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The Commonists are Coming

Posted by garym on Wed, 02/16/2005 - 17:45

Executive director of Creative Commons Glenn Otis Brown wonders what Bill Gates really means when he says of the free and shareable licence lobby as "some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers..."

Surely, says Glenn, we aren't to suppose that Bill means to blacklist the entire community of free trade within the Creative Commons ...

"I get sad when people cheapen words like 'communist' or 'fascist' by throwing them around recklessly, especially given what those words meant in the not-so-distant past ... Stalinist purges, the Berlin Wall, tanks in Budapest -- that's communism.
[ via Wired News - Feb 15, 2005 ]

Lawrence Lessig chimed in on the debate to propose that "Copyright reform advocates are 'commonists', not 'communists' ... and thereby sparked a whole product line of new Commonist Manifesto fashions ... CC-licensed, of course.

I predict this also heralds the number 1 most asked IT-interview question of 2005:

"Are you now or have you ever been a member of a commonist organization."  read more »

Devolving the iPod

Posted by garym on Mon, 11/01/2004 - 00:20

Some observations and thoughts by EFF's Cory Doctorow on the latest 'update' to the iPod, an update that's paid for by your purchase price, yet it's an downgrade update that actually robs you of your legal rights ...

What's the lesson here? Well, Apple's not on your side, even if you're an Apple customer. If you buy into a proprietary platform where the music industry gets a veto, you're scr0d. Every time you buy an iPod, you are financing legal and technical countermeasures aimed at taking away legitimate features that enable you to do more with your lawfully acquired music and hardware.

[ Source: Boing Boing ]

Sender-ID and free software

Posted by garym on Sun, 07/25/2004 - 12:21

Richard Stallman joins the discussion on the MTA Authorization Records in DNS (MARID) endorsement of the Microsoft Sender-ID licensing:

I've been expecting to see something like this ever since Gates started talking about spam. This license is an example of Microsoft's strategy for killing off free software as an alternative to Windows ... In the absence of resistance, Microsoft has a good chance of imposing whatever standards it likes. Let us, therefore, resist it here and now.

[ Source: Sender-ID and free software ]

iCommons Canada

Posted by garym on Fri, 07/16/2004 - 22:47

Via CANARIE we learn of a homegrown plan for a homegrown CreativeCommons licensing:

part of an international effort to facilitate the availability of open-source licences, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is translating the popular Creative Commons licence (CCL) for use under Canadian law. Once complete, the Canadian Creative Commons licence (CCCL) will enable Canadian digital creators to independently construct and attach copyright licences to their works. Read: No lawyers required!

I'm a little confused by it, and the lengthy list of changes doesn't help, but what else is new in this country -- the article on the CIPPIC website claims the license is not yet complete, but in the same breath claim over three million pieces of intellectual property are already licensed with the phantom cipher. Add to this confusion the way there's this link leading us to this link leading us back across the border to this link which is in fact the first link redirected ...

Nonetheless, a good idea, bravo, well done, kudos to the Law & Technology Program at the University of Ottawa on taking on the porting, and good to see it taking hold in our native content.

[ Source: iCommons Canada Project - Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) ]

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