Unless you're Brazilian or an aviation enthusiast, chances are that you have never heard about Alberto Santos-Dumont. Most people in the world would not hesitate in saying that the Wright brothers invented the airplane. However, some claim that "the only witnesses to the Wright brothers flights (...) were typically close friends and family", while "Santos-Dumont made his flights in public, often accompanied by the scientific elite of the time, then gathered in Paris" (read more about it here and here). The picture above (from Wikimedia Commons) shows one of his flights in the Bagatelle field (close to the Eiffel Tower). PBS aired "Wings of Madness", a good documentary about Santos-Dumont, last year. Here are some excerpts from the program description:

In the early 1900s, the most acclaimed celebrity in Europe, and arguably the world, was a fashionable, frail, Brazilian-born aviator named Alberto Santos-Dumont. (...)Tiring of balloons, Santos built the 14bis, an ungainly tail-first flying machine that nevertheless made the first powered airplane flight in Europe in 1906. At that time, the Wright brothers's secret early flights were widely disbelieved, so Santos and his adoring public were convinced he was the first to fly. When Wilbur made his triumphant European tour in 1908, Santos had to face the terrible realization that the Wrights were the true pioneers after all. But just before his long slide into illness began, he designed an exquisite new airplane out of bamboo: the Demoiselle, or Damselfly. One of the classic aircraft of the pioneering era, it was the true forerunner of today's ultralight planes.

An interesting aside from this discussion is that the Gartner's hype cycle around emerging technologies was already in full display mode 100 years ago: Dumont went from the technology trigger all the way to the plateau of productivity in a decade and was very hyped for a while to the point that the local Dayton Daily News in 1903 stated that the Wright brothers were emulating Dumont (Orville and Wilbur lived in Dayton):

In any case, the true answer for the question "Who invented the airplane" is: none of them. Or better yet, all of them: Orville, Wilbur, Alberto and several others pioneers, all should be credited with the invention of the airplane. We tend to like simple answers, and so we just accept that Gutenberg invented printing, Thomas Edison the light bulb and Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. In reality, all inventions and findings in the world are composites of ideas and experiments run by several people. That's why I strongly believe that our current models governing intellectual property are outdated and preventing us from unleashing the true power of innovation. Our copyright laws are way too strict, and patents many times are inhibitors, not drivers, for new inventions.

Note that I'm not advocating that all IP protection should be dropped. However, the big accomplishment that should be awarded is not the idea, but the execution. Ideas are cheap, good implementation is the real challenge. This concept applies even in the case of artistic works like music, movies or books. Just imagine what would happen if everything was governed by a Creative Commons-like license, where anybody, everybody could share, remix and reuse whatever they want. Often times we see songs that were very flat in their original recording to become masterpieces with some novel interpretation. If we lower the barriers, even disasters could be rescued. Can you improve on "The Godfather" I and II? Unlikely. "The Godfather
III", on the other side, had some good ideas ruined by a few really lame ones. The potential for a great movie was there, but it was never realized. You're just left wondering "what if". Of course, movies are not that easy to tweak, but scripts are. I bet that the last three Star Wars movies could benefit from better writing.

It would be interesting as a social experiment to establish a 5-year moratorium on all IP-related claims and see what would happen: chaos and the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it or an explosion in innovation. At a minimum, this approach would help us to find out how much control is actually needed to foster innovation.

]]> http://darcymoore.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/school-of-life/ Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:02:52 +0000 darcymoore http://darcymoore.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/school-of-life/ [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.623774&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

Was hat sich getan auf der unkommerziellen Schiene? Einiges. Heute gibt es Gänsehaut induzierenden Gothmetal, eine härtere Spielart von Ska und ...naja, seht selbst. Details nach dem Klick.

Seit einer guten Woche draussen ist mittlerweile "Like a Cannonball on the Ocean Floor" von Sounds Like Chicken. Eine ansehnliche Mischung aus Punkrock und Ska haben sie präsentiert, die qualitativ an kommerzielle Studioaufnahmen zu messen ist. Die Australier kommen mit einem 17 Tracks starken Album daher, sowie einer Single zu "Global Domination". Hier wurde viel Zeit und Arbeit investiert, da bin ich mir sicher, und noch sicherer was deren Live-Tauglichkeit anging. Die gingen nämlich bestimmt gut ab - bevor sie sich 2007 dann aufgelöst haben. Schade.

Hier geht es zum Album. Hier zur Single von "Global Domination".

