Reminder: Tonight is CC Salon, San Francisco

Eric Steuer, September 13th, 2006

If you’re in the Bay Area tonight (Wednesday, September 13, from 6-9pm), please make sure to join us for CC Salon at Shine (1337 Mission Street, between 9th and 10th Streets). Tonight’s event features presentations and performances by Irene McGee, Brian Malow, and Keldamuzik.

Previously blogged (with more information and *lovely* photos) here.

Lessig LinuxWorld keynote now available

Francesca Rodriquez, September 12th, 2006

Last month, we reported that Creative Commons CEO Larry Lessig delivered a keynote to LinuxWorld. For those of you who could not make it to San Francisco to hear his talk, Free Culture: What We Need From You, you can now watch and download it here from the LinuxWorld website.

PdfLicenseManager for embedding XMP in PDFs

Mike Linksvayer, September 12th, 2006

Enrico Masala, a researcher at the Internet Media Group of the Politecnico di Torino, home of CC Italy’s Juan Carlos De Martin, has imported his PdfLicenseManager code into the CC Tools project on sourceforge. PdfLicenseManager provides GUI and command line interfaces for embedding XMP metadata into PDF files.

Web-based Media Sharing Software ccHost 3.0 Released Today

Jon Phillips, September 8th, 2006

The Open Source engine that powers
ccMixter.org and the upcoming
Open Clip Art Library infrastructure
received a
major feature release today. Part of the 3.0 release are native forums,
multi-language support, e-mail notifications, support for XSPF 1.0, amongst
several other wonderful features and bug fixes.

ccHost is a great Open Source project for new and old developers. Please visit
ccHost’s wiki in order
to learn more about the software, and see how to get involved.

The ccHost community’s development plans are ramping up now as there are
several new projects adopting and planning to use this software. Now is the
time to plug into this community in order to help shape its direction so that
you can help your community to legally share the media of your choice through
ccHost and the Creative Commons’ licenses.

UPDATE: We found a bug and so patched this release. Please visit this page to get the updated ccHost 3.0.1.

Brazilian Movie - Cafuné - Released Simultaneously in Theaters and Online (under a CC License)

Mia Garlick, September 7th, 2006

A Brazilian feature film - Cafuné - has been simultaneously released both in the cinemas and on the Internet, allowing the audience create different story ends.

Bruno Vianna’s first feature film, called Cafuné, is pioneering an innovative distribution scheme. On August 25th, 2006, it started in the Brazilian movie theaters. In the same day, it was made available for downloading online under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Brazil licence, allowing anyone to download, copy and distribute it for non-commercial purposes. It also allows anyone to make their own cut of the film, subsequently releasing the result, as long as they use the same Creative Commons license.

In spite of the growing number of movies being produce in Brazil, only approximately 50 Brazilian movies are released in the Brazilian movie theaters every year, creating a significant distribution funnel. Bruno Viana´s initiative demonstrates new possibilities that might help to overcome the narrow, existing distribution channels. As Bruno says: “Why should movies be restricted to a few cinemas that can show the film only for a short period of time? Why shouldn’t we seek wider audience, exploring all possible means of distribution?”

In Brazil, the absolute majority of films are produced by a public financing system. Making movies available online is a way to increase the value of the film to the public, and to society as whole. The simultaneous release was only made possible because of the support of his distributor, the well-known Grupo Estação, based in Rio de Janeiro.

Bruno Vianna is known as a short film director concerned with social problems, violence, and gender. The film takes place in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and tells the story of a rich girl falling in love with a poor guy living in the favelas (shantytowns). Viana explores the way people live in Rio de Janeiro, and examines interesting aspects of the contemporary “carioca” society.

Another pioneering decision in the distribution of the film is that movie theaters received two versions of the same film. Accordingly, depending on the movie theater that the film is watched, a different conclusion to the story takes place. Bruno´s idea was to demonstrate the narrative possibilities from the same film. Following the director´s example, the audiences will be able to create their own finales to the movie.

The two versions of Cafuné are available for downloading at the Overmundo website: one 91 minutes long and one 73 minutes long. More info available here.

Thanks to Ronaldo who heads up the CC Brazil team (among many other things) for the information for this posting.

CC Salon SF: Sept 13 f/ Irene McGee, Brian Malow, Keldamuzik

Eric Steuer, September 6th, 2006

It’s time for another CC Salon SF! If you’re in the Bay Area, please join us on Wednesday, September 13, from 6-9pm (don’t worry if you’re late; there will be stuff happening all night) at Shine, (1337 Mission Street between 9th and 10th Streets). Shine has free wi-fi and a super cool Flickr photo booth. Note: Since Shine is a bar, CC Salon is only open to people who are 21 and older.

This month’s line-up:
* Irene McGee (No One’s Listening, MTV’s The Real World: Seattle), who will discuss media ethics, podcasting, and the state of radio.

* Comedian Brian Malow (But Seriously, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — video here), who will be performing a CC-licensed stand-up routine that he wants people to record and remix.

* And a performance by Oakland-based hip-hop artist Keldamuzik, who is distributing three of her new tracks under a CC license.

This Flickr photo of CC Salon was taken by mlinksva and is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Details:
CC Salon, San Francisco
September 13, 6-9pm
Shine (1337 Mission Street, between 9th and 10th Streets)
Track this event on Upcoming.org

About CC Salon:
CC Salon is a free, casual monthly get-together focused on conversation, presentations, and performances from people or groups who are developing projects that relate to open content and/or software. Please invite your friends, colleagues, and anyone you know who might be interested in drinks and discussion. There are now CC Salons happening in San Francisco, Toronto, Berlin, Beijing, Warsaw, Seoul, and most recently — Johannesburg. Read about the first Joburg salon on iCommons.org.

This Flickr photo of a CC Salon flyer was taken by shizhao and is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Lifehacker on finding reusable media

Mike Linksvayer, September 1st, 2006

Lifehacker picks six ways to find reusable media:

You need an image for that brochure you’re designing, and you need it now. Put your hands in the air and step away from the cheesy clipart, mister. Thanks to organizations like Creative Commons, licenses like the GNU Free Documentation License, and the public domain, there are tons of photos, songs, movies and documents freely available for you to download and republish without fear of the copyright police.

CC’s search interface is resource #1.