Creative Commons Ventures Into Science
"Creative Commons, a nonprofit group aimed at carving out ways to share creative works, is expanding from the realm of copyright into patents and scientific publishing.
"The group’s move into the scientific sphere could help add new weight to growing criticisms that the current patent process has become too inflexible and often awards too much protection to ideas that aren’t genuinely unique.
"This criticism has been particularly prevalent in computer circles, where companies own patents and have sought wide-ranging licenses on basic Internet features, such as streaming audio and video or launching applications inside Web browsers."
John Borland. Copyright-Sharing Group Delves Into Science. News.com. Nov. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Political Mudslinging Hits Wikipedia
"It’s a rocky road from news to history. If you don’t think so, just take a look at the entry for George W. Bush on Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia founded in 2001 by Larry Sanger, a philosophy lecturer at Ohio State University, and Jimmy Wales, an Internet entrepreneur.
"Wikipedia, maintained by users all over the world who write and edit the entries pretty much as they wish, is visited by hundreds of thousands of people daily and has an estimated 400,000 entries. There are no user fees and no advertising: the site is supported by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, based in Florida, which maintains and develops free resources, including a dictionary and a collection of quotations.
"To keep it all under control, contributors to the Wikipedia are instructed to adopt a neutral point of view. Not everyone obeys, though. So certain trusted, regular contributors and editors become administrators who oversee what is going on. But each one has a different view of that job. And that is where the fun begins."
Sarah Boxer. Mudslinging Weasels Into Online History. The New York Times. Nov. 10, 2004.
(Editor�s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Unsettled Patent Shakes Blackberry Parent
"Research In Motion shares have been fluctuating amid anticipation that a ruling over a hotly contested patent infringement case may be near–and that it could be bad news for the BlackBerry maker.
"Analysts attributed the stock shifts to speculation that a decision will be made soon on RIM’s appeal to invalidate NTP’s patents. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments from both companies’ attorneys on June 7.
"The two companies have been embroiled in a patent infringement case for a number of years. NTP claims that RIM violates its patents covering the use of radio frequency wireless communications in e-mail systems."
Richard Shim. RIM Shares Atwitter Amid Case Concerns. News.com. Nov. 5, 2004.
See also:
Stuart Weinberg. Rumor of Court Ruling Weighs on Research In Motion. San Franciso Chronicle. Nov. 5, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Sonny Bono Shackles the Wind
"Earlier this year, the Australian affiliate of Project Gutenberg posted the 1936 novel ‘Gone With the Wind’ on its Web site for downloading at no charge. Last week, after an e-mail message was sent to the site by the law firm representing the estate of the book’s author, Margaret Mitchell, the hyperlink to the text turned into a ‘Page Not Found” dead end.
"At issue is the date when ‘Gone With the Wind’ enters the public domain. In the United States, under an extension of copyright law, "Gone With the Wind” will not enter the public domain until 2031, 95 years after its original publication. But in Australia, as in a handful of other places, the book was free of copyright restrictions in 1999, 50 years after Mitchell’s death."
Victoria Shannon. One Internet, Many Copyright Laws. The New York Times. Nov. 8, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Votes are In: Onward to Tally Issues
"It’s finally over: President George W. Bush claimed victory in his re-election bid on Wednesday, a win that capped a tumultuous night of election results and propelled technology and other stocks higher.
"Coupled with the Republican gains in Congress, the results of the 2004 election offer the president a long-awaited opportunity to consolidate his grip on power in the nation’s capital–a prospect that could, depending on the details, help or hurt the technology industry.
"Aside from a few spats about offshoring early in the year, technology topics have never been a priority for either Bush or Sen. John Kerry, his Democratic rival. But this week’s results ensure that attitudes in Washington, D.C., toward broadband, spectrum management, taxes and Internet telephony will line up squarely behind Republican priorities through at least the midterm elections in 2006."
Declan McCullagh. Votes are Cast–Time to Count the Issues. News.com. Nov. 3, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
China To Implement Copyright Draft Legislation
"The National Copyright Administration will soon implement a draft regulation on administrative protection of copyrights on information networks, to better protect Internet-based work and prevent piracy.
"The draft regulation, worked out by the administration and the Ministry of Information Industry, aims to further bring China’s copyright protection closer to international standards, sources from the administration said at a hearing yesterday in Beijing.
"The draft regulation applies to the administrative protection of dissemination rights on Internet-based services. And these services refer to loading, saving, transmitting, linking, searching and other functions through the Internet, the draft regulation states."
Cui Ning. Regulation to Protect Copyrights on Networks. China Daily. Nov. 5, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Creative Commons Offers Creative Copyright
"This issue of Wired magazine includes a copy of The Wired CD, a collection of 16 songs produced under the Creative Commons License. The licenses come from Creative Commons, the innovative nonprofit founded by Wired columnist and Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig.
"The songs on this CD use one of two Creative Commons licenses. The Noncommercial Sampling Plus license permits noncommercial file-sharing and noncommercial sampling. That means, first, that you can swap the songs on a peer-to-peer network (just don’t sell them). And second, that you can sample from them, mash them up, use them to make something fresh – and then share that work, too (though again, you can’t sell it). The Beastie Boys, Chuck D, and My Morning Jacket opted for the Noncommercial Sampling Plus license.
"The other 13 artists on the CD went a step further and released their songs under the more expansive Sampling Plus license. Like the noncommercial version, it allows file-sharing. But it also allows commercial use of samples – meaning you can insert a slice of these songs into your own composition and then try to sell the new track. The only restrictions: Use in advertisements is not permitted, and the new work must be ‘highly transformative’ of the original (translation: A flagrant rip-off like ‘Ice Ice Baby’ doesn’t cut it)."
"More details on the licenses and their permissions are available at creativecommons.org/wired."
Thomas Goetz. Sample the Future. Wired. Nov. 2004.
See also:
Eric Steuer. The Remix Masters. Wired. Nov. 2004.
Hilary Rosen. How I Learned to Love Larry. Wired. Nov. 2004.
Julian Dibbell. We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin. Wired. Nov. 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
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