“Auntie’s digital revelation” by Danny O’Brien

“Semantic Web: Out of the Theory Realm” By Michael Singer

From November 12th through 19th, Creative Commons will host a week-long online discussion entitled “Copyleft, Right & Center: Innovations in Law,” cosponsored by Eyebeam and the University of Maine. We’d like to invite you, members of the Creative Commons community, to participate in the discussion by joining the list. The resulting dialogue will be edited…

Berklee College of Music, the world’s largest independent music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music, today launched Berklee Shares, a groundbreaking new program that offers music lessons — free under Creative Commons licenses — and encourages musicians to share and distribute the lessons online. Berklee Shares consist of a growing…

Last week, British lawmakers passed a new bill to add electronic publications (including websites) as documents stored in national archives. This new law augments existing laws that cover all printed materials produced in the UK since 1911.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (in California) ruled yesterday that the Beastie Boys’ sampling of a three-note segment of James Newton’s composition to the song “Choir” did not infringe Newton’s copyright. The court ruled that the sample was a “de minimis” — or trivial — instance of copying and thus not…

In the Creative Business section of today’s Financial Times, there’s a good article about how and why Creative Commons was formed, titled “It’s not all or nothing: A middle way for copyright holders is emerging.” A subscription is required to review the article.

The Public Library of Science, an open access journal we covered as a featured commoner, has released new articles from its upcoming Biology issue (which is also Creative Commons licensed). One article in particular (PDF synopsis) details a study that found a strong association between obesity and a gene on chromosome 10. As obesity is…

A month ago, we mentioned the emerging “mob spots” phenomena, and how Creative Commons licenses might play a role. It looks like the folks at MoveOn.org have come close to the goals laid out in our earlier post. They’re doing a 30-second spot contest, with all entries licensed under Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works. This…

This week’s featured content is Loca Records. This is an “open source” record label that features a variety of electronic music artists, with many of their songs available under a Creative Commons license. Their mission is to change the way record companies do business and follow the GNU/Linux model of releasing work and receiving compensation.