4214
[6] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000494.php#000494
[7] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000493.php#000493
[8] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000492.php#000492
[9] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000489.php#000489
[10] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000484.php#000484
[11] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000484.php#000484
[12] http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/000491.php#000491
[13] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00022FWZ4/



-----------------

Finnish CC Licence
2004-05-27
Roland Honekamp

Finland is the third country after the US and Japan to go ahead with
their fully-fledged CC licences. After several months of legal
deliberation the Finnish project lead Herkko Hietanen felt able to
clear the licence draft and present it to the Finnish public last
Monday, thus marking a major milestone in the development of iCommons.
The Finns are widely seen as one of the technologically most advanced
countries in Europe.



-----------------

Music licensing and American Idol
2004-05-26
Matt Haughey

The New York Times published an article about how the music industry
influences song choice[1] on American Idol today. I've long suspected
that contestant song choice was limited to what the show could afford
to pay in licensing costs ahead of time, since the choices of songs to
cover seem limited. A producer of the show is quoted heavily stating
that many songs are off-limits due to audience preferences and style,
but does let slip that any songs by Michael Jackson, The Beatles, and
Shania Twain are completely off-limits to the show. That's
disappointing, since MJ and the Beatles are cultural icons, both
selling one of the top ten music albums of all time.

Historically, there's always been some legal leeway to allow for cover
songs, though as this musician found out[2], the process can be a
lengthy one to get the rights to everything you want to record.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/arts/television/23HEPO.html? ex=1085889600&en=6494abb579ef7e22&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
[2] http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/music_copyright_law.html



-----------------

Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2004-05-25
Glenn Otis Brown

Last night, after many months of gathering and processing great
feedback[1] from all of you[2], we turned on version 2.0 of the main
Creative Commons licenses. The 2.0 licenses are very similar to the
1.0 licenses -- in aim, in structure, and, by and large, in the text
itself. We've included, however, a few key improvements, thanks to
your input. A quick list of new features follows. All section numbers
refer to the Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.0[3] license.
(Corresponding section numbers may vary across licenses.)

***Attribution comes standard

Our web stats indicate that 97-98% of you choose Attribution, so we
decided to drop Attribution as a choice from our license menu[4] --
it's now standard. This reduces the number of licenses from eleven
possible to six and makes the license selection user interface that
much simpler. Important to remember: Attribution can always be
disavowed upon licensor request, and pseudonymous and anonymous
authorship are always options for a licensor, as before. If we see a
huge uprising against the attribution-as-stock-feature, we'll
certainly consider bringing it back as an option.

***Link-back attribution clarified

Version 1.0 licenses did not carry any requirements to add hyperlinks
as attribution. Under the 2.0 licenses, a licensor may require that
licensees, to fulfill their attribution requirement, provide a link
back to the licensor's work. Three conditions must be satisfied,
though, before a licensee faces the linkback requirement: (1) linking
back must be "reasonably practicable" -- you can't string me up for
failing to link to a dead page, for example; (2) the licensor must
specify a URL -- if you don't provide one specifically, I have no
linkback obligation; (3) the link licensor provides must point to the
copyright and licensing notice of the CC'd work -- in other words,
licensors who abuse the linkback as an engine for traffic to unrelated
sites don't enjoy linkback rights.

***Synch rights clarified

The new licenses clarify when licensees may or may not synchronize
musical CC'd works in timed-relation with a moving image. Basically,
if a license allows derivatives, it allows the synching of music to
video. If no derivs, no synching allowed. (See Section 1b[5].)

***Other music-specific rights clarified

The default rules for music-related copyrights can be particularly
complicated, and the 2.0 licenses go to greater length to clarify how
various CC license options affect music rights. In a nutshell: If you
pick the "noncommercial" provision, you retain the right to collect
royalties from BMI, ASCAP, or the equivalent for performance
royalties; from Harry Fox or the equivalent for mechanicals; and from
SoundExchange or the equivalent for webcasting compulsories. If you
allow commercial re-use, you waive the exclusive rights to collect
these various revenue streams. This is not a departure from the policy
embodied in the 1.0 licenses -- these same results would be
extrapolated by any reasonable interpretation. But 2.0 just makes it
all clearer, and using the language of the profession. (See Sections
4e and 4f[6].) Note: This music-specific language marks the first time
we've referred to any specific statutes in the generic CC licenses.
This means that future iCommons licenses will have to do the same
somewhat complicated mapping exercise for each respective
jurisdiction.