MySpace

Album "neo.NøiR", Album "Secrets", EP "The Anger Manifest"

MySpace, Homepage

Hier geht es zur EP.

MySpace

Heute morgen war mir mal wieder langweilig und ich habe im endlosen Meer der freien und unkommerziellen Musik nach Edelsteinen gegraben. Wie angekündigt mache ich das ab jetzt öfter.

Fangen wir mit etwas Unkompliziertem an. Es geht um die Berliner Indierock-Band Shearer, die die Leute begeistern dürfen, die gerne unkomplizierten, angenehmen und kraftvollen Sound mögen. Shearer erinnerten mich beim ersten Hören spontan an die Beatsteaks und ich kann mir gut vorstellen, dass es euch auch so geht. Unter dem Motto "No DRM - No Copyright - No Bullshit" haben sie ihre EP "Adam" am 5.6.2008 freigegeben. Wie alles, was ich hier vorstelle kostenlos herunterzuladen und anzuhören, Geld spenden ist freiwillig und natürlich bei dieser Band durchaus angebracht ;)

(Homepage | MySpace)

(MySpace)

PCMan è un file manager per linux pensato per essere leggero e funzionale. Tra le principali caratteristiche di questo gestore dei file vi è il tabbed browsing, ossia la possibilità di visualizzare diverse finestre dell'applicazione in schede indipendenti, un po' come avviene nella navigazione dei siti con Firefox e Explorer. Il programma supporta il drag & drop dei file, la visualizzazione di thumbnail a soggetto e l'impostazione di bookmark per velocizzare l'accesso alle sezioni più frequentate. La grafica è basata sulle librerie GTK+ 2.

E' supportatp sia dai 32 bits che dai 64 bit.

INSTALLAZIONE

Da sistema amministrazione aprire la synaptic; inserire la password e ricercare pcman, selezionate tutti i pacchetti che compaiono tranne pcmanfm: diamo applica e il gioco è fatto.

Non trascurabile l'opzione che permette di aprire file e cartelle come root.

Alla prossima

This time a full album. Last time it was 1/4 of an album. This time we get the whole variety of songs from ambient Corona Radiata to a "pop hit"-like Discipline to a beat-blowing must-looper - Demon Seed - finishing it all up with a cherry on top.

Nice work Trent and keep 'em coming! :)

A través de esta web todas tus búsquedas (fotografías, música, etc.) estarán libres de copyright

también podéis verlo en su versión original en inglés.

recuerdo haber leído los papeles que milagritos nos daba a firmar ...y no entender nada. en realidad ni imaginaba de la existencia de otras posibilidades que no fuera 'protegiendo' las obras ante usos de terceros y cediendo la gestión de los derechos a la sgae (y la recaudación de lo obtenido de su explotación comercial, claro). era lo que había que hacerse. creo que ninguno de nosotros sabía que teníamos la posibilidad 'abrir' nuestros temas aplicando ciertas condiciones a su uso.

ahora estas opciones son más conocidas gracias a creative commons, y gracias también a que herramientas web tan utilizadas como flickr han optado por facilitar el uso de las licencias.

espero que este post les haya sido de utilidad al menos a algunos de los músicos/creativos que puedan pulular por aquí.

por cierto, que gracias a latinoamérica y los 'excelentes' gestores de derechos españoles, españa se ha convertido en uno de los países con más obras con licencia creative commons del mundo.

A comment from slideshare.net cofounder Amit Ranjanon ( http://snurl.com/266mt ) on the .ppt about the low resolution along with the need for .ppt default sizes for to increase shareability, led me to revisit the original .psd file and the .jpg components.

Each layer is being revisited and updated as I learn more about Adobe Photoshop tools and more about each of the component metaphorical images embedded in the many layers. At the same time I am learning more about the organic growth of Web 2.0 Plus (also called Web 3.0, etc). Aggregators and microblogging technologies like twitter http://snurl.com/25t6 have enhanced and simplified connectivity while confusing virtual cartographic projects to visualize the blogosphere as it grows exponentially. I learn from others and also by playing with new technological tools. I remain a bricoleuse, better able to find things in the virtual thrift stores that might come in handy one day. I don't like to learn by following anymore than the basic instructions and the need-to-know-how things for reasons of security or time-efficiency.

This entry is posted on speechless.

Folksonomy for Flickr

View ocean.flynn's map
Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)
This layered image 1440 x 900 at 300 dpi is one stage of the development of my next digitage entitled "Digitage Web2.0 Plus." It is an update on Logo Digitage ( snurl.com/25nqe ) in my Flickr album that was the basis for slideshare.net .ppt called Deconstructing Digitage: Web 2.0 as Organic Rhizomic Synapses which has had 1859 views since first uploading 8 months ago.

