Copyright

Dutch Innovation

The Dutch collecting societies support CC – this is a great leap forward, I cannot help but wonder what the Swedish societies will do now? Probably try to continue to ignore technology, innovation, the commons, and reality…

From Paul Keller – CC Netherlands Project Lead:

On August 23, 2007, Dutch collecting societies Buma and Stemra and Creative Commons Netherlands launched a pilot project that seeks to provide Dutch musicians with more opportunities to promote their own repertoire. This project enables members of Buma/Stemra to use the 3 non-commercial CC licenses for non-commercial distribution of their works. It also allows Dutch composers and lyricists who already use the CC NonCommercial license to join Buma/Stemra and have them collect their royalties for commercial use of their works.

Before now Dutch authors have not been able to make their work available online under the CC NC license while at the same time having Buma/Stemra collect their royalties for commercial use of those works. The Netherlands is the first country to bring such a collaboration between a music copyright organization and Creative Commons, a move applauded by Lawrence Lessig, the founder and chairman of Creative Commons International, as “the first step towards more freedom of choice in the field of exploiting music works in the digital world.”

The press release by Creative Commons Netherlands and Buma Stemra can be found here. And for more information about what’s going on in the Netherlands check out CC Netherlands website.

Posted on by mklang

Publishers lobby against Open Access

The AAP/PSP has launched PRISM (Partnership for Research Integrity in Science & Medicine – read the press release) which seems to be nothing more than a lobby organization against Open Access. Among the more strange arguments (actually commonly used by opponents to OA) is that OA will ruin the peer-review system. The press release states:

Critics argue that peer reviewed articles resulting from government funded research should be available at no cost. However, the expenses of peer review, promotion, distribution and archiving of articles are paid for by private sector publishers, and not with tax dollars.

The idea of peer-review is that the articles should be reviewed by other researchers in the same field since they are the most competent and familiar. Like most other academics the task of peer-review is a challenge, an opportunity, a drain on precious time and a learning opportunity. Therefore, it is a task done, for the most part, with great seriousness (but maybe not enthusiasm) – and most importantly it is done for FREE. In other words the academic carries out this work while being paid from someone other than the publisher. Open Access will not harm the peer-review system since the system does not rely on the publishers.

For a much better and deeper rebuttal of the arguments in the press release read Peter Suber’s response to their arguments.

Update/Additional info:
According to Boing Boing at its launch the Prism website included copyrighted images used without the owners permission.

Posted on by mklang

Graffiti & Copyright

A recent advert posted all around Göteborg features artwork by Banksy. I have written about Banksy earlier in this blog (here, here, here and here). I cannot pass signs like this without thinking about the copyright questions this raises.

banksy_advert.JPG

The first point that needs to be made is the fact that despite the fact that Graffiti may be illegal the artist has copyright in his work. This means that even though the artist may be arrested his (or her, naturally) work may not be copied and reproduced without the permission of the artist.

Now Banksy is not the artist most concerned about copyright – in his book “Wall and Piece” there is a quote in the beginning “Copyright is for losers”. But what I would like to know is whether or not the the people who printed the poster even bothered to think about the question of copyright.

My guess is that the group probably feels some kind of affinity with countercultures and therefore assumes that they either do not need permission, or if they did need permission they would surely get it. The creators of the poster may actually have asked for and received permission but somehow I doubt it since Banksy tends to be rather withdrawn.

A clue in this direction can be found on his website, where a small popup appears with the text:

“Banksy has not organised or been involved in any of the recent exhibitions of his work”

Posted on by mklang

Too late for a good idea

Is it ever too late for a good idea. Sometimes the world just moves along and makes what would have been a good idea obsolete. One of the local free newspapers (Metro) reports that the government wants to take a softer approach on illegal file sharing. Despite the uncertainty of the source – I rarely trust tabloids and free newspapers even less – it is an interesting idea.

The idea now is not to send in the police at once but rather have the copyright holder send the infringer a letter. The reporter makes this all sound like a matter of sending a polite reminder much in the tone of “Uhm, excuse me… but you seem to be infringing my copyright”. If the infringer then does not react a civil suit will follow.

This idea is long overdue. Digital copyright infringement should be a civil procedure rather than a criminal one.

Unfortunately the idea may be so long overdue as to be useless. The world has changed and I am not sure that there is any longer a window of opportunity for this idea. In part this is because the habits and expectations of internet users have changed and in part because the interpretation of our international obligations may require us to use criminal rather than civil procedure.

Posted on by mklang

Using Fairly

Here is a conference tip for those of you who may be in Uppsala on the 21 September. It’s a free one-day conference on creativity and copyright called Using Fairly. Among the speakers (and organizers) is Eva Hemmungs Wirtén, the author of the excellent book No Trespassing.

