Weblog
2007 August
Internet Archive web-based upload
The Internet Archive has been the most important repository of Creative Commons licensed media since Creative Commons launched over 4 1/2 years ago. However, their ftp-based upload was a barrier to those unfamiliar with that pre-web technology and the Internet Archive’s upload workflow. A small price to pay for otherwise free access to the repository most likely to make your work available forever–that’s the point. And using ftp made sense, as the Internet Archive wants to keep the highest quality files possible — that means huge files, and web-based upload was not up to that task.
CC wanted to make the Internet Archive more accessible to artists, so we created ccPublisher, which hid ftp and most of the workflow complexity, making upload a drag and drop operation. This was imperfect, as it required artists to install a desktop application and Creative Commons to maintain a cross platform desktop application requiring network access, which takes a lot of work to do well across the many versions and configurations of Windows, Mac, and Linux in widespread use — and the developer (Nathan Yergler, now our CTO) could only dedicate a fraction of his time to the project.
Through some combination of factors–perhaps more robust file upload code in browsers, on the server side, and wider deployment of broadband — web-based upload for fairly large files now works well. So the Internet Archive has rolled out a web-based uploader at archive.org/create. It doesn’t look all that interesting, but actually is very important — it dramatically lowers the barrier for artists who want their work to be part of the permanent record of free culture. Of course choosing a Creative Commons license is a built-in part of the uploader.
So upload away! The Internet Archive still recommends ftp or ccPublisher for files over 100MB, but that barrier will fall eventually as well.
60sox — more CC coolness from Australia
CC Australia has another cool announcement today:
We here at CCAU are always excited to hear about new concepts designed to help Australian/Kiwi creators get paid for what they do, especially when CC licences are involved. So we’re very happy to call attention to the launch of 60Sox, a new initiative coming out of the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation.
60Sox is an online network aimed at connecting creative talent with industry professionals. By providing a home to showcase their digital wares, 60sox gives creators the opportunity to generate exposure, make industry contacts, receive feedback and critical appraisal from peers and industry DSLs (dead set legends) and…wait for it… get paid for their work!
…
As an important part of its ethos of sharing as a vital part of promotion and creativity, 60Sox encourages creators to upload their materials under a Creative Commons licence. 60sox’s comprehensive, flexible and easy to follow upload system places it right up there in the CC best practice stakes. It uses the CC “Attribution–NonCommercial-ShareAlike Australia 2.5” licence as its default upload licence, but gives users the option to use another CC licence, or even all rights reserved if they wish. By doing so, 60sox actively promotes the exchange of artistic works in the digital domain and encourages creative interaction (eg through remixing), but at the same time retains creators’ freedom to choose their own licensing model to meet their own preferences.
Read the full post at CC Australia.
Here’s a capture of license selection at 60sox:
First CC Salon LA: Eric Steuer, Pixelodeon, and Vosotros Music
This Thursday, August 30th, between 7PM and 9PM, we will be hosting our very first CC Salon in Los Angeles at LAND in Little Tokyo (366 E. 2nd St). The Salons are a great opportunity to meet-up with others interested in Creative Commons, technology, new media and discuss how we can all work together.
To say we are excited for this Salon would be an understatement – joining us will be JetSet Show/Pixelodeon, the popular vlog/Vloger Awards Conference (discussed previously here), and Vosotros Music, an amazing LA-based, CC-oriented, record label. Eric Steuer, CC’s Creative Director, will be rounding out the Salon with a discussion of what is happening in the world of CC in the upcoming months.
The fun doesn’t end there though as Vosotros’ monthly concert series, Live@Land, will be taking place afterwards with some musical performances that are bound to be amazing. We’ve heard rumors of a beat-boxing tuba player – what more can you ask for?
Check out the upcoming page here – the drinks are right and the food delicious. Its going to be a great time and we can’t wait to see you there.
2 Comments »Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons
Creative Commons Australia has just published an amazing 65 page report on the use and potential of CC licenses in various sectors of the Australian economy, government, and media.
In November 2006, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCi), in conjunction with the Queensland University of Technology, hosted the CCau Industry Forum, a research-focused industry engagement event. The event was run by the CCi ccClinic and CC + OCL Research projects, and aimed to evaluate understanding of and attitudes towards copyright, OCL and CC in Australia. The Forum focused on the government, education and the creative industries sectors.
Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons: An Industry Engagement and Action Agenda evaluates and responds to the outcomes of this Forum and presents a strategy for continued research into Creative Commons in Australia.
Please download the report here.
The report is of course licensed under CC Attribution 2.5 Australia.
No Comments »OpenMoko’s New Interface Licensed Under CC BY-SA 3.0
OpenMoko, the world’s first integrated open source mobile platform, released the artwork for their phone interface under a CC BY-SA 3.0. It is important to note that the software stack on the OpenMoko tries to completely run on Free Software, so that an owner has the freedom to do what they like with their OpenMoko hardware. Sean Moss-Pultz, project lead states this about the OpenMoko mobile interface:
Personally, I feel that one of the most important areas for this project
is the development and exploration of the mobile user interface. The
human-machine interface is the intersection of art and technology. Great
interfaces blend the visual with the technical. They balance simplicity
with complexity. Often times, I feel, really great new interfaces are
not immediately intuitive. They are not instantly natural. In fact, I
would even argue this can be detrimental to improving interface design.
