[This is part of a weekly series written by Lawrence Lessig and others about the history and future of Creative Commons. Alternatively, if you know others who might find these interesting, please recommend they sign up at https://creativecommons.org/about/lessigletter] From last week’s episode: … Like the Free Software Movement, we believed this device would help open…

Dateline: 1980. New York-based typesetter Rick Prelinger was trying to “make it in the movies” and writing a reference book on two-way radio frequencies on an IBM Selectric typewriter. Two years later, he became the Research Director for “Heavy Petting,” the Norman Lear-funded Atomic Café-like documentary about sexuality in the 20th Century. Armed with photocopies…

A museum exhibit called “Illegal Art” might sound like a history of naughty pictures. Turns out that the exhibit (through July 25 at SF MOMA Artist’s Gallery) is more innocuous than most primetime TV: A Mickey Mouse gasmask. Pez candy dispensers honoring fallen hip-hop stars. A litigious Little Mermaid. Not kids’ stuff, exactly—but illegal? Copyright…

Flickr is a new photo management application that lets you annotate photos, share them with friends and family, and now, apply Creative Commons licenses to your shared photos. Flickr’s co-founder, Stewart Butterfield, talked to Creative Commons about this interesting application. Creative Commons: Can you tell us how flickr came to be? Stewart Butterfield, Flickr: That’s…

Photo © Iñaki Vinaixa Dj Spooky (aka Paul Miller) is a multimedia DJ and Creative Commons advocate who remixes not only music but also film/cinema and fine art. Spooky’s film Rebirth of a Nation intersperses modern images with cuts from D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (now in the public domain) to create a new…

Magnatune provides “Internet music without the guilt.” Based in Berkeley, California, Magnatune is a record label with a 21st Century business model, offering consumers a unique mix of free and paid music. One of the first for-profit companies to adopt Creative Commons’ copyright licenses into its strategy, Magnatune has amassed both an impressive buzz and…

The Public Library of Science is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. PLoS emerged in October 2000 through the effort of three dynamic and highly respected scientists: Nobel Laureate and former head of the National Institutes of Health Harold Varmus, molecular biologist Pat Brown…

San Francisco, US, & London, UK, 1st August 2005—Creative Commons and www.werennotafraid.com (WNA) today announced a landmark partnership whereby WNA will incorporate Creative Commons licensing into the WNA site, upcoming Proud Gallery exhibit and the ‘We’re Not Afraid’ book. By using the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license, people around the world will be able to…

San Francisco, US, & London, UK, 1st August 2005—Creative Commons and www.werennotafraid.com (WNA) today announced a landmark partnership whereby WNA will incorporate Creative Commons licensing into the WNA site, upcoming Proud Gallery exhibit and the ‘We’re Not Afraid’ book. By using the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license, people around the world will be able to…

Free computer art software visual artist activist programmer (mix and match, also CC mailing list discussant) Rob Myers has a lecture (July 29) and exhibition (running July 27 – August 8) at o3one gallery in Belgrade, Serbia, supported by the British Council. From 1969 by Rob Myers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. Addendum: Pictures of…