A comment from slideshare.net cofounder Amit Ranjanon ( snurl.com/266mt ) on the .ppt about the low resolution along with the need for .ppt default sizes for to increase shareability, led me to revisit the original .psd file and the .jpg components.

Each layer is being revisited and updated as I learn more about Adobe Photoshop tools and more about each of the component metaphorical images embedded in the many layers. At the same time I am learning more about the organic growth of Web 2.0 Plus (also called Web 3.0, etc). Aggregators and microblogging technologies like twitter snurl.com/25t6 have enhanced and simplified connectivity while confusing virtual cartographic projects to visualize the blogosphere as it grows exponentially. I learn from others and also by playing with new technological tools. I remain a bricoleuse, better able to find things in the virtual thrift stores that might come in handy one day. I don't like to learn by following anymore than the basic instructions and the need-to-know-how things for reasons of security or time-efficiency.

Flickr groups to which this image belongs: Art & Theory Nobs (Pool), Folksonomy (Pool); Digg It Flickr. Pool (Pool) [X]

Flickr folksonomy: folksonomy, flickr, digitage, creation, creativecommons, connectivity, blogging, adobephotoshop, 1440x900, microblogging, mindbrain, mind, neuralarchitectonics, neuroscience, portrait, powerpoint, powerpointbackground, presentation, raptureofthedeepinternet, reflexivity, rhizome, sharingpresentations, selfportrait, slides, slideshare, synapses, synapticgasp, tagclouds, tagging, taxonomy, technology, theoryinpictures, twitter, vastation, visualization, visualizations, web20, wordpresscom,

18:15; Apertura, palabras de Juan José Puertas

• Agradecimiento al aporte que hace UTPL al permitir que Ecuador cuente con Licencias CC
• ¿Por qué la jurisdicción Ecuatoriana de CC?
• Para que la aplicación de licencias cumplan con el marco legal en el país
• Los derechos de autor pueden convivir con las licencias Creative Commons con la ventaja de poder liberar ciertos permisos sobre las obras.

18:23: Michael Karol realiza la presentación de Creative Commons

• Agradecimiento de parte de Creative Commons International al equipo técnico de UTPL
• Se exponen las limitaciones y problemas derivados del usode CopyRight
• Se muestra http://creativecommons.org/international/ Ecuador aparece en el sitio de paises que están en procesos de discusión
• Michael muestra la jurisdicción de COlombia como ejemplo de lo que se tendrá para Ecuador
• http://creativecommons.org/international/co/  Colombia usa licencias CC 2.5  Ecuador utiliza licencias CC 3.0
• Explicación de las diferentes opciones bajo licencia Creative Commons
• Se explica las opciones de licenciamiento en Flickr.http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
• Estamos invitados a:
• Crear y Comunicar
• Crear y Compartir
• Crear y Conectar

• Michael comenta sobre octeto 2.0 (http://cent.uji.es/octeto/es/node/2040)
• CCLearn: división educativa de Creative Commons
• Todo lo que puede ser licenciado con CopyRight puede ser licenciado con Creative Commons.

• Open UTPL una nueva forma de pensar, una cultura de trabajo nueva
• Open UTPL se va a presentar esta noche
• "Si te doy una moneda, tu serás una moneda más rico y yo una moneda más pobre" Eistein
• Open Access plantea un movimiento de accceso abierto a publicaciones y contenidos científicos
• Recursos Educativos Abiertos son un hito en el mundo del conocimiento
• Muchas instituciones han abierto sus contenidos
• Las restricciones de acceso a los contenidos están cayendo
• Desde el 2000 UTPL ha venido articulando varias iniciativas ligadas al uso de TICs en la educación
• Uso de Campus Virtuales
• Open UTPL usa Web 2.0 para propiciar la colaboración; usa:
• Yotube
• Blogs
• Marcadores Sociales
• Wikis
• MIcrobloggin
• VoIP
• RSS
• UTPL LIbera con Licencias CC los recursos que se producen en UTPL
• Open UTPL tiene naturaleza abierta: creación, uso, re-utilización y colaboración
• Toda la sociedad, no solo las universidades, mira la liberación de contenidos como una posibilidad para reducir las brechas.
• UTPL libera todos los cursos que ofrece en sus modalidades presencial y a distancia.

