   Free Culture ArchiveMay 09, 2006Get Legal -- Get OpenOffice
The sort of copying even the BSA can't complain about.
April 05, 2006IPac Blog on Smithsonian Public Domain Lock Up
Ren Bucholz notes that Smithsonian-pilfering Showtime locks all non-US viewers out of its website.
March 03, 2006Reflections on "Cultural Environmentalism"
James Boyle reflects on his seminal article about extreme intellectual property laws, ten years after its publication.
The Power of the Playlist
WashingtonPost.com highlights the cultural benefits of allowing music fans to share their tastes.
February 17, 2006Don't Want iPods, Happy to Take Hollywood's Dollar
Senators are refusing IPac's free culture iPods -- even though they take far more money from the entertainment industry without a qualm.
November 21, 2005Lessig, Google, and the APA in New York Public Library: Shhhhh!
Summary of the debate from the New York Times: worth reading for the final lines.
November 18, 2005Intellectual Property...Bad Democrats!
Matt Stoller wants his party to fight for reasonable IP laws.
October 05, 2005I Like First Mondays
The academic webzine puts together an anthology of open source thinkers.
September 10, 2005Songs from the Commons
Lisa Rein produces a podcast that's a celebration, explanation, and example of freely licensed creativity.
August 15, 2005Lessig, Vaidhyanathan in Georgia
Emory University is holding a symposium on Free Culture & the Digital Library on October 14th.
August 10, 2005Open Access Webliography
An excellent resource for those exploring the debate over open access to academic knowledge.
July 19, 2005Fisking Dvorak's Diss of Creative Commons
Magazine columnist publishes bizarre critique of Creative Commons rife with misunderstandings; blogger Joe Gratz comes to the rescue.
July 12, 2005Georgia on my Drive
Rick Bradley has open-sourced his lawskills.com site, including a MySQL database dump of Georgia laws and caselaw.
Music Labels Angry at Free BBC Symphonies
"You are also leading the public to think that it is fine to download and own these files for nothing," accuses label head, neglecting to postfix, "correctly, as it happens."
June 30, 2005Squabbling Over Pieces of the UK Online Music Pie
Online music stores and record labels fight over the licensing fees imposed by music publishers and composers, with the music stores arguing that they should get the same deal as radio stations.
June 28, 2005How Did "Mad Hot Ballroom" Survive the Copyright Cartel?
How documentary film makers have to edit 'round reality to avoid liability.
June 22, 2005Trailer for "Alternative Freedom" Documentary: "In a WORLD without LICENSES..."
Richard Stallman, Larry Lessig, DJ Dangermouse, and Jason Schultz fight IP maximalists...robot renegade IP maximalists.
June 07, 2005Open Access Law Program Debuts
Creative Commons' "Science Commons" project unveils a new program advocating for open access to legal scholarship.
May 24, 2005Creative Commons: the Silent Killer
Billboard journalist Susan Butler uncomfortably splices the Creative Commons project with the tragic story of a musician struggling with AIDS, not-so-subtly implying that CC licensing might kill you in the end. Good thing free healthcare is a perk of the average recording industry contract these days.
May 18, 2005Lessig in Technology Review
MIT's Technology Review includes pieces by, and in response to, EFF Board
member Larry Lessig on copyright and DRM. Ernest Miller guides us through.
May 04, 2005Fortifying Free Culture
Fort Culture is Downhill Battle's new cache of mini-articles explaining the current issues in copyright and strategies for defending the cultural commons.
April 27, 2005Celera Gives it Away
The human genome, that is. The private company has abandoned its attempts to sell subscriptions to human DNA data and will instead place the info in the public domain.
Company Settles GPL Suit by Opening Code
Fortinet, a security company, has settled a suit brought by the founder of GPL-Violations.org by agreeing to open much of its code. This is the latest in a string of victories for the GPL watchdog website.
April 07, 2005Take this Job and Blog ItMarch 29, 2005Brazil Opens Up
Great piece in the New York Times about the role of open-source software in Brazil's attempt to connect millions of its citizens.
March 23, 2005French News Agency Sues Google
The lawsuit casts a shadow over Internet search engines and fair use, the legal doctrine on which they rely.
Remixing the News
A new study from the Columbia University says of blogs and traditional news media: "In effect, Americans are shifting from being consumers of news to proactive partners in creating their own personalized news account each day, and traditional journalism is only part of that mix."