***Warranties? Up to licensors

Unlike the 1.0 licenses, the 2.0 licenses include language that makes
clear that licensors' disclaim warranties of title, merchantibility,
fitness, etc. As readers of this blog know by now, the decision to
drop warranties as a standard feature of the licenses was a source of
much organizational soul-searching and analytical thinking for us.
Ultimately we were swayed by a two key factors: (1) Our peers, most
notably, Karl Lenz[7], Dan Bricklin[8], and MIT[9]. (2) The
realization that licensors could sell warranties to risk-averse,
high-exposure licensees interested in the due diligence paper trial,
thereby creating nice CC business model. (See the Prelinger Archive
[10] for a great example of this free/fee, as-is/warranty approach.)
You can find extensive discussion of this issue[11] in previous posts
on this blog. (See Section 5[12].)

***Share Alike Across Borders

Version 2.0 licenses that feature the Share Alike requirement now
clarify that derivatives may be re-published under one of three types
of licenses: (1) the exact same license as the original work; (2) a
later version of the same license as the original work; (3) an
iCommons license that contains the same license elements as the
original work (e.g. BY-SA-NC, as defined in Section 1[13] of each
license). The version 1.0 licenses required that derivative be
published under the *exact same license* only. Our tweak means much
better compatibility across future jurisdiction-specific licenses and,
going forward, across versions. Less forking, more fun. (See Section
4b[14].)

***Otherwise, Share Alike Means Share Alike

After much very strong and eloquent argument from our readers and
supporters, and notwithstanding the increased flexibility of Share
Alike in the iCommons context, we decided *not* to make the BY-NC-SA
and plain BY-SA licenses compatible. If you take a work under BY-NC-SA
2.0 and make something new from it, for example, you can re-publish
under BY-NC-SA Japan, or BY-NC-SA 7.4 (when that comes), but you
cannot republish it under any other license or combine it with BY-SA
content. Similarly, a derivative made from a work under BY-SA 2.0 may
be published only under BY-SA 2.0, BY-SA (iCommons license), or BY-SA
9.1, but it can't be mixed with BY-NC-SA or other noncommercial
content and republished.

***Nifty new Some Rights Reserved button

Check out the button at the bottom of this page. Wouldn't that look
good on your site? Time for an upgrade, cosmetic as well as legal?_

[1] https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/cc-licenses/
[2] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3981
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode
[4] http://creativecommons.org/license/
[5] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode
[6] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode
[7] http://k.lenz.name/LB/
[8] http://www.bricklin.com/
[9] http://www.mit.edu/
[10] http://www.prelinger.com/prelarch.html
[11] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3681
[12] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode
[13] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode
[14] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode



-----------------

The Way the Music Died
2004-05-25
Matt Haughey

This Thursday's Frontline on PBS is covering the modern music industry
in an episode titled "The Way the Music Died[1]". It follows the
industry rise after Woodstock in 1969, through music genre changes,
and eventually how Napster and the Internet changed everything. It
sounds interesting for musicians and music fans alike.

[1] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/



-----------------

DMusic supports Creative Commons and embeds MP3 files
2004-05-25
Neeru Paharia

DMusic[1], the oldest independent digital online music community now
supports Creative Commons in their upload process. More importantly
though, DMusic is providing the first web-based application to embed
Creative Commons license information into ID3 tags of MP3 files[2].
Now, when you upload your MP3 file to DMusic and choose a Creative
Commons license, DMusic will put the license into the MP3 file for
you. When people download your file, or share it on a file-sharing
network, there will always be a way to detect the Creative Commons
license.

Our hope was that one day, file-sharing networks would start to
display our license information to their users, so people could easily
find legal music to download. Currently search engines like Alta Vista
[3], and applications like iRATE Radio[4], are able to display this
information.

If you want to see how this works, check out this search result from
Alta Vista's MP3 search engine[5]. Some of the top search results have
a field called "copyright," that contain and display Creative Commons
license information pulled right out of the MP3 file.

The more MP3 files out there with embedded licence information, the
easier it will be to build new applications around the distribution of
legal music.

DMusic's free service gives its members 75 MB of space to host music.
In addition, you can post pictures, events, mailing lists, and even
send messages to other people on the network. Check it out, and thanks
DMusic -- this is a big step for us.

