“Neue Rechte für neue Zeiten,” by Julian Finn.

“Creative Commons y la profundidad del copyright,” in Spanish.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, the first novel by blogger, cultural critic, and Electronic Frontier Foundation wonk Cory Doctorow, entered the world today. Wired‘s Mark Frauenfelder calls Down and Out “the most entertaining and exciting science fiction story I’ve read in the last few years,” and Bruce Sterling declares, “Science fiction needs Cory Doctorow!”

Doctorow has published Down and Out under a Creative Commons license.

Read our interview with the author — our latest Featured Commoner.

“People are always looking for what side to be on, and there isn’t just one side. . . . I think we’re looking for a kinder, gentler, more equitable model where more people can make a living off of this stuff.”

The wise words of Jenny Toomey, musician, policy wonk, and Executive Director of the Future of Music Coalition. A nice piece in Wired News sums up FMC’s brilliant, third-annual summit in Washington this week.

One more from today’s cosmic copyright coincidence file:

“Some of These Bootleggers, They Make Pretty Good Stuff” — a Salon piece on Bob Dylan and “the hidden industry he (unwittingly) helped create.” Thought-provoking.

An interesting piece in the New York Times today discusses “Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age,” an exhibition dedicated to works built in part from other copyrighted works — without permission.

By sign-of-the-times coincidence, I participated in a panel yesterday entitled “The Illegal Imagination,” at the Future of Music Coalition’s superb summit in Washington D.C. Co-panelists Gigi Sohn (Public Knowledge), Siva Vaidhyathan (NYU), musician Alfonzo Blackwell, and moderator Ira Glass (This American Life) and I discussed precisely the same issues. Aided by spirited audience participation (one of the many great hallmarks of the FMC gathering), we discussed hip-hop and sampling, the ever-growing world of “mash-up” media, and copyright’s influence on creativity, generally.

“Though copyright law can make for arcane discussion,” writes the Times‘ Chris Nelson, “popular culture has brimmed with the subject of late.”

And brim it will. As readers of this blog already know, few can afford to consider copyright “arcane” for much longer. Whether you’re an artist, a fan, a coder, or a casual web-surfer, knowing the ins and outs of copyright — for better or worse — is already part of getting by in the wired world. Copyright’s not just for lawyers anymore.

—Glenn Otis Brown

Innovative content licensing seems to be catching on — even beyond the efforts of Creative Commons.

Prentince Hall PTR recently announced that they’ll publish a series of technical books under open-content licenses. Read the Slashdot story.

Kudos to Bruce Perens for brokering the move, and to Prentice Hall for joining O’Reilly and Associaties in the elite club of enlightened commercial publishers.

(You’ll recall that the O’Reilly folks recently adopted our Founder’s Copyright, under which they’ll release certain copyrights into the public domain after 14 years, with an option to renew for another 14 — just as the Framers’ of the U.S. Constitution would have had it.)

Do you know someone using a Creative Commons license for a unique or compelling project? We like to profile such Featured Commoners, and we’d like your suggestions. Email us.

UK-based media artist (and Creative Commons license adopter) People Like Us will perform in New York City this week. On January 8th, People Like Us (a.k.a. Vicki Bennett) will screen the intriguingly titled “We Edit Life” at Subtonic. On the 12th from 5pm to 7pm EST, People Like Us will hit the airwaves with WFMU, available at 90.1 or 91.1 on your dial or via webcast at WFMU’s site.

Creative Commons had the honor of featuring People Like Us at our recent license release party in San Francisco. Check out the works People Like Us has already released under Creative Commons licenses.

The Future of Music Coalition will host their third-annual Policy Summit January 4 through 7 in Washington D.C. The FMC3 summit will bring policymakers, academics, lawyers, activists — and, of course, a number of premier musicians — together for a discussion of artists’ rights and technology’s influence on the music industry.

Glenn Otis Brown, Creaitve Commons Executive Director, will appear on a panel, “The Illegal Imagination,” on Monday, January 6, along with “This American Life” host Ira Glass, writer and lyricist John Perry Barlow, musicians Doug E. Fresh and Alonzo Blackwell, Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, and NYU professor Siva Vaidhyanathan (author of Copyrights and Copywrongs and the forthcoming The Anarchist in the Library). See the full program schedule.