VoIP Lets Strangers Pick Up the Phone
Low- or no-cost Internet phone calls are letting people reach out and touch someone in other countries, even if they've never met.
March 22, 2005Business Week Slams Apple
A bit of sage advice: “Going after the Web sites or forcing them to divulge their sources will put the company in the middle of a freedom-of-speech firestorm that will be a costly distraction for management, and could tarnish the Apple brand."
Google Shows Love for Open Source
The Benevolent Giant has launched "Google Code," which provides code for many Google products and discussion forums for open source developers.
March 16, 2005"Code v.2" Needs You
Larry Lessig is updating "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace" by putting it on a wiki and opening it to the public.
CC: A Nation of Millions Has Our Back
This WashPo story looks at the astounding success of Creative Commons, whose licenses have been used for more than 10 million works, including the latest release from Chuck D.
March 09, 2005Give Someone a Nastygram for Their Birthday
Next time you catch a child singing "Happy Birthday," make sure that the authorities are duly notified. The words are copyrighted, and the copyright holders will be relieved to know that you're looking out for their interests. The good folks at UnhappyBirthday.com have the details.
BitTorrent Could Make Everyone a Broadcaster
That's what a liberal activism group called CommonBits.org aims to do.
Use BitTorrent to Get 2.6 Gigs of Free Music
And you won't get in trouble! The organizers of South by Southwest (SXSW), a popular music/film/Internet conference, are using BitTorrent to distribute thousands of songs from its roster of artists performing next week.
March 07, 2005(Real) Blogger Gets White House Press Credentials
Garrett Graff of FishbowlDC decided to test - and write about - the alleged ease of obtaining White House press credentials.
March 02, 2005Democratizing the DJ
This Washington Post article explores the subculture of amateur DJs who use iPods to get the crowd moving.
February 23, 2005Rallying for Jailed Iranian Bloggers
Iran is cracking down on free speech, but bloggers are getting louder.
Stay Free! Launches a Blog
We love this culture-jamming journal of the copyright/trademark wars, and now it has a blog too!
France Conquered by...Google?
France's national library is raising concerns about Anglo-Saxon domination in Google Print, the project that aims to digitize the holdings of some of the world's greatest libraries.
February 17, 2005Tecmo Goes Ninja on Game Hackers
The company is pursuing people who modified their versions of Xbox titles like "Dead or Alive" and "Ninja Gaiden." As if "Ninja Gaiden" wasn't *already* impossible to beat, now we've got to fight legions of lawyers? We're sticking to Scrabble.
Bill Gates, Communist
Richard Stallman with an op-ed on software patents and the recent hubub over Bill Gates' application of the word "communists" to the free culture movement.
February 08, 2005Of Media Savants and Cartoon Ferrets
The New York Times writes about the propaganda war between copyright extremists and pro-balance groups.
Calling All Artists
Larry Lessig's most recent Wired column is a stirring call for artists to fight for the future of (their) music.
February 02, 2005German National Library Gets DRM Exemption
The German Federation of the Phonographic Industry has granted the German National Library a license to circumvent protection measures in order to facilitate archiving. It's nice of them to grant the license, but it's sad that libraries have to ask permission to do their jobs.
January 11, 2005Blogs Blow Up
32 million Americans read blogs in 2004, and 6 million use RSS aggregators. Neat!
Unsigned, Sealed, Delivered
The Maine Supreme Court heard arguments recently in a case involving anonymous speech and an unflattering cartoon of a man, his wife, and their deceased St. Bernard.
January 05, 2005Entertainment Weekly Calls "Grey Album" Best of 2004
It's beautiful, irreverent, and there is no better example of creative culture-hacking. And yes, that is a dare.
December 20, 2004More on the Satellite Radio/Time-Shifting Tussle
The amateur behind TimeTrax, the satellite radio-recording software, is now selling it professionally.
Putting the World's Greatest Libraries Online
Google is working with four university libraries - Stanford, Michigan, Harvard, and Oxford - and the New York Public Library in an ambitious plan to scan their holdings and put them on the Internet.
December 10, 2004Public Domain Case Appealed to 9th Circuit
The Internet Archive's Brewster Kahle and the Prelinger Archive's Rick Prelinger will appeal their public domain-protection case up to the 9th Circuit in the wake of the court dismissal last month.
October 21, 2004Free Culture Goes Dutch
Dutch Parliamentarians want to put images from publicly owned broadcasters into the public domain.
