Category Archives: Uncategorized

Xiong Chengyu, a personal advisor to Chinese President Hu Jintao on internet policy, came to New York briefly and on Tuesday we met at Columbia law school. It was a casual meeting and we chatted for quite a while. Anyone affiliated with the Chinese government is usually quite formal, so I wore a suit for the occasion, and worried about my lack of a welcoming committee. But Xiong was of the new breed, and preempting me, he wore jeans with a jacket, like a 60-year old internet hipster. In conversation it turned out he was something of an internet… Continue reading →

A relatively little-known fact outside of copyright practice is that movie studios regularly purchase the film and television rights to newspaper stories. Yes, newspaper stories, which by their nature, report on facts or ideas, two things the copyright law does not protect. So what are studios buying? In 1997, the New York Times reported on the story of Tim “Ripper” Owens, who rose from being a lifelong Judas Priest fan to becoming the actual lead singer of Judas Priest. As Times writer Andrew Revkin wrote: Mr. Owens has risen from devotee to icon, from metal-head to metal-god. He is about… Continue reading →

Back on March 30 I presented Who Controls the Internet at Ed Felten’s Infotech lecture series at Princeton. The crowd was extremely sharp; the discussion was great, and I had the chance to meet Brian Kernighan, from whose book I learned C programming. I must say there is something uncanny about the enthusiasm for political theory and policy found in computer science departments today. Seems like everyone is a policy-geek — what ever happened to just being a geek? Maybe that’s what engineering department are for. Anyhow, during the talk, someone asked an interesting question — what’s the difference… Continue reading →

The New York Times building has a special long hallway where it keeps pictures of reporters who have won pulitzer prizes. Its fun looking at how hair-styles have changed over the years. But most interesting of all is the picture from 1931, the picture of Walter Duranty, to which the Times has physically attached a large disclaimer. My tour guide, Jenny 8. Lee, told me the story. In the 1930s Walter Duranty was one of America’s most famed reporters. As the New York Times’ Moscow correspondent, he filed vivid stories explaining the growth and meaning of Stalinism to the American… Continue reading →

Their text (borrowed):

Harvard Free Culture presents Sharing is Daring, a showcase of new & derivative artworks released under flexible licenses that allow for sharing & remixing. The exhibition will feature a range of graphic, photography, video, and multimedia works by: ~ Abram Stern ~ Matt Vance ~ Elton Lovelace ~ Brian Zbriger ~ Suburban Kids with Biblical Names ~ Shanying Cui ~ Ben Sisto ~ Tim Jacques ~ Rebecca Rojer ~ Greg Perkins ~ Ryan Sciaino ~ David Meme ~ Matt Boch & Claire Chanel ~Selections from the 100 Second Film Festival ~

Opening night is Thurs., Apr. 27, 2006 at 8pm at the Adams Artspac, Harvard University, Plympton at Bow St., Cambridge, MA. (map)

Food and drink will be served.

The show will run from April 27 – May 6. For more information, go to SharingIsDaring or contact here.

About Harvard Free Culture

Harvard Free Culture is a student group dedicated to promoting cultural participation and open intellectual property policy in the digital age. It seeks to reach out to artists, creators, technologists, and policymakers alike to address these issues and promote access to culture and knowledge. More information is available at Harvard Free Culture.

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Yochai Benkler’s book, The Weath of Networks, is out. This is — by far — the most important and powerful book written in the fields that matter most to me in the last ten years. If there is one book you read this year, it should be this. The book has a wiki; it can be downloaded as a pdf for free under a Creative Commons license; or it can be bought at places like Amazon.

Read it. Understand it. You are not serious about these issues — on either side of these debates — unless you have read this book. Continue reading →

From the FT: “The basic social compromise over copyright can surely only be furthered by indexing all this creativity so that other people can find it.” Continue reading →

First the French, now the Aussies: Reports are the Australians will legalize taping shows from television, and ripping CDs to MP3 players. Continue reading →

This very funny movie was, with 34 Flickr photos that were CC-d. Simple, legal, building the Read-Write Internet. 34 out more than 7,000,000 CC-d photos on Flickr. Continue reading →

It was a slow, if happy day. But now we need $7,800 a day. Please spread the word. Please support CC. Continue reading →