This is definitely an event worth attending…

Posted on by mklang

Return of the lost blogger

For the first time in I don’t know how long I have been away. Not only have I been away from my office and telephone but I have also been offline and out of touch. In addition to this I have also been mentally off work – it has been a very relaxing experience. My only connection to work has been my seaside literature which has been (as always) work related, focusing mainly on copyright, open access and the public domain. It has all been very relaxing and I am now ready to come back with a better tan and full of energy.

 

I spent some of my downtime over here…

Posted on by mklang

Open Library

Boing Boing reports about a cool Open Library project:

The Internet Archive has launched a demo of the Open Library, a project that seeks to gather all the information about all the world’s books and make it publicly available as a giant books wiki.

While many books are making their way online for free access, most still are restricted or cost money to touch. The Open Library combines links to open resources with information on in-copyright works and enables you and me to review, annotate, correct and convene.

I think this project (which right now seems to point to almost half a million books) is very cool — it’s going to be a major addition to the world’s open cultural infrastructure. I have a hunch that it’s going to be the primary way many if not most people access books, and I see it becoming an always-open window on the desk of every librarian.

Aaron Swartz led this project, which was conceived by Brewster Kahle — please send them support, critiques and book databases!

Lets hope the project grows!

Posted on by mklang

Moving South

Over the last several years I have been based at the University of Göteborg working as a lecturer and carrying out my research. Last year my research resulted in the defense of my thesis. During my time at Göteborg I have managed to be a researcher in Italy, a visiting fellow in England, I joined the Free Software Foundation and became project lead for Creative Commons Sweden.

In recent years I have come to focus greatly on copyright and open access questions so it was with great interest that I applied for a role in an open access project based at the University of Lund. Yesterday I was offered (and accepted the position).

The main thrust of my work will be:

  • The analysis of copyright interpretation and practice at Swedish universities.
  • The study of the relationship between copyright law and license agreements.
  • An analysis of the relation between authors/researchers, university departments and publishers.
  • Developing proposals and recommendations to deal with the complex of copyright problems that exist in scientific communication.

This all means that after the summer most of my work will be based at the University of Lund. Lund is one of the oldest universities in Sweden (established 1666) and it is one of the driving forces in the open access arena. But, fortunately for me I will also be able to keep a small position at the University of Göteborg.

Photo Al Monner (1935) Historic photoarchive

Posted on by mklang

On the fringes of copyright

The New York Times has an article about a chef who has tried to sue a competitor for infringement of intellectual property.

The suit…charges that Edâ??s Lobster Bar copies â??each and every elementâ?? of Pearl Oyster Bar, including the white marble bar, the gray paint on the wainscoting, the chairs and bar stools with their wheat-straw backs, the packets of oyster crackers placed at each table setting and the dressing on the Caesar salad.

There has been a growth in restaurants and chefs attempting to use of intellectual property arguments (copyright trademarks, patents and trade dress) to protect their businesses. As far as I have seen they have had little success.

Copying someone else’s bar or restaurant idea or menu may be a bit tacky and sad but this cannot be used to create intellectual property rights in these areas. If we were to begin protecting restaurants in this way then why not all parts of the service industry? Why stop there when we could begin using intellectual property to prevent our peers from dressing or behaving in the same way as we do?

Restaurants, food manufacturers, wine makers etc etc regularly explore, reverse engineer and learn from their competitors. There is no intellectual property limiting their ability to conduct these activities. Despite this lack of property protection there seems to be no limit to the amounts of human ingenuity and creativeness in relation to food and drink.

Maybe intellectual property should consider limiting the scope of protection and return to free market systems as opposed to creating false monopolies.

Posted on by mklang

Millenium Mouse & Copyright

The attempts Disney goes to maintain copyright over their intellectual property are legendary. Copyright term extention acts have ensured that Mickey Mouse is saved from the public domain and continues to generate income for Disney.

But what would happen if Mickey was shown to be older than we thought? An artefact at Lund Historical Museum dated to 900 A.D. was excavated at a site called Uppåkra in southern Sweden.

Surprise, surprise its Mickey!! This means that Mickey is over 1000 years old – let Mickey enter the public domain – he deserves it…

Don’t be surprised if Disney uses this as an excuse to extend copyright terms to 1000 years!

Although made of bronze, the brooch ornament likely adorned the clothing of an Iron Age woman. Excavations at nearby sites, such as at Järrestad, have yielded other unusual pieces of jewelry, such as a necklace with a pail fob at the end and another necklace strung with 262 pieces of amber. (Discovery Channel)

(via Boing Boing)

Posted on by mklang