• Se explica la presentación de Scripta
• La edición impresa está disponible digitalmente en blog de creativecommons.ec
• Scripta es la primera obra impresa con la licencia Creative Commons Ecuador
• Recoge 8 artículos de países como: Colombia, Chile, México, Estados Unidos y Ecuador
• <Problemas con la tecnología cuando se muestra la revista>
• Explicación general de los artículos que se recogen en la revista.
• Agradecimiento a los autores de los artículos y del comité editorial de Scripta
• 18:56
• Entrega de revistas y brindis
• Que bien!!

Bien, las licencias ya están en nuestra jurisdicción ahora necesitamos dar un paso más: liberar el contenido. Pienso que el uso explosivo del Software Social (en el dominio empresarial y personal), debe replicarse en la esfera de la educación dada su capacidad de soportar prácticas y procesos de aprendizaje abierto, colaborativo, centrado en el estudiante, social, creativo y constructivista en lugar de los modelos conductista, centrados en el profesor, individualistas y encerrado en visiones localistas, que no contribuyen con el desarrollo de competencias requeridas en la actual sociedad del conocimiento

Ver otros posts en este blog /category/creativecommons/

Dalla versione di Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Awn-curves non è più supportato da Canonical Ltd, ci dovremo accontentare di una dock dritta.

Se in precedenza avessimo installato awn-manager, dobbiamo rimuovere alcuni file; dopo è tutto abbastanza semplice

sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/awn*
sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/avant*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/awn
sudo rm -f /usr/local/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/avant-window-navigator.mo
sudo rm -f /usr/local/share/applications/avant*
sudo rm -f /usr/local/share/applications/awn*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/avant-window-navigator
sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/libawn*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/libawn
sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/libawn*
sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/awn.pc
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/awn-core-applets
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/awn/

sudo apt-get install bzr m4 gnome-common build-essential autotools-dev libxdamage-dev libxcomposite-dev libgnome2-common libgnome2-dev libgnome-desktop-dev libgnome-vfs-dev libgtk2.0-dev libwnck-dev libgconf2-dev libglib2.0-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgnomevfs2-0 libgnome-desktop-2 libgnome2-0 libwnck-common python-gtk2 python-gconf bzr gnome-common python-dev python-gtk2-dev python-cairo-dev python-gconf python-gnome2-dev

bzr co http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~awn-curves-team/awn/awn-curves awn-curves
cd awn-curves
./autogen.sh && make
sudo make install

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

ed aggingiamo i repository

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator

scarichiamo le chiavi

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/reacocard.asc
sudo apt-key add reacocard.asc rm reacocard.asc

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr

ed ecco la nostra dock circolare

All new events added to the calendar must allow republication according to the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence. This gives Sutton Active and everyone else the right to
use, modify, distribute and republish the event information so long as two conditions are met:

• Attribution -- you must give credit to the original contributors and Sutton Active
• Share Alike -- you are free to modify the information and republish it so long as your modifications are also published under the same licence.

Using this licence will make it possible for other people to use this information in ways that suits them. They might publish it on their own website or in a newsletter, add it to their organisation's intranet calendar, or who knows?

And really, that's the point. I don't know how people might want to use this information but I do want them to have the right to do so. And now they have.

If you have any questions about licencing issues please contact me and I'll do my best to answer them.

We’re makers, reshapers of base-board connections,
With open intention, invention and verve,
Posting and coasting in countless directions,
Paving the wave that’s creating the curve.

We’re reading O’Reillys on jailbroken iPhones,
Talking of Tedsters and web two-point-O;
Spreading and threading like underground rhizomes
Growing the future - for we’re in the know.

Link to MP3 file

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Why Is ACTA Being Negotiated In Secret?
A discussion paper on "The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (ACTA) has been posted over at WikiLeaks. Negotiations on the terms of the ACTA are being done behind closed doors, far from the prying eyes of the public and public interest groups - democracy trade representatives at work.

In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a treaty-making process to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement, which was called, in a piece of brilliant marketing, the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (the agreement does not cover currency fraud).
ACTA is spearheaded by the United States along with the European Commission, Japan, and Switzerland — which have large intellectual property industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA’s negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. Noticeably absent from ACTA’s negotiations are leaders from developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ from the international intellectual property industry. [1]

It is also chilling to hear ... that ACTA negotiants have reportedly signed non-disclosure agreements as a condition of their participation in this week’s secret closed-door meeting in Geneva ...

