commons

Sneeze

Urgh. What a combination. Allergy and summer cold rolled into one. Instead of staying home tomorrow I will be travelling to Stockholm University to give a lecture on Creative Commons.

Instead of preparing I am more concerned about my sneezing. Naturally everything never needed to know about sneezing can be found online…

High speed photo of a sneeze by Andrew Davidhazy.

Sneezing is a complex reflex that begins with an irritation of the nose lining. After the irritation the impulses travel to the brain â?? which reacts by controlling the muscles around the abdomen, chest, diaphragm, neck, face, eyelids and nose into the sneeze.

Particles from the sneeze can travel up to three meters.

A Japanese tradition is that when you sneeze people are talking about you – so I must be a popular topic for conversation. Wikipedia has lots more!

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Book Cover Design Competition

My phd thesis goes to the publisher in May and I need a book cover for the work. My own attempts have been less than exciting so here is a competition for all you creative people.

Design a cover for my thesis and I will use it. Your work will appear on the 200-300 copies printed, you will naturally recieve full credit for your work and a copy of the book.

The title of the work is “Disruptive Technology” the undertitle (which should not appear on the cover) is “The Effects of Technology Regulation on Democracy”

All submissions need to be in by May 10.

Spread the word!

UPDATE (13 April)

Some questions about the competition & thesis.

Format: Not entirely fixed but approx: Height 23 cm, width 15 cm, length 260 pages.

Colours: No limitations other than the budget does not allow glossy photo-quality covers.
The basic argument of the thesis is: While governments talk about the advantages that technology may bring to the democratic process they are more concerned with streamlining administrative procedures rather than promoting true democratic interaction. When unconventional/innovative uses of technology appear the regulatory desire is to prohibit rather than promote. A draft version of the thesis is available here.

The thesis will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license

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Digital solidaritet och opinionsbildning

Digital Solidaritet och opinionsbildning

Information ses allt mer som en vara att tjäna pengar på och allt mindre som en social rättighet. Upphovsrätten stärks och patent breder ut sig till det immateriella området.

Politiker och företag ser i ökad omfattning information som ett problem som måste kontrolleras, övervakas och beläggas med sekretess. Samtidigt finns idag möjligheter att samla, kopiera och sprida information i en helt ny omfattning. Informationen blir inte mindre värd för att den används. Tvärtom ökar den i värde.

Det är dags att solidaritets- och rättviserörelser tar hänsyn till allt detta i sitt informationsarbete. Vi måste utveckla en mer solidarisk och gemensam informationshantering och opinionsbildning. Förutsättningarna är bättre än någonsin. Med denna konferens vill vi stimulera den gemensamma diskussionen i dessa frågor.

Ur programet:
Delad information, effektiv information â?? Rasmus Fleischer, frilansjournalist och aktiv i PiratbyrÃ¥n, argumenterar för det rationella med att vara solidarisk pÃ¥ informationsomrÃ¥det.

Fri information i praktiken: Creative Commons och Open Access â?? Mathias Klang, doktorand vid Göteborgs Universitet och projektledare för Creative Commons i Sverige, hjälper dig att befria informationen.

Kampen om informationen â?? Lars Ilshammar, författare och förestÃ¥ndare för Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek, ger oss en övergripande bild av den globala kampen mellan Ã?ppnare som vill frigöra informationen och Stängare som vill lÃ¥sa in den.

Mer information finns hos Världsbiblioteket
När: 15/5, kl. 12:30â??17:00
Var: Solidaritetsrörelsens Hus, Tegelviksgatan 40, Stockholm
Arr: Globalportalen och Världsbiblioteket

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Reading tip

In an chapter entitled “Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit” Niva Elkin-Koren writes:

It may well be that there is nothing wrong with copyright per se, but only with the way these rights were exploited by copyright owners in recent years. Changing social practices may have a powerful signalling effect, the importance of which could not be overstated. Yet, establishing a workable and sustainable alternative to the current copyright regime would require enforceable legal measures that would restrain the power of copyright owners to govern their works. To achieve this goal it would not be sufficient to facilitate self-restraint and encourage copyright owners to treat their copyright as guardians, protecting it from any attempt to restrict access and reuse. In the long run, creating an alternative to copyright would require a copyright reform.

The chapter is part of the book The Future of the Public Domain, (P. Bernt Hugenholtz & Lucie Guibault, eds.)
Kluwer Law International, forthcoming 2006. It is also available at SSRN.

Posted on by mklang

RMS & CC

Hows that for a title which demands that you know what its all about?

