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Support the Creative Commons

The Creative Commons is having a unique fund drive - you can support the Creative Commons by simply watching videos!

"We're the first nonprofit organization to raise money through online video sharing. We uploaded a bunch of videos to Revver, a video sharing platform that uses Creative Commons licenses to help creators make money from their work. Revver attaches a short ad at the end of each video on its network. When a viewer clicks on the ad, Revver splits the resulting ad revenue with the video's creator.  Usually it's a 50-50 split, but Revver is generously giving Creative Commons 100% of the money our videos make through the end of our fundraising campaign."

Let a thousand Googles bloom

By Lawrence Lessig in the Los Angeles Times:

"Last month, Google announced a partnership with major research libraries to scan 20 million books for inclusion in Google's search database. For those works in the public domain, the full text will be available. For those works still possibly under copyright, only snippets will be seen. The potential of this project is only beginning to be understood — it is likely to bring about the most dramatic changes in the nature of research and the spread of culture since the birth of Google itself.

Google's gamble shows that it is time for Congress to listen to both the content industry and the digital entrepreneurs. Our culture should be available for anyone — not just a deep-pockets Google — to build on and spread, consistent with the purpose of copyright law. The law's inefficiencies should not block that opportunity.

Reforms designed to clarify copyrights would allow Google to do more with our cultural and intellectual past without legal worries. They would also allow others, at very low cost, to do the very same."

Charter prevails over RIAA

By Ted Hearn in MultiChannel News:

"A Federal Appeals Court ruled Tuesday that Charter Communications Inc. was served with illegal subpoenas as part of an effort by the music industry to obtain the names of high-speed-data subscribers suspected of illegally swapping songs over the Internet.

The decision was handed down by a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which held that Charter was not required to comply with the subpoenas because the cable company had acted as a disinterested conduit that file swappers utilized allegedly to exchange copyrighted material.

“With its ruling, the [court] has concurred with our belief that no statutory basis exists for the issuance of subpoenas requiring the disclosure of customer information to the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America] by Charter,” Charter spokesman David Andersen said in a prepared statement."

More MPAA suits expected in piracy fight

From the Los Angeles Times:

"The Motion Picture Assn. of America is expected to step up its legal assault on film piracy today by announcing a crackdown on two resilient hotbeds of illegal file sharing: BitTorrent tracker sites and EDonkey servers.

The former help people use BitTorrent software, a popular and highly effective tool for copying films and other large files. The latter enable users of EDonkey software to find and download movies and other files stored on other users' computers.

The move is part of a new, larger legal offensive by Hollywood studios, which last month sued more than 200 unnamed defendants it alleges were online movie pirates."

Senate may ram copyright bill

From Wired News, by Michael Grebb:

"Several lobbying camps from different industries and ideologies are joining forces to fight an overhaul of copyright law, which they say would radically shift in favor of Hollywood and the record companies and which Congress might try to push through during a lame-duck session that begins this week.

The Senate might vote on HR2391, the Intellectual Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge could make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players and other products criminally liable for copyright infringement. The bill would also undo centuries of "fair use" — the principle that gives Americans the right to use small samples of the works of others without having to ask permission or pay."

Fair-use fans hail McCain

From Broadcasting & Cable by John Eggerton:

"Consumers Union, Public Knowledge and other fair-use fans have written a thank-you letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for his efforts to block the quick passage of copyright-related legislation that the groups argued favored Hollywood.

"Through your objection to the further consideration or passage of these bills by unanimous consent," they wrote, "you have again shown that the rights and expectations of consumers and the public are paramount in the balance between copyright and innovation."

Intl Group pushing alternative to copyright status quo

From the Wall Street Journal by Dow Jones Newswires:

"Getting rights OK'ed can be frustrating for artists, be they authors seeking to quote an essay or documentary filmmakers who've got snippets of pop songs playing in the background of key scenes.

Artists and scholars who believe the current copyright system unduly stifles creativity are pushing a less restrictive alternative that they call the Creative Commons. Its adherents are a varied lot. They include MIT, the Beastie Boys, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, newspaper columnist Dan Gillmor and the British Broadcasting Corp."

Universal Chief pitches piracy protection

By John Eggerton in Broadcasting and Cable:

"Universal Pictures president Rick Finkelstein will be on the Hill Wednesday making a personal pitch to members of the Senate Judiciary Commitee for closing "loopholes" that permit peer-to-peer piracy.

The so-called Induce bill, S. 2560, which would target secondary copyright violations by parties that "induce" pirating, particuarly distribution over peer-to-peer computer networks, has been through a number of drafts as the studios and "fair use" proponents continue to push for different versions. It is expected to be marked up in the committee Thursday, though it has not yet been scheduled.

Studios want as much copyright protection as they can get, while fair use proponents are trying to make sure that the language is not so broad that currently protected copying and distribution are criminalized. One side's protection, of course, is the other's loophole."

Anitpiracy bill divides studios and tech companies

by Sarah McBride in the Wall Street Journal:

"Fighting a losing battle against music and movie pirates, the entertainment industry is trying a fresh tack: seeking new laws that would make it easier to prosecute people who illegally trade songs and films over the Internet.

Copyright holders are stepping up the drive toward new antipiracy legislation in the wake of a stinging federal appeals-court ruling that would allow creators of Internet file-sharing software to stay in operation, despite piracy by their users.

Unless it's overturned by the Supreme Court, the ruling may make it difficult for the industry ever to get satisfaction from the courts when it comes to file-sharing.

With that as a backdrop, movie studios, music companies and other copyright holders believe they need stricter laws that would allow them to sue people who they think encourage copyright violation by creating technologies that enable piracy. Congress is poised soon to revisit a controversial bill, known as the Induce Act, that takes direct aim at makers of the peer-to-peer software used in the illicit online trade in copyrighted songs, movies and other material. The bill's high-profile supporters include much of the entertainment industry, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But companies in a wide range of other industries — consumer electronics, technology and even financial services — worry that the Induce Act could ensnare them as well. The companies fear they would face liability if their products — CD and DVD burners, for example — were used by people making illegal copies of entertainment products. Even manufacturers of components for those products fear they could face lawsuits if the proposed law takes effect. Among the companies that have come out against the act are Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc."

Outfoxed offered for remix

From wired.com:

"For years, the remixing of songs, both licit and illicit, has been almost as common as the release of original music. The same has not been true of films: There have been only a few recuts of films by people other than the original director or editors, and few if any were legal.

But now, thanks to Robert Greenwald, the maker of the anti-Fox News Channel documentary Outfoxed, film may be poised to join music as a medium ripe for being re-edited and re-imagined by third parties.

Greenwald has announced that he is making much of the Outfoxed unedited footage available free of charge, under a Creative Commons license, to the public for remixing and re-using in nearly any manner imaginable. Under these licenses, holders of original copyrights give other people permission to use their content in other works without having to jump through the legal hoops of typical industry-made fare.

"I hope there will be a series of creative, interesting and different ways that this material will be utilized by all kinds of different folks," said Greenwald. "And I look forward to seeing what comes out of it. And toward that end, the possibilities are very exciting as to what people will do, because there are no limits other than creativity."

To many in the film industry, Greenwald's decision to make the raw Outfoxed content available for download on Internet Archive and torrentocracy is an exciting move and one that could set an important precedent. By all accounts, it's one of the first times a major motion picture has been offered for public manipulation. "