October 12, 2004More Mainstream Coverage for "Some Rights Reserved"October 05, 2004Newsweek Covers Creative CommonsChina to Promote "Healthy" Computer Games
They're not talking about LAN-parties that serve only wheat grass and tofu, mind you. The Chinese government plans to rate games on "pornography, violence, horror, social morality and cultural implications."
Canada Examines Cultural Deficit with US
Michael Geist argues that the deficit is best addressed by following the copyright policy example set by the UK, not its southern neighbor.
Uncle Sam Gives Free $50 Bills to Designers
Downloadable ones, since the real deal can't be scanned, manipulated, or printed on/in popular equipment and software.
September 23, 2004Beastie Boys, David Byrne, Others Release New Compilation CD
And check this out: it's *meant* to be copied/remixed/shared.
September 16, 2004Free Samples: 3 Notes and Runnin'
Downhill Battle's latest bit of genius agitprop takes aim at the ridiculous state of musical sampling law.
Lemley on the Economics of IP
Stanford law professor Mark Lemley on why intellectual property isn't the same as the tangible stuff.
Netting Free Music
And it's quality stuff, too! This NY Times article surveys the free, legal offerings of the Internet.
September 01, 200425 Nobel Laureates Want Information to be FreeAugust 12, 2004Developing Nations Choose Linux Over Windows
The price is right, and many are concerned about relying on Microsoft products.
August 06, 2004Big Blue Promises Safe Passage for Linux
IBM has pledged not to use its massive patent library against the Linux operating system and is challenging other companies to do the same.
August 04, 2004Arlo Guthrie on JibJab's Use of Woody's Work
According to Woody Guthrie's son, JibJab's parody is an "incredibly wonderful bit of hilarity."
July 27, 2004Open Source to Germany: Danke!
A German court recently reaffirmed the validity of the Gnu Public License.
July 23, 2004SCO Gets Whupped in DaimlerChrysler Suit
DaimlerChrysler was targeted in SCO's anti-linux campaign, but a judge recently agreed with the car company and threw out most of SCO's case.
July 15, 2004Understanding the Media Monopoly
This is a great introduction to the FCC's controversial media ownership rules (or lack thereof). Required reading.
July 05, 2004Bidding Record Labels Goodbye
Some artists are doing it right now, and their Internet-enabled approach to selling records could be the harbinger of many good things to come.
June 30, 2004Steve Winwood and Access Hollywood Use P2P for Promotion
The odd couple is using free P2P systems like KaZaA and Gnutella to promote Winwood's new project.
June 16, 2004Tim Berners-Lee Awarded Large Wad of Cash
Oh, and the Millennium Technology Prize, which recognizes technologists who've dramatically improved the quality of life. This article points out that much of the Web-inventor's impact stems from his decision to forego patent protection on his ideas.
June 10, 2004Harry Potter's Alternate Universe
The whole world may be swooning over the third Harry Potter movie, but a few of us are also getting a kick out of Brad Neely's quirky, unauthorized remix of the first film's soundtrack.
June 07, 2004Brazil Opens Up to Open Source
Governments around the world are warming up to open source software, and now Brazil's private industries are adopting tools like Linux at astonishing rates.
June 03, 2004China Bans Video Game for "Distorting" History
The Swedish-made "Hearts of Iron" depicts several parts of China as independent nations and treats Taiwan as part of Japan.
May 31, 2004Ireland Considers Emergency Copyright Bill
To fend off the litigious grandson of James Joyce. To complicate matters, the fight is over work that was snatched from the public domain by retroactive copyright-term extension.
May 25, 2004Open-Sourcing the Law
Grokline is a collaborative "living history" of UNIX ownership aimed at drop-kicking future copyright/patent claims.
When "Free" Turns a Profit
USA Today on making money the new-fashioned way: giving stuff away.
May 22, 2004Copyright Travel Advisory: Japan
We were shocked when the author of a Japanese file-sharing application was jailed two weeks ago, but this takes the cake. The operator of a popular gaming site has been jailed for posting unauthorized screenshots.
May 06, 2004Camcorder Obscura
Jon Routson makes movies about film screenings, but copyright law will soon swallow his little corner of the art world. This beautifully written article explains.
Open Source Book-Writing
JD Lasica is writing a history of the P2P wars called "Darknet" -- and he's putting the whole thing online for others to review, edit and make additions.
April 30, 2004B-Flag: Remixing 'The Apprentice'
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