CC Salon Berlin and openeverything focus – Feb. 26

Michelle Thorne, February 23rd, 2009

Encouraged by the resonance of openeverything camp in December 2008, we’re helping put on a regular series of events about “openness.” This Thursday, Feb. 26, kicks off the first openeverything focus, in tandem with the CC Salon in Berlin.

This month we’re focusing on Open Knowledge, delving into project like OKFN’s Open Knowledge Definition and learning more about the 100,000 CC BY-SA images donated to Wikimedia Commons by the German Federal Archives.

Each focus event draws on theory and praxis to inform the discussion. If you have a project you’d like to share, or are just curious to join the conversation, please stop by!

When: Thursday, 26.02.09, 19:30 Uhr

Where: newthinking store, Tucholskystr. 48, 10117 Berlin Mitte

Joi Ito at DLD on Creative Commons

Fred Benenson, January 31st, 2009

Creative Commons’ CEO, Joi Ito recently gave a talk at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich. If you’ve been waiting to watch a talk introducing Creative Commons to 2009, this is your talk.

Joi first hits on how CC helps innovators (especially those online) lower the transaction costs when dealing with cultural works restricted by copyright law. Moreover, CC has the potential lower costs in much of the same way that the openness of the early Internet enabled start-ups like Google and eBay to lower their transaction costs and innovate. Joi then discusses some of the successes CC has seen in the last year, making for an great overview of what CC has been up to and where we are headed.

(Apologies if this post appears twice in your feed reader, our original post disappeared.)

Kraftwerk Sampling Case Overturned

Cameron Parkins, November 21st, 2008

Kraftwerk by greenplastic875 | CC BY

German electronic-music pioneers Kraftwerk were told yesterday by a judge in Germany that a two-second sample used by a producer in Germany did not infringe on their copyright. From the BBC (emphasis added):

The ruling overturns an earlier decision against Moses Pelham’s use of a short sample from Metal on Metal.

Judges in Berlin said the two second extract did not infringe copyright, as his song was substantially different.