Michael Geist, Canada research chair of Internet and E-commerce law at the University of Ottawa and expert on Canadian copyright law, blasted the government for advancing ACTA with little public consultation. Mr. Geist said documents detailing ACTA's plans would not need to be leaked online if the process was open and transparent.
"That's what happens when you conduct all of this behind closed doors," he said. "The lack of consultation, the secrecy behind it and the speculation that this will be concluded within a matter of months without any real public input is deeply troubling." [2]

The document is reported to be drafted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) through which the US is negotiating the agreement.

ACTA illustrates the negative effect of making intellectual property a trade issue. GATT/TRIPS is the most visible example, but it is far from the only one. TRIPs illustrates an important systemic point: the power shift away from those who traditionally made copyright policy, and to those who make trade policy. In the United States, the latter category means the United States Trade Representative. -- William Patry [7]

The US (surprise, surprise) has circulated a draft "Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (ACTA) for the next G8 meeting, in Tokyo in July. The full text of the document has been published on Wikileaks (wikileaks.org).
The ACTA draft is a scary document. If a treaty based on its provisions were adopted, it would enable any border guard, in any treaty country, to check any electronic device for any content that they suspect infringes copyright laws. They need no proof, only suspicion.
They would be able to seize any device - laptop, iPod, DVD recorder, mobile phone, etc - and confiscate it or destroy anything on it, merely on suspicion. On the spot, no lawyers, no right of appeal, no nothing. [3]

To date, disturbingly little information has been released about the actual content of the agreement However, despite that, it is clearly on a fast track; treaty proponents want it tabled at the G8 summit in July, and completed by the end of 2008. [4]

The most that can be hoped of the proposed ACTA treaty is that, if it comes into being, it will further expose the futility of legislating against the key advantage of digital technology - the ease with which content can be stored, copied and transmitted. Where the technology is liberating people and content, the powers of reaction are attempting to stifle it.
Fortunately they are on the wrong side of history. When the full details and consequences of this treaty become widely known, I believe the effect will be the opposite of what its authors intend. It contains so little understanding of the way the digital world works that the backlash against it will be massive, accelerating the inevitable death of the out-of-date business models it is vainly trying to protect. [3]

[1] Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007) [Wikileaks]
[2] ACTA trade agreement negotiation lacks transparency (2008-May-25) Vito Pilieci [Wikileaks]
[3] Digital copyright: it's all wrong (2008-Jun-10) Graeme Philipson [The Age]
[4] Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement [EFF]
[5] ACTA [IP Justice]
[6] Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement [Wikipedia]
[7] An ACTA Call to Arms: No More Secret Government (2008-Jun-03) William Patry [The Patry Copyright Blog]
[8] A ‘secret’ copyright treaty (2008-Jun-05) [Peter Gallagher]

El lanzamiento de la semana pertenece a Efectos Espaciales, un grupo chileno que ha puesto en la red la totalidad de su nuevo álbum. Los once cortes, en el que participan músicos como Javiera Mena y Jorge González, deambulan por géneros, tan contagiosos y coloridos, como el electropop. La fiesta, sin duda, recién empieza.

Descargar el álbum con el botón derecho del mouse (guardar enlace como)

[enlaces]
Descargar el álbum completo
Efectos Espaciales

Incidentally, the poem is licensed under a Creative Commons non-commercial/attribution/sharealike licence. If anyone wants to do something funky like animate/illustrate it, let me know and I'll make you a high-quality mp3 of the audio to work with.

Next up, I'll be posting a more recent (and better) ode of mine, "Donna McGonagall" - a dark, grotesque, comic fable on the perils of plastic surgery (again CC-licensed).

Los Recursos y Prácticas Educativas Abiertas son una reacción directa a la privatización del conocimiento, fomentan el intercambio de conocimientos a todo el mundo con el fin de aumentar la capacidad intelectual humana. Comprenden los componentes fundamentales de la educación: contenidos y herramientas para enseñar, aprender e investigar los procesos y las prácticas educativas. Está en pleno desarrollo un movimiento mundial que promueve el acceso abierto y libre de restricciones a recursos digitales -contenidos y herramientas basadas en software- de manera que sean usados como medio para promover la educación, la formación continua, el desarrollo y la investigación.

