Salsa Scoop> tag: ”blog:creative commons“

Lessig More

Stanford professor -- and open culture intellectual -- Lawrence Lessig has made his The Future of Ideas available free online. Essential reading for changing technology's tectonic collision with intellectual property law. And speaking of free stuff and open-source software, the sui generis Michelle Murrain unpacks the hidden costs of "free" software at TechSoup.

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Free the Debates

A number of DIA users and friends are among scores of signatories to open letters sent to both the DNC and RNC demanding that debate footage be openly licensed to facilitate remixing, mashups, parody, commentary, and every other manner of citizen intervention free from any possible fear that some intellectual property law could be used to shut down discussion. The letters suggest one of two solutions: place all debate footage in the public domain; or, place it under a Creative Commons license. Here's a pdf version of the letters. That's such a damnably obvious thing to get behind that kos and Michelle Malkin are taking the same tack. And while the danger of an actual lawsuit may be scant -- "suing the anonymous person who made a YouTube skewering you during the New Hampshire primary" is a good working definition of "political suicide" -- one has to appreciate the opportunism of using the situation as a teachable moment on intellectual property for politicos. The parties should do this, of course. But so much the better if it normalizes in some small way the idea that statues surrounding content control and distribution are not fixed on Sinai but open to discussion.

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