[1] http://dmusic.com
[2] http://creativecommons.org/technology/embedding
[3] http://altavista.com
[4] http://irate.sourceforge.net/
[5] http://www.altavista.com/audio/results? q=%22remix+me%22&maf=mp3&maf=wav&maf=msmedia&maf=realmedia&maf=aiff&maf= other&mad=all&mas=all



-----------------

Jim's Big Ego sweetens the deal -- be on NPR
2004-05-25
Neeru Paharia

Jim[1] will pick three to five of his favorite remixes from our remix
contest[2] to be featured on National Public Radio's All Things
Considered[3] this June. The piece will be about this contest.

Jim says his deadline for entries will be June 10th. We'll still
feature our favorite song on our web site as of May 28th.

Post your entries to the remix contest blog post[4] or send us[5] an
email. Given that there aren't too many remixes up there, your chances
of being heard on the radio -- all over the country -- are pretty
good. Even if you're not a musician, load up Garageband[6] or Acid[7]
and take a crack at it! Maybe there's even some good open-source music
mixing software -- anyone know?

If you need hosting for your remix, the Internet Archive[8] provides
free hosting for Creative Commons licensed music.

[1] http://www.bigego.com/egog/article.php?story=20040504090919481
[2] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4162
[3] http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/
[4] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4162
[5] mailto:info AT creativecommons.org
[6] http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
[7] http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/acidfamily.asp
[8] http://www.archive.org/audio/collection.php?collection=opensource_audio



-----------------

Serendipity blogging application supports Creative Commons
2004-05-24
Neeru Paharia

Serendipity[1], an open-source blogging application, now has a plug-in
that allows users to select a Creative Commons license.

[1] http://www.s9y.org/



-----------------

Derivative works and effects on book sales
2004-05-24
Matt Haughey

Suw Charman has a great article on The Free Culture AudioBook Project
[1] that touches on all the reasons why an author would use a Creative
Commons license, and what can come out of such an exercise. The issues
around business models in publishing are also covered.

[1] http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/5/24/75489.html



-----------------

Rip-Mix-Burning DVD players
2004-05-21
Matt Haughey

Copyfight has an interesting post[1] on the discrepancy in congress
over ClearPlay DVD players[2]. The players automatically remove scenes
that would be offensive to sensitive viewers, but do so in the comfort
of one's own home while playing standard movies on DVD. Some
politicians oppose it because individuals are creating derivative
works and they also see it as opening the door to "recipe hacking",
which would be like producing the Grey Album[3] by purchasing two
legal records (the original Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's Black
Album) and combining them at home to produce a derivative work (if DJ
Dangermouse produced software that could create his mixes).

On top of all that, since the motivation behind ClearPlay technology
is largely religious, it turns the argument on its ear to many
participants and observers. It's not hard to find folks that loved the
Grey Album but see ClearPlay technology as something to be frowned
upon, but the underlying technology and law is largely the same. It's
an interesting case and hopefully does open the doors to all sorts of
creative uses of derivative works.

[1] http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/003773.html
[2] http://clearplay.com/
[3] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4008



-----------------

New fourstones album
2004-05-21
Matt Haughey

Previous winner of a Creative Commons remix contest, Victor Stone has
released a new record[1] on Magnatune. Like his earlier Magnatune
works, it is a remix album of other Magnatune artists. He's written a
great background post[2] on the album and why he chose the artists he
did.

[1] http://magnatune.com/artists/four_stones
[2] http://virtualturntable.org/archives/000165.php



-----------------

Defamer
2004-05-20
Glenn Otis Brown

I'm beginning to think that the excellently named Defamer[1] is a
daily must-read for media freaks and IP watchers. Today Defamer
describes a brewing credit dispute[2] over the Shrek 2 screenplay.

[1] http://www.defamer.com/
[2] http://www.defamer.com/topic/a-writing-credit-dispute-just-in-time-for- shrek-2-004203.php



-----------------

/run and Nothing Severed Yet
2004-05-19
Matt Haughey

This week's featured content are two new blogs, /run[1] and Nothing
Severed Yet[2].

/run[3] is one man's obsession with all sorts of geek gadgets related
to running. While you'd think running is just shoes and shorts,
there's a whole industry of other essential stuff like iPods,
pedometers, and high-tech watches that do everything from time your
run to mapping where you've been. Personally, I find running these
days to be much more comfortable than it used to thanks to advances in
shoe support, ultra-lightweight fabrics, and my iPod.