If an interface is to be superior it must be different. Therefore it
can’t be intuitive, that is, familiar. A better metric, perhaps, is the
learning time it takes until the interface feel’s natural and intuitive.Now that we have freed phones, everyone can contribute to an improved
baseline interface. This is our collective challenge. Can we create
something truly different? Can we lead this incredibly important field?
This is super cool and underlines some other projects Creative Commons has been working on this summer, such as liblicense, a software library for handling content licensing on various desktops (gnome, kde, olpc’s sugar, etc). One of the considerations for liblicense, in addition to adding licensing to the OLPC, is for the OpenMoko.
While Creative Commons is focused on providing the world with free content licenses, we also spend a good deal of time developing tools to support this endeavour. Stop for a minute and consider what a device like OpenMoko or OLPC would be if you can’t get access to great content, the archives of human knowledge, free and open content? Also, what about how these devices are also content recorders now? One should also be able to put this content up on a site like flickr or blip.tv simply and easily. LibLicense helps with this goal. It is a great project that you will hear more about in the ongoing days.
No Comments »Mozilla 24: A 24-hour Worldwide Community Event
Our good friends over at Mozilla are hosting the Mozilla 24 conference on Sept. 14th – 16th, spanning many continents and time zones. This event will feature presentations by industry leaders on the trends and technologies that will help shape the future of the Web. The cool thing about this conference (besides the content & speakers, of course) is that it will take place at locations in Japan, Europe, and at Stanford University (you can register here for the U.S. conference which is completely free). Don’t be disappointed if you’re unable to attend in person – it will also be happening online via the broadband video WIDE network so that anyone can participate from anywhere. Oh, the beauty of the internet.
For more info check out Mozilla’s post on Upcoming.
No Comments »Dutch Collecting Societies Welcome CC
From Paul Keller – CC Netherlands Project Lead:
On August 23, 2007, Dutch collecting societies Buma and Stemra and Creative Commons Netherlands launched a pilot project that seeks to provide Dutch musicians with more opportunities to promote their own repertoire. This project enables members of Buma/Stemra to use the 3 non-commercial CC licenses for non-commercial distribution of their works. It also allows Dutch composers and lyricists who already use the CC NonCommercial license to join Buma/Stemra and have them collect their royalties for commercial use of their works.
Before now Dutch authors have not been able to make their work available online under the CC NC license while at the same time having Buma/Stemra collect their royalties for commercial use of those works. The Netherlands is the first country to bring such a collaboration between a music copyright organization and Creative Commons, a move applauded by Lawrence Lessig, the founder and chairman of Creative Commons International, as “the first step towards more freedom of choice in the field of exploiting music works in the digital world.”
The press release by Creative Commons Netherlands and Buma Stemra can be found here. And for more information about what’s going on in the Netherlands check out CC Netherlands website.
No Comments »Science Commons News: ‘Cyberinfrastructure for Knowledge Sharing’
In Science Commons news …
Check out the latest issue of CTWatch Quarterly for an article by John Wilbanks. The article, “Cyberinfrastructure for Knowledge Sharing”, explores the reasons behind the inefficiencies in knowledge sharing, and what role Science Commons’ efforts play in this debate.
The issue, “The Coming Revolution in Scholarly Communication & Cyberinfrastructure” was guest edited by Lee Dirks and Tony Hey of Microsoft Corporation. Also in this issue are pieces by Clifford Lynch (CNI), Timo Hannay (Nature Publishing Group), Peter Suber, and many others. For a complete list of this issue’s contents, visit CTWatch’s Web site. All articles are OA-related, and well worth a read.
No Comments »DJ Vadim Releases Album Tracks under CC
As promised BBE Music and Creative Commons have taken the first step in our new relationship. And what a step: DJ Vadim has released all the original solo instrumental and a cappella tracks for his latest album “The Sound Catcher.” No contest, no prizes, just the tracks out there in the Commons through a Attribution-NonCommercial license for remixers to use. Legally. Safely.
From Ben Dawson at BBE: “Tracks from many of our new releases and back-catalogue are being uploaded to ccMixter. We know how well you all produce and we want to see what will happen! Unleashing some great performances from live instrumentalist and vocalists and sitting back to see what will emerge.”
We’ve been saying for a long time that this type of activity was inevitable but it still takes your breath away when it actually happens.
Remixers head on over to the ccMixter/BBE download page. Everyone else can monitor the remixes using this RSS feed link.
No Comments »Christopher Willits releases four new CC-licensed music videos
In support of the Japanese release of his critically-acclaimed album Surf Boundaries, Ghostly International recording artist Christopher Willits (who, you may remember, was the subject of a recent ccMixter remix contest) just spent the summer touring the world and performing for fans in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Thailand. To celebrate his homecoming to San Francisco, Overlap.org is offering a free download package which contains four beautiful new music videos licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC license. Check them out!
No Comments »
