Good Copy Bad Copy is a documentary about copyright and culture, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke. It features interviews with Danger Mouse, Girl Talk, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Lawrence Lessig, and many others with various perspectives on copyright.
Download the torrent for the XviD version of the whole movie at goodcopybadcopy.net.
Open Source Cinema is a collaborative documentary project to create a feature film about copyright in the digital age.
Several years ago, I began researching the intersection of culture and creativity – exploring how in the digital age, everything we know about copyright has been turned upside down. From mash-ups to filesharing, creation to distribution, everything is in flux.
This all came in to sharp relief when I attended the MGM vs Grokster oral argument in 2005. Outside, the music industry and file-sharing supporters alike protested in large numbers. One music industry veteran declared â??music is like a donut. Pay for the donut, you get to eat itâ??. Meanwhile, a 16 kid told me â??I donâ??t think you can own music – its just feelings. How can you own that?â?? So whoâ??s right? Is culture a product? Will the next generation ever settle for anything less than free? Thats what I want to explore in this documentary, which is tentatively titled Basement Tapes.
For more information about The Film – check out the WikiFilm.
For more information about the philosophy of the project, check out the Maninfesto
Sherry Turkle has written an article in Forbes “Can you hear me now?” on how we are losing ourselves to our devices. She brings together images of a world first seduced by technological gadgets and then being enslaved by them.
Much of the imagery is what we have come to expect: audiences at conferences preferring email to listening, consultants networking virtually while ignoring real life, and students doing anything but listening in class.
One brilliant quote from a stressed BlackBerry abusing consultant: “I don’t have enough time alone with my mind”. Wow! What an amazing insight. I have already complained about my teaching workload this term but when I read this quote I realised what was wrong with my worklife. No wonder I am not able to do any good writing (even this blog has been erratic at best) it’s because I don’t have enough time alone with my mind. And even less time to read.
What to do? According to Turkle: To make more time means turning off our devices, disengaging from the always-on culture.
Hmm. While I am always up for a little tech-bashing I really don’t think that turning off devices is the answer. I think my problem is that I need to stop accepting teaching engagements and other jobs for other people. It is eating all my time and leaving me empty and dissatisfied.
News from Humaniorabloggen (the humanist blog) about the Codex Gigas, more often referred to as the Devils Bible.
From the Royal Library website (The Swedish National Library): The Devil’s Bible contains the Old and New Testaments in pre-Vulgate Latin translations, Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, Josephus’ History of the Jews in a Latin translation, the Chronicle of Bohemia, written by Cosmas of Prague, etc. The manuscript was written in the early 13th century in the Benedictine monastery of Podlazice in Bohemia. It is called the Devil’s Bible after the impressive picture of that potentate. According to legend the scribe was a monk who had been confined to his cell for some breach of monastic discipline and who, by way of penance, finished the manuscript in one single night with the aid of the Devil whom he had summoned to help him. In 1594 the manuscript was acquired by the Imperial Treasury in Prague. When the Swedish army conquered the city in 1648, it was brought to Sweden and presented to the KB the following year.
The Codex (89,5 x 49 cm, weighs 75 kg and is 624 pages long) and was written on, the calf skin vellum (previously believed to be ass skin vellum). During the last year it has been analyzed and digitalized and is now going to be sent to Prague for a few months for an exhibition at the Prague’s Klementinum palace, the National Library seat, from this September till January 2008.
digitalization process at The Royal Library
The name “The Devils Bible” comes from the fact that the Codex Gigas contains images of the devil (pictures above). The Czech Republic will receive copies of the high quality digitalization and will borrow the Codex. The results of the digitalization and analysis are available online at the Royal Library’s website later this year. There has naturally (?) been discussions concerning the return of the work but apparently The Czech Republic does not contest Swedish ownership.
Cultural artifacts are always a sensitive issue in particular if they were taken in times of war or imperialist occupation. Some items in museums are more connected to specific cultures (the Egyptian collections in Berlin and London for example) but works such as the Codex Gigas are much more complicated to associate with one specific nation state.
If you happen to be in London on 25th May then you may want to attend the RSA special event Social Impact of the Web: Society, Government and the Internet. With speakers Cass Sunstein, Tom Steinberg, Andrew Chadwick, William Davies, Matthew Taylor, Bronwyn Kunhardt, Georgina Henry it promises to be a very interesting day (in addition to this the event is free). Unfortunately I will not be in London so I cannot attend (how annoying) I would very much have liked to have been there.
Here is the text from the advert:
How can new internet technology empower us to interact with each other in novel ways?
This conference will address this question by focusing on the political culture and norms that the internet has been instrumental in fostering, both in relation to centralised politics and more diffuse social and civic networks.
It will also look at the psychology of the internet â?? as we create virtual fully living worlds, lines may be crossed between what is real and unreal in our lives.
Virtual environments let people create their own digital identity with their own unique psychology. When online do we treat people differently, does the technology that we are using change how we would behave in the real world? If people create their own representation what does it say about them and what are the wider implications, social and political.
To book a place at this conference visit http://socialimpact.eventbrite.com/
Location: RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ
Date: 25 May 2007
Time: 10.30am – 4.00pm
The third annual iCommons summit will be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia (15-17 June) and this year I have the good fortune to be able to attend.
The event includes people like Creative Commons CEO, Larry Lessig, CC Chairman and Digital Entrepreneur, Joi Ito, Wikipedia Founder, Jimmy Wales and CTO of Linden Labs, Cory Ondrejka. We have also add some new voices to the debate this year including Indiaâ??s Lawrence Liang who has become renowned for his considered commentary on the positive impact of piracy in developing countries, Jonathan Zittrain discussing themes from his new book â??The Future of the Internet and How to Stop Itâ??, Benjamin Mako Hill from MIT who will talk about competing visions of â??free cultureâ?? from the free software perspective, and Becky Hogge from the Open Rights Group, who will talk about successful campaigns to rid the world of restrictive IP laws.