Nothing Severed Yet[4] is a joke title for a woodworking blog setup by
someone new to the hobby. Dan shares reviews, photos, and tips on all
the projects he has done. He even offers blueprints of his own
projects, specifically shared and licensed to allow others to build
similar projects. As a new homeowner and casual do-it-yourselfer I've
always wanted to do a blog like this to share my experiences building
and fixing stuff. The more I learn, the more I've found that the only
difference between a seasoned veteran and a new enthusiast is
experience, and having a blog to share experiences can go a long way
to teaching people new trades.

Both blogs embody the spirit of the licenses by sharing information
with others and encouraging others to comment and learn from their
work.

[1] http://www.flashenabled.com/run/
[2] http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/
[3] http://www.flashenabled.com/run/
[4] http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/



-----------------

Creative Commons Moving Image Contest: Staff Picks
2004-05-19
Neeru Paharia

Our panel of judges[1] announced the winners[2] of our Moving Image
Contest[3] a few months ago, but the CC team never got a chance to
announce our favorite entries. Though these entries didn't win the
contest, they are excellent contributions:

Content Collage[4] by Mike Telford, is a fun, interactive piece. Click
on the boxes and a brief movie clips appear, along with sound.

Shape Shifters[5] by Peter Lewis, has a great animation at the end
featuring many of the Creative Commons logos.

And my favorite, A Real Marketplace[6] by Chris Hamilton, it a
beautiful flash animation detailing an adventure with Creative
Commons, and copyright.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/contest/judges
[2] http://creativecommons.org/getcontent/features/movingimagecontest
[3] http://creativecommons.org/contest/
[4] http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/FlashEntries/3_Content_Collage/index.html
[5] http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/FlashEntries/4_Shape_Shifter/ 4_Shape_Shifter.mpg
[6] http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/FlashEntries/11_A_Real_Marketplace/ 11_A_Real_Marketplace.swf



-----------------

The Hollywood Ouroboros
2004-05-18
Glenn Otis Brown

Today the wonderfully nasty Hollywood gossip blog Defamer[1] points to
the media blog Low Culture[2], which noted[3] that a recent
Entertainment Weekly story[4] looks awfully familiar to one of Low
Culture's own pieces[5], which itself noted that several elements of
the new Olson Twins "film" New York Minute[6] look awfully familiar to
scenes from the movies Ferris Bueller, Moonstruck[8], The First Wives
Club[9], and There's Something About Mary[10].

Is piracy v. hot or what?

(And, yes, I stole the idea for this entry's title from Charlie
Kaufman's and Spike Jonze's self-reflexive flick, Adaptation[11],
which itself lifted an Ouroborus[12] reference from the Folklore and
Mythology Corporation, also known as -- gasp! -- the public domain.)

[1] http://www.defamer.com/topic/is-entertainment-weekly-lifting-from-low- culture-004142.php
[2] http://www.lowculture.com/archives/001976.html
[3] http://www.lowculture.com/archives/001976.html
[4] http://cgi.timeinc.net/cgi-bin/ew/cg/clogin? zone=EW&realm=&cookie=&stat=CHA&url=http%3a//www.ew.com/ew/article/ commentary/0,6115,634090_1_0_,00.html
[5] http://www.lowculture.com/archives/001976.html
[6] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363282/
[7] http://imdb.com/title/tt0091042/
[8] http://imdb.com/title/tt0093565/
[9] http://imdb.com/title/tt0116313/
[10] http://imdb.com/title/tt0129387/
[11] http://imdb.com/title/tt0268126/
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros



-----------------

Finding Creative Commons in all the weirdest places
2004-05-18
Matt Haughey

Cellphone ringtones were a $3 billion business last year, but a new
bit of software from Xingtone[1] finally makes it possible to easily
create your own sounds. I always thought much of the Opsound archive
[2] would make good ringtones. It'll be interesting to see if more CC
music makes its way onto phones everywhere.

In other CC-in-other-media news, some people working on MythTV (a sort
of open source TiVo that can run on any linux PC) are trying to find
ways to import movies from the Internet Archive and under CC license
to their TV systems[3].

