license

Comment on the Open Source Decade

It’s been ten years since the term open source was launched and one of the architects behind it, Bruce Perens, discussed this in an interview

“No. If Bruce Perens could change anything from that day in February 1998 when he announced the Open Source Definition and the Open Source Initiative he’d alter the very way open source licenses are ratified, to halt what he regards as the chief threat to the next ten years of open source: license proliferation.

Perens said the growth in licenses, especially the emergence of “badgeware”, or attribution licenses used by numerous open source companies, such as last year’s Common Public Attribution License (CPAL), is dangerous. Today, we have 68 licenses ranging from the well-known GNU General Public License (GPL) to the, well… the OCLC Research Public License 2.0 recognized by the OSI.”

For more on this check out the State of Open Source Message on Bruce Perens’ own website

Posted on by mklang

Back to the boob tube

Since moving into my new apartment in April last year I have been without a television. It has been an interesting experience. I cannot say that I have grown intellectually and developed new pursuits. What I can say is that it’s a pain to watch films on a laptop all the time.

Yesterday I finally left the non-tv owning quasi luddite group and became mainstream. I bought a tv!

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the shiny boob tube

Today I began paying my tv license and supporting public service again…

Posted on by mklang

The future of street art

A Banksy murial on Portobello road was sold on ebay for £208,100 (approx. $400,000) the price did not include removal costs. The wall belonged to Luti Fagbenle who felt that he could not “really justify owning a piece of art worth as much as it is.”

The Banksy mural on Portobello road

(Photo by Cactusbones) (CC by-nc-sa)

Street art has been growing for a long time and Banksy must be seen as one of the most widely known artists in the genre. But he is not alone. As Art Threat reports the world’s first Urban Art auction at Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers will be held on February 5th.

What does this mean for the future of Street Art? Art Threat has written an interesting comment on street arts ephemeral nature as an important feature and Banksy has added a comment on the his webpage:

“Aren’t street art auctions a bit lame?
I don’t agree with auction houses selling street art – its undemocratic, it glorifies greed and I never see any of the money.”

So the artists don’t get paid and the artwork is ripped, literally sometimes, out of their context – how will this effect the art? Previously the most exploitative use of graffiti has been street art photo books. These products raise exciting questions about copyright and graffiti (blogged about this issue earlier here and here) but selling the works raises other exciting questions.

The person buying the work will most probably remove it to display it elsewhere. This de-contextualizes of the art but it also adds a disincentive to the artist. Now it is not enough to know that your work will be painted over but it may also be removed and sold to enrich someone else. Your work may become a commodity to be regularly bought and sold without the artists control or permission. Should the artists be concerned?

(Story on BBC & Observer)

Posted on by mklang

Yesterday in Brussels

What a long day. Woke up at 4.30 and flew to Brussels to participate in the European Union Public License (EUPL) workshop. The license is an attempt by the EU to create a copyleft license available in all EU languages. Not only is the license to be translated into all EU languages but it is even to have legal effect in all jurisdictions.

The first draft of the EUPL was created in 2005 and was accepted in three official languages (French, German & English) in 2007. During 2007 the license has been translated into all the languages of the member states of the EU and the translation and adaptation process was carried out.

My role was to work as one of the Swedish experts and the work was to both fact check the language and terminology and to adapt to Swedish law. These 19 translations were approved by the European Commission on 9 January 2008.
A secondary, but more interesting role, was to wake questions and to discuss during the workshop. The presentations and discussions were interesting and occasionally lively.

This liveliness was in relation to copyright/licensing lawyers so it was hardly a rowdy gathering.

The meeting was held in the EU district but after the meeting I managed to do a bit of flash sightseeing in the center. The city is real nice even if I didn’t find the little peeing statue.

Posted on by mklang

I wouldn't steal

The European Green Parties have begun a counter-attack on media propaganda. Most media companies claim that if you download a film you are just as likely to steal a handbag, break into a car or shoplift. These are ridiculous claims but somebody needed to say this out loud.

So enter the Greens! With their short film and their website they are making the fundamental and important point that making a copy is fundamentally different from stealing.

The media industry has failed to offer viable legal alternatives and they will fail to convince consumers that sharing equals stealing. Unfortunately, they have succeeded in another area – lobbying to adapt laws to criminalize sharing, turning consumers into criminals. They argue that their laws are necessary to [support artists], but in reality all they’re protecting is their own profits.

The Greens in Europe and worldwide has been opposing these laws. We believe that consumers are willing to pay if offered good quality at a fair price. We also believe that sharing is expanding culture – not killing it.

To protest against the faulty propaganda from the industry, we made our own film. The difference is – you can choose whether you want to watch this one.

Check out the I wouldn’t steal website and watch the film on YouTube or download it as a torrent. Oh and the movie is licensed under Creative Commons (by-nc) so you can even make your own remix version – try doing that legally with the industry propaganda.

Posted on by mklang

Small Arm of Sea

Right now I am listening to Small Arm of Sea which is Tone’s cool debut album. This Danish artist has really got things right and not only musically. She has released her album under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd) license. So it’s free to download and enjoy from her website.

If you prefer to read about your music first then here is a short description from the blurb off her web:

With her abstract break beats, delicate voice and mesmerizing lyrics, female singer, performer and producer Tone is known for her powerful experimental electronica sounds ranging from energetic uplifting moods to bleak shades of melancholy. Musically, she creates a remarkable, audiovisual realm, in which her light and spellbinding voice adds to a bedrock of crunchy break beats, abstract compositional structures and catchy melodies.

 

Posted on by mklang

Famous Graves

Graves are fascinating for many reasons. For me they are attempts to reach a form of immortality. My own fascination with graves began with trips to the amazing Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris and Highgate in London several years ago.

Last week while looking for a picture on Flickr I started a group for photographs of famous graves and the collection is growing fast. The graves go from formal to humorous, from plain to ornate.

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Photo Jack Lemmon by Ron’s Log (CC BY-ND)

Check out Famous Graves on Flickr and let me know if you miss someone…

Posted on by mklang

Shipwrecked!

Yesterday I managed to be extremely careless. I was working with one of my websites via an ftp program and was not being observant enough. I thought that I was somewhere else when I began happily deleting files and folders in preparation for a major reworking. I did think it was strange that there were so many files and folders but this thought did not ring any serious alarm bells.

Later I discovered that I had deleted all the files for the digital-rights site. Soon after I found out that my web host does not do backup recovery. I was devastated.

Fortunately most of the content is in the database I had not touched that. So after spending some time re-installing wordpress and adapting it to my needs I managed to bring back my blog. Unfortunately the images were not stored in the database this means that all the images all the images are gone now gone.

But at least the blog is back. And I have learned some valuable lessons: beware of multi-tasking, look twice before deleting and maintain better backups (even of non-essential material).

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photo Shipwreck wide 2 by Subindie (CC ATT-NC-SA)

Posted on by mklang