I am really looking forward to it and to meeting all the other commoners. Naturally the event will be blogged 🙂
Are you drowning in books to be read? Sometimes I think that I am. Then while I am in the middle of the deep end of the pool, instead of a life buoy, another book comes skimming across the water. This time it was Peter Barnes’ book Capitalism 3.0 which is available both as in a Pdf file (licensed under Creative Commons naturally) and in the more comfortable paper variety.
After scanning through the pdf I ordered the book. Barnes’ argument is based on the idea that capitalism is flawed and needs to take the Commons into consideration. He takes a broad view of the commons which includes headings such as nature, community and culture. Based upon this view he attempts to draw together the diversity of our commons and connect it to the capitalist approach to business.
 The book is critical of the accesses of old capitalism (which Barnes calls Capitalism 2.0). But he is also a bit too positive to what capitalism has done well – but a good book must be one that you disagree with in parts. Barnes attempts to show that Capitalism 3.0 has a chance of alleviating some of the access of capitalism 2.0 and he ends his book on a positive note:
Capitalism 2.0 had its moments. It defeated communism, leveled national boundaries to trade, and brought material abundance never seen before. But its triumph was accompanied by huge unpaid bills, debts that are now coming due. Perhaps we ought to think of ourselves as a company in bankruptcy. We canâ??t pay all of our bills, but we can pay some, especially if we stretch the payments out. In some cases, we can compensate debt holders with equity. In any event, we need to reorganize our economy so, in the future, we donâ??t run up the same debts again. Thatâ??s what
Capitalism 3.0 would do.But Capitalism 3.0 also has a higher purpose: to help both capitalism and the human species achieve their full potential. To do that, our economic machine must stop destroying the commons and start protecting it. At the same time, it must lift the bottom 95 percent of humans at a faster rate than it raises the top 5 percent. This requires more than compassionate rhetoric, or a few bandages around the edges. It requires an upgrade of our operating system.
You can either buy a copy of the book or, if you prefer it, download it from the Capitalism 3.0 website.
After films and books like Supersize Me and Nickel and Dimed. Not to mention things like McLibel (documentary, book and lawsuit). It may be understandable that McDonald’s have had enough of bad publicity. So bad has the publicity become that the word McJob has now become synonymous with a badly paid shitty jobs. It’s even in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary)
The word McJob, as the OED definition makes clear, is “depreciative.” It goes on to define the term as: “An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector.” It found its way into the dictionary in March 2001, 15 years after it was apparently coined by the Washington Post. (Speigel Online)
But now McDonald’s has had enough and is demanding that the word McJob be stricken from the OED.
“Dictionaries are supposed to be paragons of accuracy. And it this case, they got it completely wrong,” Walt Riker, a Mickey D’s McSpokesman complained to the Associated Press. “It’s a complete disservice and incredibly demeaning to a terrific work force and a company that’s been a jobs and opportunity machine for 50 years.” (Speigel Online)
Apparently McD is arguing that the definition is outdated and old-fashioned. That may be true but the last time I looked into a McDonald’s the people working there sure seemed to have really classic McJobs.
The Norwegian Vigeland Park is an 80 acre landscape garden containing 212 statues created by Gustav Vigeland. Many of the life size statues are depicted carrying out everyday activities (walking, running) and are, unsurprisingly, nude. The nude statue has been part of mainstream culture for as long as there have been statues. But every now and then the established mainstream is attacked not because established art has changed but rather because existing norms have shifted over time.
This morning the early visitors to the Vigeland Park could see that all the genitalia and nipples of the statues in the park had been covered with black paper strips. The resistor left a message explaining the action:
“There is too much nudity in newspapers and magazines, so here on the bridge the limit has been reached!”
Reported by VG (Norwegian Daily) and Art Threat (Political Art Journal)
This is an interesting protest which probably achieves more publicity by attacking the established park statues rather than attempting to go for mainstream media.
For a short while in my doctoral years I was very tempted to go over to game studies. I find the topic fascinating. But that was not to be. Still a little tempted to try something for the Game’in conference which will be held at Göteborg University (home sweet home) between 13-15 June this year.
Here is the conference blurb:
In the history of mankindâ??s technological development the importance of computer games is underestimated. Even the first computer games, which by todayâ??s standards might seem primitive, allowed the user to control the flow of information on the screen, something that changes the relation between the media and the audience. Games do not have viewers they have users and are therefore radically different from media like cartoons or television. Online games, connecting gamers in a virtual play-ground, adds further complexity and makes it even harder to grasp games in relation to older forms of media. How computer gaming as a historically new activity influence different aspects of human life therefore becomes an urgent topic for the academic community. How do gamers construct identity and present themselves when playing games? What are the conditions for learning in the gaming activity? What forms of literacy is developed in gaming? How do socialisation of norms and values develop in relation to gaming? How do game practices change the everyday life of families and the roles between family members? How can we understand the game experience and the pleasure of gaming?
These are some of the issues addressed at the academic conference Gameâ??in action at Göteborg University, Sweden 13th â?? 15th of June 2007. The conference aims at focusing on the research of different aspects of the activity of gaming and will accept papers in the following themes:
- Gaming and identity
- Gaming and conditions for learning
- Educational gaming
- Gaming and socialisation of norms and values
- Online gaming as social practices
- Fan-cultures as social practices
- Gaming and families
- Gaming in childhood and adolescence
- Amateur game-making and machinima
- Political perspectives on gaming
- Gaming as a boundary practice between school, work and leisure
Abstracts are due by March 15 – more information here.