When you believe in free speech you need to fight for it and that is what HorsesAss.org, a Seattle based political blog is doing. HA posted a short 39 second clip (with added comments) as part of a scathing post aimed at Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna and the Washington Association of Realtors (WAR). This clip is clearly fair use. The clip was not created with copyright in mind and copyright is being used to censor the free speech use.

Before I go into the 4 Fair Use factors Watch the clip yourself:
(more…)

InfoCamp is a hybrid 1/2 unconference (barcamp)  1/2 conventional conference. Given the recent success of Barcamp Seattle and the innovative work from previous sponsors like ASIS&T – the American Society for Information Science and Technology and the University of Washington Information School this should be a great event (I hope they are both sponsoring again this year).

Topics at last year conference included Designing Intuitive Interfaces, Information Overload and the Demise of Usability. The bulk of the content is produced by the attendees in the form of presentations, panels, demos and round tables.  If you want to see a topic covered add it to the wiki and help make it happen.

Conference rates are $10 for students and $50 for professionals, volunteers get in free.  Register now!

My only suggestion so far is to add a non profit attendee registration rate, of $15 to $20.  This would encourage more diversity in the participants.

See you there!

PS I wonder if we can sneak in a power point Karaoke session?

The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School will host the third Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K3) September 8-10, 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland. It will be held at the Geneva International Conference Centre and will bring together hundreds of decision-makers and experts on global knowledge to discuss the urgent need for policy reforms.

“Opening up access to knowledge is a demand of global justice; it is both a human rights issue and a crucial factor in spurring economic development and technological innovation,” said Yale Law School Professor Jack Balkin, founder and director of the ISP.

The ISP is collaborating on the conference with an international team of partners representing academia, civil society, industry, and government.

“The A2K community has grown exponentially in the last three years, and it is time to move this perspective to the mainstream of international policy-making,” said Lea Shaver, ISP’s Access to Knowledge Program Director. “The A2K3 will address crucial topics related to global knowledge policy, including innovation systems, digital education, Internet governance, climate change, public health, and human rights.”

Read more at:

Official Press Release From Yale on A2K3

Come join us for the First Seattle CopyNight of 2008:

Tuesday at 8:30 PM
Elysian, 1221 E. Pike St.
Seattle WA in Capitol Hill.

Happy New Year! Come ring in 2008 (a little belatedly) with the year’s first CopyNight. Predict what IP issues will be big this year, learn about upcoming events, and have a beer or three. Hope to see you there!

To join the copynight mailing list vist copynight.org. Copynight is active in 22 cities
for a complete list check here.

Professor Lessig, an inspiration for Students for Free Culture, is Speaking at University of Washington

Title: Is Google (2008) Microsoft (1998)?
Date: Nov . 2, 2007
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: in room 130 of Kane Hall.
Cost: Free (tickets available at UW book store)

Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, he was the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and a Professor at the University of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Lessig represented web site operator Eric Eldred in the ground-breaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

Professor Lessig is the author of Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the board of the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science, and Public Knowledge. He is also a columnist for Wired.

If you are interested in corruption scholarship or the copyfight I would recommended reading Lessig’s blog.

Related Links:
More information on the talk
Students for Free Culture

The talk and book signing at Third Place Books has been moved from October 27th to October 18th. The Elliot Bay event is still this Wednesday at 7:30pm, hope to see people there.

Book Event:

PS: The book is under an all rights reserved copyright… although one chapter is available online at the wiki. http://www.upress.umn.edu/wiki/index.php/OurSpace One chapter is a small step in the right direction.

Come out to Elliott Bay Book Company Wednesday or Saturday the 27th to meet Christine Harold. We need you to help resist the corporate control of culture.

In OurSpace, Christine Harold examines the deployment and limitations of “culture jamming” by activists. For Harold, it is a different type of opposition that offers a genuine alternative to corporate consumerism. Exploring the revolutionary Creative Commons movement, copyleft, and open source technology, Harold advocates a more inclusive approach to intellectual property that invites innovation and wider participation in the creative process.

Christine Harold is a professor in the Department of Communications at the University of Washington. Her previous position was assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Georgia.

Book events for OurSpace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture by Christine Harold

Book Event
Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 7:30 pm
Talk & Book Signing
Elliott Bay Book Company
101 South Main Street
Seattle, Washington 98104
206-624-6600

Book Event
Saturday, October 27, 2007, 6:30 pm
Talk & Book Signing
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
206-366-3316

More information available at:

http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/H/harold_ourspace.html

PS The publisher has not returned my emails about the what copyright the book is under and why… If the publisher is holding it hostage under a full right reserved license we may need to take action.

Please join us tonight (Tuesday) at 8:30 PM at Cafe Press in Capitol Hill at 1117 12th Ave. This is a new location with WIFI. The location is also all ages with a good reasonably priced menu and drinks.

Topics will include:

Harry Potter and Pirate Bay

RIAA at UW

Free Culture in Seattle

See you there,

-Brian Rowe
Freedom for Intellectual Prosperity