Richard Stallman (RMS) was recently interviewed in LinuxP2P and was asked “…what differences are there between generic CC licensing and the GPL?”

Some Creative Commons licenses are free licenses; most permit at least noncommercial verbatim copying. But some, such as the Sampling Licenses and Developing Countries Licenses, donâ??t even permit that, which makes them unacceptable to use for any kind of work. All these licenses have in common is a label, but people regularly mistake that common label for something substantial.

This has caused a minor blog/email rumble of surprise that RMS is against CC. (Its even on Slashdot). I know of, respect and support RMS views. Even though I am project lead for CC Sweden I am also a member of FSF Sweden team and I dont see any contradictions with this or any contradictions in RMS on this topic. Therefore I am a bit surprised at the effect RMS’s statement has caused.

CC cannot be understood as one principle. It is a set of licenses offering the user many different options. The GPL is more ideologically stringent and therefore one can be “for” the GPL on ideological or political grounds. Claiming to be “for” CC on ideological or political grounds can only mean that you are for a simple licensing system which helps creators which is admirable but hardly as ideologically deep as creating an accessible infrastructure based for all.

Posted on by mklang

Gästblogga

Henrik & jag gästbloggade på centerpartisten Johan Linander med rubriken Disney, upphovsrätt & dig.

Här är texten:

Disneys framgång bygger, i grunden, på en uråldrig tradition. Man tar en berättelse som de flesta har hört talas om, man omvandlar den (i Disneys fall till tecknad film) och sprider den till andra. Se bara på Askungen, Robin Hood, Törnrosa och Peter Pan. Genom deras återberättande har Disneys ikoner blivit en del av oss.

När en okänd svensk tecknare, Charlie Christenssen, ville göra detsamma tog han Disneys ikon och förvandlade honom till Arne Anka. Christenssen tolkade, bearbetade och spred en ny anka. Disney agerade snabbt och brutalt för att försvara deras Anka. Hade Christenssen inte orkat så hade Arne försvunnit som så många andra före honom. För att veta hur Christenssen lyckades rekommenderar vi att ni köper samlingsvolymen om Arne Anka, alternativt kan ni höra av er till oss, så berättar vi.

SÃ¥dana problem har länge varit nÃ¥gon annans problem. Större delen av befolkningen har inte möjlighet att skapa nÃ¥got som kan reta storföretag som Disney. Men som alla ni som läser detta vet â?? tekniken förändrar och skapar möjligheter. Vi och vÃ¥ra barn har nu möjlighet att ta det som finns omkring oss, tolka det och sprida det till en ringa kostnad. Vi kan som aldrig förr vara delaktiga i att tolka vÃ¥r egen samtid. Men nu när vi har möjligt att vara med rent tekniskt och ekonomiskt â?? har vi det rent juridiskt? Christenssen â??besegradeâ?? Disney, men kommer du att orka ta risken, ta striden?

Disney visar oss mycket. De lär våra barn och underhåller oss. Men bakom allt detta finns ett stort problem med vår upphovsrätt. Det handlar om att det inte finns någon möjlighet för den som vill ta en del av sin samtid och kommentera den. I striden mellan Kalle & Arne stod rätten att teckna en anka. Tack vare teknologi finns fler människor som kan skapa och sprida.

Borde inte lagen omfatta möjligheter för alla att kommentera sin egen samtid?

Mathias Klang är bitr. forskare på Göteborgs Universitet samt
projektledare för Creative Commons Sverige.

Henrik Sandklef är programmerare samt styrelsemedlem för Free Software Foundation Europe.

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Open Access

This book-chapter preprint takes an in-depth look at the open access movement with special attention to the perceived meaning of the term “open access” within it, the use of Creative Commons Licenses, and real-world access distinctions between different types of open access materials.  After a brief consideration of some major general benefits of open access, it examines OA’s benefits for libraries and discusses a number of ways that libraries can potentially support the movement, with a consideration of funding issues. (The preprint does not reflect any editorial changes that may be made.)

It will appear in: Jacobs, Mark, ed. Electronic Resources Librarians: The Human Element of the Digital Information Age. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 2006.

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NonCommercial

One of the license terms in the Creative Commons license is the term non-commercial. While the term is common enough in daily speech it is not always easy to deliniate between commercial and non-commercial activities.

noncommercial

Creative Commons have put together guidelines to help understand how non-commercial should be understood in relation to the license text. But remember:

Please note – these guidelines are not set in stone; they are a draft subject to debate, discussion and refinement by all those who adopt CC licenses and use CC licensed content, ie. you. Let us know what you think. – Mia Garlick

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