Before starting to criticise Jaron Lanier’s “You Are Not a Gadget”, I have to state clearly that this is an important book that should be read by anyone interested in debating the role the Internet plays in modern society. However one may want to criticise its content, and there are Read more…
In recent years Flickr has been one of the best examples of user-generated content, billions of pictures uploaded by people all over the world, usually available under a Creative Commons licence. It is because of the sheer volume of content that Flickr has also become one of the most visible Read more…
[Disclaimer: What follows is the vetted CC version. There were a couple of errors in the version I read at the meeting] Statement by Creative Commons to CDIP5 (Geneva, 26 April 2010) Thank you Mr Chairman for the opportunity to make a statement; we would like to join other delegates Read more…
[Disclaimer: I am attending as representative from Creative Commons, but this blog expresses only my opinions and not CC’s] Dr Francis Gurry, Secreatary General of WIPO opens the proceedings. There are funds and staff for development. Established an office of economist and established a “Challenges” office. There is a new Read more…
Seems like the volcano gods have stayed their hand, so I’ll be away in Geneva next week attending the Fifth Session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) at WIPO on behalf of Creative Commons. Will blog and tweet accordingly depending on internet availability.
Read a very interesting article by Wired UK about web archiving. In my experience, one only need utter the word “archive” and audiences the world over will be immediately sent to sleep. Although by now half of my readership will be in the middle of a narcoleptic slumber, I shall Read more…
Non-commercial clauses in Creative Commons licences tend to be a controversial subject in open licensing circles. Creative Commons has released a sizeable and comprehensive report on the non-commercial definition that answers everything you ever wanted to know about NC. Still, a good number of people in the open camp insist Read more…
Beautiful animation based on xkcd comic 442. Sharing through CC can create some amazing derivatives, but we already knew that. I Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo.
If one was to chart the tags used in this blog, it would be easy to get a sense of shift in interests through time. From early interest in P2P, passing through software patents, sprinklings of DRM and virtual worlds, one early topic that has received diminishing interest has been Read more…
The Open Knowledge Foundation has announced the release of the version 1.0 of the Open Database Licence (ODbL). As the name implies, the ODbL is an open licence which protects data contained in databases, and allows the modification, redistribution, use and reuse of such data. Databases are protected either by Read more…