VERSION Hispana

Que son los OER? (vía wiki.oercommons.org/, traducción nopiedra)

Los Recursos Educativos Abiertos (OER, Open Education Resources) son materiales de enseñanza - aprendizaje libres y disponibles en línea, de manera que todo el mundo puede usarlos, sea un maestro, un instructor, un estudiante, un auto-didacta. Entre los ejemplos de OER se incluyen: cursos completos, módulos de cursos, "sílabus", artículos, lecturas,  deberes, evluaciones, laboratorios, actividades de clase, materiales pedagógicos, juegos, simulaciones, presentaciones, videos, fotografías, y cualquier recursos digital disponible en el mundo.

ENGLISH VERSION

What are OER? (vía wiki.oercommons.org/)

Open Education Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student, or self-learner. Examples of OER include: full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.

Sin embargo de la definición anterior, considero que dentro del movimiento de Recursos Educativos Abiertos no es suficiente con hacer que los recursos sean libres. Es necesario que se liberen además de los recursos, las herramientas con las que se producen los contenidos  tanto como  las prácticas educativas y de investigación.  Tenemos la tecnología para hacerlo.  Las herramientas y servicios basadas en software social son la clave.

Setting up the venue took the best part of the day, particularly as another Arts Law Week forum on social networking was to be held there that afternoon. By the time they were done we had about two hours to have the stage set up, the tech in place, cameras and the wireless Video Unit running, the VJ rig installed... and our VIDEO SLAM teams had to have their shorts completed no later than 6pm!

Come 6:30 I was copying each of the completed videos onto my laptop and readying them for screening later in the evening. Everyone came in on time, one team finishing at 3 in fact!

The Remix Forum

At 8pm I opened the Remix Forum and we got under way. I explained that VIDEO SLAM is both a rights management and production workshop... and that in particular we're working with Creative Commons licenses to ask the question, can we make films using legitimate samples and is there enough content out there that's correctly licensed to help us make this happen?

The Remix Forum would look at both the legitimate and illegitimate use of appropriation in the arts.

The video artist Emile Zile was our first guest up with an entertaining overview of his arts practice. As Emile himself says, his work disregards copyright entirely. To give you an idea of what Emile had shared with us, here's a selection of his videos.

Shiralee Saul followed with a brief talk on copyright issues associated with curatorial responsibilities. This was supported by a delightful presentation based on materials she had available in the only medium many artists worked with at the time, - the 35mm slide. Luckily, Shiralee had been able to scan a selection of works that day, works from a project that was to provide visuals that would be available within the public domain... a project from the late 70s / early 1980s, well before Creative Commons or any open rights management tools as we know them today.

With the VIDEO SLAM shorts next up, our legal team, Shaun Miller and Elliot Bledsoe took to the stage. The theme and the process was then revealed.

Theme and process

Of our four VIDEO SLAM teams two were to produce 2 minute videos using entirely legitimate content. The remaining two teams could use what ever they liked from where ever they liked. Both teams had to ensure, at the very least, that they didn't breach and Australian defamation law. Their theme subject matter was the Melbourne Lord Mayor, John So.

Teams #1 and #2 created the free reign videos john so arbitary and So Hard. Teams #3 and #4 came up with My Bro and The John S(h)o(w). They had to ensure their videos were entirely compliant with copyright law and in doing so had to log every sound, every photo and every video they found on the web onto a networked, Google spreadsheet.

Each sample was then individually checked to ensure no copyright breaches were made and that the correct mix of Creative Commons licenses were employed. Thanks to Elliot for his sterling efforts on that spreadsheet! A project like this really can't work without someone of his expertise on hand.

The verdict

It was curious! Shaun Miller was pretty much convinced that Teams #3 and #4's were clearly in breach of copyright, but gave Teams #1 and #2 the all clear, stating that they fell neatly into Australia's new parody exception to the Australian Copyright Act (1 January 2007).

The audience's verdict for all four videos was clearly heard... All four had received hearty and enthusiastic applause! All four teams deserved it... not only had they achieved the task of producing these videos in under 20 hours, they'd all created entertaining works that are, to the best of our knowledge, and that of our legal panel, entirely compliant with Creative Commons licenses, and Australian Copyright and defamation law.

As an Arts Law Week Project, I believe it was another outstanding success with a fair compliment of lessons learnt and tangible outcomes...

Acknowledgements

Thanks to OPEN CHANNEL and a particularly vast, open armed and bellowing shower of graciousness to everyone at Horse Bazaar for their unyielding support. We couldn't have pulled it off with their venue, their expertise, equipment and facilities.

Thanks also to Jonty Burton for a stunning live re-appropriated remix of the Forum.

Thanks to the Victoria Law Foundation and Arts Victoria for funding support of Arts Law Week.