[1] http://xingtone.com/
[2] http://opsound.org/opsound/pool.html
[3] http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-dev/2004-May/022053.html



-----------------

Pixagogo supports Creative Commons
2004-05-17
Neeru Paharia

Pixagogo[1], an online photo site, now offers Creative Commons
licenses to its contributing photographers. Pixagogo allows you to
upload and share photos via its web site. They also let you purchase
prints. Check out their toolbar, that includes an option to choose
Creative Commons:

[IMAGE: 'PixagogoPhoto' http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/pixagogo.jpg]

[1] http://www.pixagogo.com



-----------------

Remix Contest: Jim's Big Ego
2004-05-17
Neeru Paharia

Check out some of the entries in the comments. You've still got till
May 28th to make your remix! Post your entry to the comments on the
blog, or send email to us[1]. Here is the original call for entries:

Take a crack at remixing, or making a video for Jim's Big Ego's[2]
song Mix Tape[3]. You've got three weeks and we'll feature the best
entries on the front page of our site for a week. Entries will be
taken till May 28th, 2004. The song is under an
Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike[4] license and you can download
the source tracks from here[5].

[1] mailto:info AT creativecommons.org
[2] http://www.bigego.com/jbe04/
[3] ftp://ftp.bigego.com/02MixTape.mp3
[4] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/
[5] http://www.ibiblio.org/cccr/JBEmixtapeTRACKS/



-----------------

Free Culture at ILAW
2004-05-14
Matt Haughey

Chairman and co-founder of Creative Commons, Larry Lessig[1], spent
most of this week speaking at the ILAW conference[2] at Harvard. There
are some great notes and transcripts on Furdlog[3] and Copyfight[4] of
Lessig's "Free Culture" talk. There are a lot of great questions from
the moderator and audience, and a lot of great ideas being debated.

[1] http://www.lessig.org/
[2] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw
[3] http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/index.php?p=1885
[4] http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/003674.html



-----------------

Chart topping Donald Rumsfeld and his poetry
2004-05-12
Matt Haughey

Proving that culture can be remixed in almost real-time, a group from
San Francisco[1] has created an album of piano and opera versions of
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's statements to the press[2].
They offer sound samples and the lyrics[3] pulled from press briefings
on their site, and are currently on tour[4]. Rumsfeld himself has
heard the songs and jokingly decried the state of music[5], now that
he is the subject of songs. [via[6]]

[1] http://www.stuffedpenguin.com/
[2] http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=487&ncid=762&e=3&u=/ap/ 20040512/ap_en_ot/music_classical_rumsfeld
[3] http://stuffedpenguin.com/rumsfeld/lyrics.htm
[4] http://stuffedpenguin.com/tourdates.html
[5] http://stuffedpenguin.com/news.html#newsflash
[6] http://www.waxy.org/links/



-----------------

Fray wins a Webby
2004-05-12
Matt Haughey

A hearty congratulations goes out to The Fray[1] for winning a webby
[2] this year. The Fray is an online storytelling site where
contributors share tales and allow for comment by readers afterwards.
There are also live events held several times a year where folks
gather to tell stories on stage, all the audio[3] of which is
available under a Creative Commons license.

[1] http://www.fray.com/
[2] http://fray.com/storyblog/2004/05/12/000544.shtml
[3] http://www.fray.com/events/audio/



-----------------

Open Source and Free Software, Concepts, Controversies, and Solutions
2004-05-12
Neeru Paharia

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak at the Open Source and Free
Software conference[1], held by the Knowledge Media Design Institute
[2] at the University of Toronto.

The conference was designed to explore the legal, moral, political,
social, commercial, and technical perspectives of open source and free
software, to build a broader understanding of the movement.

I spoke on a panel entitled Education and Public Knowledge: Open
Access, Open Content[3]. The aim of the panel was to understand how
the lessons from open source and free software could help develop a
thriving open-content ecosystem, within the context of education.

The entire conference will be online soon -- check it out!

[1] http://osconf.kmdi.utoronto.ca/default.htm
[2] http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/
[3] http://osconf.kmdi.utoronto.ca/panel_education.html



-----------------

AC CC NYC W3C
2004-05-11
Mike Linksvayer

Ben Adida[1] will represent Creative Commons at the World Wide Web
Consortium[2] Advisory Committee meeting next week, held concurrently
with WWW2004[3] in New York City.

This year has seen a number of new proposals on W3C lists for
RDF-in-XHTML. Ben has been encouraging[4] the development of a
solution that will meet Creative Commons' requirements. We hope to
hear of progress on this front and other Semantic Web[5] issues of
interest. Of course these things take time...

