I’m Not Crazy! Others Break Into The Public Domain
When I first used CC0, the public domain “license”, on Stories About Things in 2011, I’d only ever seen it in two places: Falkvinge.net (the blog of the Pirate Party founder – no surprise there!) and Your Face is a Saxophone (yeah, that’s as awesome as it sounds.) No basic googling turned up any big time indie writers using it. Not even small-time folk like myself wanted to touch CC0 – most weren’t even aware of it. But it still sounded like a hell of a cool idea, so I went for it.
Turns out I’m not crazy.
Or, well, at least, I’m not alone.
CC0 Heroes: Who’s Afraid of the Big Nice Wolf is the first in a blog series by Leo Kirke on CC0 artists who choose to make art free of the Copyright lockdown. This segment covers the accomplishments of Piti Yindee, illustrator, comic artist and creator of Wuffle: The Big Nice Wolf and how he’s maneuvering the free world of art.
“…Yindee even makes it possible to download Wuffle: The Big Nice Wolf at no cost in one large archive zip file. His website even includes a “Free License” page (declaring “Wuffle Has No Copyright”) in which he explains, in his own words, his reasoning for using CC0. It’s definitely worth reading, as it is a very succinct and direct explanation of why an artist chooses Free Culture. In particular, I love this statement:
‘For arts to become a culture, you have to let it go free. Let it be shared and copied. A language dies if nobody speaks it. Same goes with art.
It dies if nobody share or talk about it.’ ”
Read the whole post here…
It’s happening. Culture is opening.
Be ready.
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Writing to Publishers – Noordhoff
January has brought us yet another example of bad behavior from publishers.
Earlier this month, a math teacher was convicted for linking to pirated answer sheets.
While as a fiction writer, I am always saddened to see novels taken down in the mass book burnings of the internet age, even I have to admit it’s even harder to watch educational materials go down.
I am a little late on this, but seeing that as no good reason to keep quiet, I sent out my thoughts to Ms. Bruinsma – the press contact on Noordhoff’s site. (Under the “Pers” tab – it’s in Dutch, but Chrome was kind enough to translate.) To anyone else who cares I urge you to please send a note to this probably well-intentioned publisher to let them know that this behavior hasn’t gone unnoticed.. I’ve been writing to authors/publishers for over a year. Sometimes they don’t respond. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they respond well. Sometimes they don’t. But while they are responsible for their actions as a creator or corporation, we are responsible for speaking up. So please, take a minute to let this publisher know that no one is okay with bullying school teachers. You don’t even have to take the time to write something totally new. I’ll give you mine – take ideas, take chunks, take the whole damn thing if you want. But if it helps at all for inspiration, here’s my letter:
Dear Noordhoff Publishers,
I would like to express my disappointment that an educational publisher would threaten a teacher sharing answer sheets with students. (Reported here: torrentfreak.com/math-teacher-convicted-for-linking-to-copyrighted-answer-sheets-130116/ )
Both my parents were math teachers and my dad has contributed to textbooks in the past. I am well aware of the time and effort that goes into producing quality teaching materials, and it makes sense that a publisher would want to protect these materials.
However, locking up educational materials counters the very effort of the creators that publishers fight to protect, and defeats the purpose of the time and effort put into the work. It would better serve the writers, without whose efforts Noordhoff would have no materials to profit from, and the students whom these materials are supposed to benefit if Noordhoff found a better way than forcing a teacher to not share the answer sheets that are available to them. I can’t help but wonder, what alternatives did Noordhoff seek before litigation?
Aelius Blythe
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Mega Is Down? Nope! Just Flattened Under Stampede of Enthusiastic Fans
As of this minute one year ago #Megaupload was destroyed by the US Government. Welcome to Mega.co.nz— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 19, 2013
With 100,000 registered users in less than an hour, Mega – the bigger, better, more resilient storage/sharing platform of Kim Dotcom, and the phoenix rising from the ashes of Megaupload – is flying off the ground. Fans are bottlenecking at the gate to get in and get behind that 50GB free space, the built in encryption, and the promise of a more shatter-resistant infrastructure. But more importantly, we’re rushing to get behind the guy that will fight like hell to keep it all alive.
Now let’s get one thing straight: Kim Dotcom is a douchebag.
But I don’t want to jump on the Megabandwagon because I want to be his BFF. I want to make the jump because of what he represents: Survival. Kim’s a rich opportunist, former bad guy, and current self-important egomaniac. But he’s using his riches and his opportunity and importance for good – to provide a great and free service, promote privacy, bring accessible cryptography to the masses, rally the internet for better, freer communication, and fight tooth and nail on its behalf.
Kim Dotcom has survived.
He may yet see the inside of a US federal prison. He may yet be crushed under the weighted judiciary jackboot. He may yet…… lose. And we all with him.
But not today.
Today, he is fighting.
Today, Mega is fighting.
Today, the stampeding and hopeful fans are fighting.
Yes, there are questions about Mega. While they tout privacy, they keep IP addresses. What will they’ll be doing with those addresses? And are they going to be VPN/Tor friendly? Can we trust their crypto? I don’t know, and I sure as hell won’t trust Mega with anything important until I find out – if ever.
But today, Mega isn’t a symbol of ironclad privacy. It isn’t a symbol of unbreakable crypto. It isn’t a symbol of the holy grail of internets.
Today, it’s a symbol of survival.
It’s a symbol of resistance.
It’s a symbol of fight.
Today, the phoenix rises from the ashes.
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Ownshelf
There’s a new player in the ebook world. Welcome Ownshelf!
Ownshelf is a new platform that helps Facebook users connect with their friends for a more social reading experience. It also gives readers a convenient place to share their books across devices. Like Facebook itself, it’s exclusive – the “Bookshelves” you see are specific to your social circle. Since the books you discover are being shared by your friends, it’seems good way to discover books that match your tastes. Additionally, Ownshelf has/will partner with Creative Commons or otherwise share-happy authors (like at the moment, Paulo Coelho) who share their own shelves and their own books with all users.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, rumblings in the author community betray the
