Download the Creative Commons Newsletter #5

Michelle Thorne, February 6th, 2008

Answering Melissa Reeder’s invitation to share & remix our bimonthly newsletter, Atty. Michael Vernon M. Guerrero, Deputy Project Lead of CC Philippines, has released this absolutely beautiful PDF version. Enjoy!

CC Salon in Chennai

Michelle Thorne, February 6th, 2008

The first ever CC Salon in India will be held in Chennai on Saturday, February 9th at 4:00pm in The Camp. Come stop by for a discussion on Creative Commons, musical performances, networking, games, and a CC Birthday Party & dinner. Our thanks to Kiruba Shankar for his efforts in organizing!

Interested in hosting a salon in your area? Visit http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Start_Your_Own_Salon.

Secondary Sound Released Under CC-License

Cameron Parkins, February 4th, 2008

Secondary Sound, a book of poems and short stories by Justin Sirois, was recently released simultaneously through BlazeVOX [books] as well as online via afree PDF. Much of Secondary Sound, which is released under a CC BY-NC-SA license, addresses copyright reform and freedom of information, making for interesting parallels and diversions between content and distribution. From BlazeVOX [books]:

An absurdist media firm hires a pirate to “create the most alluring ringtone known to man” – while the author takes a secondary role as this digital scallywag plunders and pillages his way through the book’s vexing text messages. Presumably the first manuscript of both poems and fiction to be licensed with creative commons, Secondary Sound questions the legal limits of electronic sampling, asks why zombies and pirates are so in vogue, and pushes the limits of poetry (and hopefully makes it fun again). 

Anomolo Records Launches English Site

Cameron Parkins, February 4th, 2008

Anomolo Records, an Italian based net-label that has been active for over 5 years, recently launched an English version of their website, extending a backlog of CC-licensed music to an entirely new demographic. Anomolo utilize a variety of CC licenses (differing depending on the artist) and have seen serious traction, amassing over 450,000 downloads since their launch. They join a bevy of CC-based record labels (including fellow Italians OnClassical) in promoting an open and free approach to music marketing, an inspiring trend to say the least.

Ronaldo Lemos’ Public Policy Talk at Google

Cameron Parkins, February 4th, 2008

Ronaldo Lemos, chairman of iCommons and director for CC Brazil, recently gave a talk at the Google Public Policy series based around the theme of “Cultural Production and Digital Inclusion in Developing Countries”. It is a fascinating talk and a must watch for those interested in CC’s international jurisdiction work.

The Art of Magic Words

Cameron Parkins, February 4th, 2008

In one of the more unconventional uses of CC-licenses we have seen, Lysse Smith Wylle’s The Art of Magic Words, a book focused on spell poetry and magickal prose, is published with an instructional spell section licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. From GroundMarkPress:

While the first four chapters of the book are published under a traditional copyright—an instructional section meant to teach how to
compose spells in verse form—the final, “Grimoire” chapter is being published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial
Share-alike (NCSA) license. That means the spells can be republished on the Web or in a Book of Shadows without having to seek special permission from the author or a publisher.

“I encourage it,” she said. “In fact, I want other practitioners to modify my spells to fit their needs and situation. Under the Creative Commons license I’ve chosen, the spells I’ve written can be republished in their modified form, as well.”

You can buy the book on Lulu.com and begin open-source spell casting right away.

Enrico Casarosa on CC

Cameron Parkins, February 4th, 2008

Enrico Casarosa, a story artist at Pixar and creator of “SketchCrawl,” recently posted some thoughts about Creative Commons on his personal blog, capping his entry with the statement “Why not share ideas?”. Casarosa’s SketchCrawl encourages artists and non-artists alike to draw/paint/sketch continuously for an entire day, simply for the purpose of pushing one’s creative boundaries and love of drawing.

As more people are made aware of CC’s ideas (Casarosa was present at a talk by CC’s CEO Lawrence Lessig) the breadth of CC’s worth growths exponentially. It is fascinating to observe the value different groups and individuals see in CC licensing.

Scobleizing the public domain

Mike Linksvayer, February 4th, 2008

Superblogger Rober Scoble recently took a ton of photos of famous people at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and released the photos into the public domain, along with all of his other photos posted on Flickr. (Note that Flickr’s most liberal license option is CC Attribution, so that’s what he’s chosen there.)

Of course the photos immediately started being used in Wikipedia articles.

Here’s a recent Scoble photo, not from Davos, but another recent event (coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle):

Lawrence Lessig at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium / photo by Robert Scoble / Public Domain

Via Brianna Laugher.

Open documentary proposal: then you win

Mike Linksvayer, February 4th, 2008

A proposal to create three documentaries related to the movement Ekta Parishad.

One interesting thing about the proposal is the funding and licensing model, which the image below explains well. This model has been discussed many times but little tried.

Wikitravel Press launches first printed titles

Mike Linksvayer, February 3rd, 2008

Wikitravel Press announced its first printed guidebooks, Wikitravel Chicago and Wikitravel Singapore. Like the Wikitravel site, the books are licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike, allowing sharing and adaption, including commercial uses.

Taking collaboratively created material to print is another landmark for the Wikitravel community, and another commercial success for Wikitravel’s founders, who sold the site to Internet Brands in 2006 and subsequently launched Wikitravel Press (they have an agreement with Internet Brands to use the Wikitravel name in this independent business).

Wikitravel Press titles look like normal guidebooks rather than printouts of related wiki articles, but they aren’t stale tomes either — they’re updated every month and printed to order. So while the businesses-built-on-liberal-licenses angle is cool, I think currency is another area in which Wikitravel Press will lead the travel guide pack. As someone who has printed out articles from Wikitravel and other online resources in lieu of buying travel books for a couple years (in spite of always ending up with a disorganized mess of papers by the end of a trip), I wouldn’t go back to the convenient packaging of a book unless it were nearly as up to date as the web.