-
Archives
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- May 2011
- March 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
-
Meta
Monthly Archives: August 2008
huge and important news: free licenses upheld
So for non-lawgeeks, this won’t seem important. But trust me, this is huge.
I am very proud to report today that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (THE “IP” court in the US) has upheld a free (ok, they call them “open source”) copyright license, explicitly pointing to the work of Creative Commons and others. (The specific license at issue was the Artistic License.) This is a very important victory, and I am very very happy that the Stanford Center for Internet and Society played a key role in securing it. Congratulations especially to Chris Ridder and Anthony Falzone at the Center.
In non-technical terms, the Court has held that free licenses such as the CC licenses set conditions (rather than covenants) on the use of copyrighted work. When you violate the condition, the license disappears, meaning you’re simply a copyright infringer. This is the theory of the GPL and all CC licenses. Put precisely, whether or not they are also contracts, they are copyright licenses which expire if you fail to abide by the terms of the license.
Important clarity and certainty by a critically important US Court. Continue reading
Posted in creative commons
40 Comments
Early Creative Commons history, my version
Here’s a talk I gave at the iCommons Summit in Sapporo Japan on July 30, 2008. Nothing new to readers here, but reframed a bit for the context. Continue reading
Posted in creative commons
3 Comments
Change Congress preso – beta to be released
Readers of these pages will have been burdened with version after version of my talks about corruption and the Change Congress movement. This Wednesday, in San Jose, I’ll give a final 20+ minute spin on this, and then release the source material at Change-Congress.org for others to take and build upon.
The live event will be at the Commonwealth Club, San Jose. Here’s the link for information. Continue reading
Posted in ChangeCongress
Leave a comment
Coming this fall: Remix
This is (I expect) the last book I’ll write in this field. Dedicated to Lyman Ray Patterson and Jack Valenti, it pushes three ideas — (1) that this war on our kids has got to stop, (2) that we need to celebrate (and support) the rebirth of a remix culture, and (3) that a new form of business (what I call the “hybrid”) will flourish as we better enable this remix creativity.
I wrote this book last year. Many of the themes were described in 18 minutes in my TED talk. I am very eager to have it out.
You can get notified when it is out on Amazon. Continue reading
Posted in free culture
18 Comments
How much RMS has won
Just returning from the iCommons Summit in Sapporo, Japan. The Free Beer project made a showing, with a locally brewed version. But this ad caught my eye: “Free Beer” for “500 yen.”
We’re now at the stage where (at least some) the RMS conception of “free” is clear enough so that even “free beer” is “free as in free speech” such that a price running with the free beer seems (again, to a select set no doubt) perfectly natural. Continue reading
Posted in free culture
5 Comments
And the virtual barnraising continues: next step: to the wiki
I posted the last post thanking Theo Armour for his html version of A Declaration for Independence just before getting on the plane in Tokyo. When I arrived back in the states, I received two revisions of his revision.
The first, by Ben Kerney, corrects some character encoding problems, and places the text is a clearer outline frame.
The second, by Matthew Levine, also corrects the character encoding problem, and very nicely fits the typography of the pdf version.
Both version also cleaned up a problem with the notes. But upon my return, I found another version from Theo Armour fixing the problem with the notes. (I’ve replaced the original version in the original post with this version as well).
Ok, so first, thank you to all for the help. But now let’s move the revisions to the wiki. I have used a simple html2wiki conversion tool to create a draft on wiki.lessig.org. The wiki’s spam filter choked on the notes, so the first major fix would be a fix for the notes. But then I’m eager to see how the substance develops.
The link on the wiki is wiki.lessig.org/Declaration4Independence.
Meanwhile, I’ll probably build a v2.0 of this Declaration, building on the ideas of the wiki and other ideas I’ve collection. But for now, thank you again to everyone who helped seed this for the web.
Update: Here also is a LaTeX version. (Thanks, Valentin!) Continue reading
Posted in ChangeCongress
Leave a comment
Why I like the Net: An html version of the Declaration
Thanks to Theo Armour for cleaning up the html version of my Declaration for Independence. You can see his version here. Continue reading
Posted in ChangeCongress
4 Comments
Regarding Stevens: The Economy of Influence that is DC
On the Change-Congress.org blog, I’ve got a piece about the absurdity in this prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens:
On Tuesday, Senator Ted Stevens was indicted by federal prosecutors for failing to report gifts he had received from an oil company to help him renovate his Alaskan home. The charges were not a surprise, though official Washington mustered its collective, and requisite outrage. Senators Dole and Sununu were quick to return campaign contributions from the now-tainted Stevens. Editorials across the nation were quick to condemn the obvious graft targeted by the government.
But I confess, I don’t get it. Not that I don’t see the wrong in what Stevens has done. That’s obvious. What’s not obvious to me is why this wrong is so different from everything else that DC thinks is right.
Posted in ChangeCongress
2 Comments
Self-Swiftboating, Supersized
So I didn’t make many friends in the Obama campaign when I suggested his campaign was Self-Swiftboating Obama — acting in a way that undercut his most important character. But (as an Obama supporter), I am really pleased (if as one-time admirer of McCain, saddened) to see that McCain is out-doing Obama in this respect, big time.
Below are a brace of ads by Brave New Film (on whose board I sit) and MoveOn.org that make the substance of the point well. Here’s the Self-Swiftboating analysis:
McCain’s strongest feature as a candidate was the perception that he was a no bullshitting, straight talking, truth speaking maverick. Though I was an admirer, I never quite saw the image as true. (I wrote about an extraordinary exchange I saw with him and Zittrain last year.) But that’s certainly what makes people like and respect him — and what distinguished him so completely from Mitt “I’m running so I need to be a Rightwinger” Romney, and Rudy “I’m running so I need to be a Rightwinger” Giuliani.
But now, McCain’s acting in a way that will turn off this base completely. The absurdity of the flip-flop on off-shore drilling, and the shameful suggestion that this is a solution to the problem of high gas prices (all after he had met with oil execs, and then received a huge influx of campaign cash from the same), and the totally baseless charge that Obama’s decision not to visit troops was motivated by the unavailability of the press coverage: Shame on you, Senator. But please, don’t stop now!
McCain’s Ad:
MoveOn.org Ad:
Posted in presidential politics
8 Comments