Pity Adida doesn't start with the letter C.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/learn/aboutus/people#13
[2] http://w3.org
[3] http://www2004.org/
[4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-rdf-in-xhtml-tf/2004Mar/ 0018.html
[5] http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/



-----------------

MTV's new mashup bootleg TV show "MTV Mash"
2004-05-11
Matt Haughey

MTV Europe is currently doing a mash-up show called MTV Mash[1].
Mash-up culture has been mainstream in Europe for the past few years,
and I hope the show is limited to Europe only because of that, and not
because it would be difficult to obtain rights to mash in the States.
Links to the songs made on the show can be found at BoingBoing[2],
where we first heard about this.

[1] http://www.mtvmash.com/
[2] http://www.boingboing.net/2004/05/10/mtvs_new_mashup_boot.html



-----------------

Bluejake and Satan's Laundromat
2004-05-07
Matt Haughey

If you're looking for slice-of-life New York City photographs of the
compelling and off-beat, the images at Bluejake[1] and Satan's
Laundromat[2] have got you covered. They're both licensed under
Creative Commons and allow for derivative works, making for some great
collage fodder.

[1] http://www.bluejake.com/
[2] http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/



-----------------

SURJ
2004-05-06
Glenn Otis Brown

The Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal[1], a very impressive
student-run academic publication here, has published its third volume
under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike license.
I got to speak at SURJ's annual awards event this week on Stanford's
campus, and the group's enthusiasm for open-access research was
inspiring.

[1] http://surj.stanford.edu



-----------------

Creative Commons licensed journal online
2004-05-06
Matt Haughey

The Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University has started
applying Creative Commons licenses to its journals[1]. Classics@ is
available online at their site[2]. It's great to see further uptake in
the educational world, as the ideals of academic publishing are pretty
close to the goals of Creative Commons.

[1] http://www.xmlmania.com/news_article_1121-Delivering-Classics- Resources-with-TEI-XML-Open-Source-and-Creative-Commons-Licenses.php
[2] http://www.chs.harvard.edu/classicsat/index.html


-----------------

DRUMS, a new P2P idea
2004-05-06
Matt Haughey

Scott Matthews, of turnstyle[1] web mp3 player fame, has launched a
new project called DRUMS[2]. It's slighty inspired by Creative Commons
and the goal is to create a P2P network that is fair to both copyright
owners and folks seeking content. If you have something to add to his
proposal, pop on over and drop Scott a line.

[1] http://www.turnstyle.com/
[2] http://www.turnstyle.com/DRUMS/

-----------------

(3) Press Hits, May and June 2004


International Herald Tribune
2004-06-14
Matt Haughey

"New copyright grants artists greater license[1]" by Jennifer L.
Schenker

[1] http://www.iht.com/articles/524710.html



-----------------

Wired News
2004-06-07
Matt Haughey

"GarageBand.com Leaves Door Open[1]" by Katie Dean

[1] http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63720,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5



-----------------

Macworld UK
2004-06-07
Matt Haughey

"Ebook Seller Offers AAC[1]" By Macworld staff

[1] http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8842&Page=1&pagePos=4



-----------------

Wired Magazine
2004-06-01
Matt Haughey

"The Free & The Unfree[1]" by Wired staff

[1] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.06/free.html?tw=wn_tophead_9



-----------------

Boston Globe
2004-05-29
Matt Haughey

"Go ahead. Share.[1]" by Joan Anderman

[1] http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/05/29/ go_ahead_share/



-----------------

NewsForge
2004-05-12
Matt Haughey

"Creative Commons highlights final day of OS conference[1]" by David
'cdlu' Graham

[1] http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/04/05/12/0456207.shtml? tid=2&tid=82&tid=94



-----------------

PC World
2004-05-07
Matt Haughey

"Music for Nothing; Tracks for Free[1]" by Eric Dahl

[1] http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115918,00.asp



-----------------






Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director
Creative Commons
glenn AT creativecommons.org
+1.650.723.7572 (telephone)
+1.415.336.1433 (mobile)
------------------------------------
(cc) Some rights reserved.
------------------------------------



Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director
Creative Commons
glenn AT creativecommons.org
+1.650.723.7572 (telephone)
+1.415.336.1433 (mobile)
------------------------------------
(cc) Some rights reserved.
------------------------------------


Glenn Otis Brown
Executive Director
Creative Commons
glenn AT creativecommons.org
+1.650.723.7572 (telephone)
+1.415.336.1433 (mobile)
------------------------------------
(cc) Some rights reserved.
------------------------------------



  • [cc-info] Creative Commons News, July 11, 2004, Glenn Otis Brown, 07/11/2004

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