Society

Seminar: In the Line of Copyright Fire

Uppsala (Sweden) Thursday, September 15th

18.00-20.00 Geijersalen, Engelska Parken: In the Line of Copyright Fire: Culture, Knowledge, and the Information Age

Exacerbated by technological innovation and digitization, the means by which the ownership of informational resources is to be managed in a time of global flows and networks is a question of critical importance to the Information Age. Today, few resources are as valuable as information and knowledge. What are the possible ramifications for civil society, higher education, and cultural institutions in this scenario, where both increased access and increased control struggle for domination? Archives, Libraries, and Museums are organizations that together with their users face a number of challenges in respect to copyright. In what sense do private and public interests collide when it comes to the dissemination of information, knowledge, and culture today? How can we make images and text available in a way that will be conducive rather than detrimental to future research? Is copyright obsolete or still viable?

These and other questions relating to the nexus between culture, knowledge, and property, will be explored in this panel discussion hosted by the Department of Archival Science, Library- and Information Science and Museology (ALM). Confirmed panelists include: Eva Hemmungs Wirtén, Associate Professor, Swedish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2002-2006, the Department of ALM, Uppsala University; Mathias Klang, Project Lead for the Swedish Creative Commons license and Graduate Student at the Department of Informatics, Göteborg University; Matthew Rimmer, Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Australian National University and member of the Copyright and Intellectual Property Advisory Group of the Australian Library and Information Association; Jette Sandahl, Director, Museum of World Culture, Göteborg.

All welcome!

For further information, please contact Eva Hemmungs Wirtén, ehw@abm.uu.se

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FELLOWSHIPS ON OPEN INFORMATION POLICY

Fellowships on Open Information Policy by the Open Society Institute www.soros.org

Deadline for applications: September 20, 2005

Eligible are candidates from Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Mongolia, as well as Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

The International Policy Fellowship Program (IPF) of the Open Society Institute has issued its annual call for fellowship proposals. Open Information Policy is one of the program’s focal areas this year. Here are details concerning this area, taken from the IPF website at www.soros.org/initiatives/ipf.

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Less integrity in Sweden – again!

The Minister of Justice in Sweden wants to allow the police to bug telephones even when no concrete suspicion of crime exists. A proposal to amend the law to allow this will be presented in autumn.

The minister says that this is part of a policy to combat terrorism â?? but he also states that politics is not being formulated by terrorist attacks.

As usual the concern for personal integrity is not high on the political agenda.

Maybe someone should tell him that the whole point of combatting terrorism is to preserve an open society. If we loose this the terrorists are not only dictating policy & politics but actually winning. If European countries such as the UK & Spain remember this in spite of terror attacks then why cannot Sweden (which has not been attacked) be more interested in integrity?

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Giddens Human History

â??The flow of action continually produces consequences which are unintended by actors, and these unintended consequences also may form unacknowledged conditions of actions in a feedback fashion. Human history is created by intentional activities but is not an intended project; it persistently eludes efforts to bring it under conscious direction.â??

Constitution of Society

Anthony Giddens – The Constitution of Society (1984) page 27.

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Swedish Radio, Public Service & Internet Technology

Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio – www.sr.se) is the public service radio broadcaster in Sweden. The company is owned by a foundation and is entirely funded by licence fees. Advertising is not permitted. Swedish Radio is proud of its public service tradition. One of the goals of Swedish Radio is that the programs shall be of interest for a wide audience across the country and made available to listeners in the whole country.

(Programmen skall rikta sig till och vara tillgängliga för publiken i hela landet samt i skälig omfattning tillgodose skiftande behov och intressen hos landets befolkning.)

The purpose of Public Service Radio, as defined by SR themselves is that everyone, independent of sex, age, geographical residence or cultural background should be able to find something of value among SRâ??s programming.

To further fulfil these goals SR has adopted digital technology and the Internet as a mode of infrastructure. It is possible to listen to the radio online and to find and download recent programs, as well as programs from the archives.

Unfortunately SR fallen (inadvertently?) into the trap of using proprietary software. To be able to listen to SRâ??s audio files the user must have Realplayer version 7 (or later) installed on her computer. The user has a choice between using either the free version or buying the program.

However using Realplayer presents the user with something of a dilemma. The first problem arises from the fact that the free version of the software is not entirely easy to find. For those who are unaware that the free version exists the alternative is to purchase the software.

The second problem is that Realplayer has serious integrity issues. They have been sued for privacy violations more than once. For those users who wish to protect their integrity Realplayer is not a viable alternative.

The third problem arises if the user wishes not to support or use proprietary software. Free Software, the alternative approach presented by the Free Software Foundation is an important part of an open technological infrastructure and many who support the need for Free Software alternatives are not able to listen to SRâ??s audio files since they are not available in non-proprietary alternatives.

Audio compression formats based upon non-patented, open source solutions (Such as ogg vorbis – www.vorbis.com) should be the format of choice for large publicly funded radio stations such as Sveriges Radio.

Using such formats Swedish Radio will promote open formats for listening and become part of an open society instead of providing support for a private corporation lock-in.

This post therefore argues:

1. Swedish Radio should not be promoting the product of a single manufacturer.
2. Swedish Radio should not be promoting products which are used to gather data about the user.
3. Swedish Radio should be supporting free and open formats.

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Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will host an online forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society – from June 1 to 15, 2005 – at http://www.wipo.int/ipisforum/. The forum will provide a unique opportunity for all to contribute to the emerging debate on the value of intellectual property in the information society.

“This initiative is part of WIPO?s continuing efforts to raise awareness about intellectual property issues, encourage debate and ensure that the intellectual property system is accessible, balanced and responsive to the needs of all stakeholders,” said Mrs. Rita Hayes, WIPO Deputy Director General. “WIPO is looking forward to a lively and extensive debate in the online forum.”

Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society

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NORSLIS Workshop 2005

The workshop that will explore, in as wide a possible a way, the nexus between information, knowledge, and property, taking as point of departure the fact that information and knowledge have become valuable resources of the knowledge-based society. What are the possible ramifications for civil society and public institutions such as libraries in this scenario, where both increased access and increased control struggle for domination? The workshop should be of interest to all graduate students whose work touch upon information access, dissemination, and control within this larger social/economic/cultural context.

NORSLIS Workshop 2005

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Free Software/Open Source: Political Science Course

The deadline for applying to the Free Software/Open Source: Political Science Course has now passed and with almost 200 students from all over the world the course promises to be an exiting example of collaborative distance learning.

Here is the blurb on the course:
The purpose of this course will be to study the effects of technology on the political process by studying how the free software/open source movements organises itself and acts to lobby and affect political decisions in favour for the fundamental messages and ideologies. The course has the intention to help the participant to achieve a greater understanding of the political goals of the free software/open source movements. In addition the course will look at the political and economic conditions for the development of open source and free software.

The course will study the development of politics, policy and law in relation to the role of software in society. Subjects which will be treated in depth are the role of free software/open source in relation to property theory, the politics of technology, community governance and the economic foundations for the assessment of free software/open source development.

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Cybersecurity and Computer Misuse

A consensus has emerged with regard to the governance of attacks against information systems. EU Member States will now harmonise their legislation to render illegal any act undertaken with the intention of compromising information stored on computers or networks. Unauthorised access or interference will now be illegal.

The decision of the JHA can be found here (pdf)

More material
CSIRT Handbook
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.5/attacks
http://www.iht.com/articles/88499.htm
http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/jha/74719.pdf

From Cyberbug

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