Don't miss Copyright Camp at the University of Michigan's Hatcher Library, from 1-5 p.m. on July 29th. Co-sponsored by the U-M Library's MPublishing office and the Open.Michigan Initiative, this unconference-style event will provide a forum to discuss copyright and how it affects you on a daily basis.
After the opening plenary there will be a large board with open time slots for any attendee to add any topic they want to facilitate, or you can submit your suggestions in advance on their website. There will also be an Antiques Roadshow style "Open Content Roadshow" where you can bring an "item" (like a presentation, publication, photo or other copyrightable material) for the panel of experts to review and make recommendations for making this item open and adaptable.
This event will take place on July 29th, 2011 from 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: Hatcher Graduate Library, Library Gallery (Room 100)
image by dimitri c, sxc.hu
Copyright is an issue that often goes undiscussed in talks about cyber-safety. As the recording industry cracks down on intellectual property violations, a culture of ripping remixing, and mashups continues to grow. An intriguing development is the growth of Creative Commons – an alternative to copyright in which the creators of artistic and literary works decide for themselves how others can use their work. I’m not going to lie; I am a real fan of creative commons! If you enjoy remixing or need audio, video or visual content for your projects, using creative commons materials simplifies the process enormously – and you get to participate in a reciprocal community of artists and creators. What's not to like?
Here are some resources to help find creative commons and public domain content.
Join us Monday, November 22 from 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm at the Malletts Creek Branch for a fresh view on the debate over the future of copyright during this interactive discussion with Norwegian cartoonist Kim Holm. Does copyright law ensure innovation and personal creativity, or does it steal from the public domain? While digital piracy is claimed to be an inevitability by some and a threat to capitalism by others, Kim has embraced the distribution methods used by pirates to broaden his audience. He has explored publishing models that altogether eschew the use of copyright, releasing his work into the public domain as a digital edition while simultaneously selling print editions on his website. During this presentation Kim will raise some provocative counter-arguments to commonly-held beliefs about current copyright law, exploring some of the ways it may be improved, if not discarded altogether.
Recently on Digg Dialogg they interviewed Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The questions were voted on by the community and a few of them revolved around the future of music. Nine Inch Nails has gotten some press about their use of Creative Commons on recent releases, selling limited edition, deluxe and various digital formats. Notable was their release of the instrumental work Ghosts I-IV under a CC license while still ending 2008 as the top selling album on Amazon.com.
Questions from the interview include advertising, tips for bands getting started and opinions on the future of the industry. You can watch the interview in full online
For those interested in the topic of music and the changing industry we have:
The future of music - Covering a little history and a lot of the future of the music industry, this book gives a glimpse at what might be available in a few years. CDs and traditional music stores will be replaced by various digital distribution channels, an increase in consumer choice and avenues of discovery.
Related to all this is the idea of making money by giving things away. Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail is currently working on a book about this and you can read many of his ideas on the subject on his blog. He gave a talk about this idea at the O'Reilly Media Tools of Change Conference and you can listen to it below:
Street artist Shepard Fairey who created the famous Hopeimage of Barack Obama sued The Associated Press, claiming his use of an AP photo in creating the poster did not violate copyright law, because he has dramatically changed the nature of the image and therefore, is protected under the so-called "Fair Use" provisions.
The AP said it is owed credit and compensation for the artist's rendition of the original photo taken by Mannie Garcia who was on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club. (Read the whole story).
Just today, Mannie Garcia discussed on NPR his own legal battle with the AP, claiming the photo was taken while he was working as a freelance photojournalist.
Come to the Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room on Wednesday, November 12, 7-8:30 p.m. for a lively talk about Copyright and Culture Wars: How Federal Courts Have Become The Arena For Fights Over Music, Parody, Fan Fiction, Art and Fantasy Sports. Presenter Susan M. Kornfield of Bodman LLP has been an intellectual property attorney for 27 years. She's taught courses in Intellectual Property Law and in Copyright Law at the University of Michigan and has been selected as an expert witness, mediator, and arbitrator in intellectual property disputes.
Have you ever found a great recipe in a cookbook and photocopied it? If you have, then you've been exercising your "fair use" rights to copyright. In other words, even though an artist or publisher owns the rights to that book, movie, or song, you can still do a few things with that book even if you don't own it. Like check it out from a library!
Copyright geeks have been abuzz this month because a new report suggests that those few exceptions to copyright are worth big bucks: $507 billion in 2006, nearly 20% of U.S. GDP, to be exact. Or at least so says the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a business group representing such heavy hitters as Microsoft, Apple, and Google.
Okay, so maybe you copying that recipe didn't really spur the creation of new jobs. But the fact that Google, Yahoo, Ask, and their cohorts can crawl through websites (another fair use exception), even though those sites are copyrighted, certainly did. Which begs the question: should we have more exceptions to copyright? After all, the Copyright Clause of the Constitution is meant to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts," i.e. spark new ideas and innovations. Perhaps we should even consider shortening the copyright term? What do YOU think?
The leaked copy consisted of a digital photograph of every page of the much sought-after volume, a fact that may help Scholastic track down the culprit. Nonetheless, the event is making book publishers wonder if they, like the music recording industry, should worry about internet piracy. Their concerns may grow as the market for ebooks increases, as they may prove just as easy to copy as digital music files.
Dubner's basic contention is that book publishers would vehemently oppose creating public libraries today, if they didn't already exist. Their response would probably mirror the music recording industry's reaction to Napster and other such peer-to-peer filesharing sites. After all, libraries, with their booksharing tendencies, may very well contribute to lower sales for book publishers. According to NCES, libraries circulated over 2 billion items in 2004. Even if only a fraction of the people who check out books bought them, that's a big chunk of change.
So what do you think? In this age of copyright disputes, could we create public libraries if they weren't already around?
Look for old friends, find a new doctor, or learn about the companies you buy from and invest in. ReferenceUSA is the place for information about businesses, health care providers, and residences in the United States. Besides phone numbers and addresses for both businesses and people, ReferenceUSA also gives you up to date, detailed information on U.S. Companies.
Find out the history of the city around you with this collection of over 130 local history articles published in the Ann Arbor Observer. The articles (many written by renowned local historian and author Grace Shackman) describe everything in Ann Arbor, from its churches to its shops to its gardens. Articles are illustrated by a large collection of photographs from Ann Arbor's early days to its present days.
