The New York Times today reports on a surreal U.S. Treasury Department Policy: Anyone who publishes material from a country under a trade embargo is forbidden to reorder paragraphs or sentences, correct syntax or grammar, or replace “inappropriate words,” according to several advisory letters from the Treasury Department in recent months. Adding illustrations is prohibited,…

Just a little over two weeks until South by Southwest, the wonderful tech-film-music conference in Austin, Texas, USA (my beloved hometown). If you’re in town, come check out our two panels on music (Sample, Share, or Both?) and film (Can Copyright Bring the Audience to the Director?) the morning of March 15. That night we’ll…

Annalee Newitz has a nice article in this week’s SF Bay Guardian about independent publishing and the some rights reserved copyright model.

Neeru Paharia, our assistant director, will be in Holland over the next few days to attend the Third Zwolle Conference, entitled “Optimal management of copyright: Making it happen,” on February 13 and 14. Neeru will also be checking in with friends of CC in Holland. Meanwhile, iCommons coordinator Christiane Asschenfeldt will be visiting Switzerland over…

Never thought I’d say this, but the Super Bowl got me thinking. Why shouldn’t every advertiser release every print, audio, or multimedia ad they create under a Creative Commons license? Choose BY-NC-ND, and make clear you’re protecting your trademark. Forget the cultural effect — I’m talking pure business: What principle drives someone to enforce the…