The Public Domain Manifesto
The public domain — long a stepchild in the fierce politics of copyright law — is finally starting to come into its own. A diverse array of individuals and organizations associated with COMMUNIA, the...
View ArticleLiberate the Music!
Ludwig von Beethoven died 183 years ago. So why is his music still locked behind copyrights and not available for free to everyone? Because even if the music itself is in the public domain, the...
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Mark Twain's Final Copyright Crusade
Mark Twain’s autobiography is the surprise hit of the publishing world this fall: “totally the Dad book of the year” exults one bookseller. The University of California Press, which planned a print...
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Zap! Pow! Bam! A New Genre, Copyright Comics
Those antic law professors who gave us Bound by Law– a glorious superhero-comic treatment of the fair use doctrine in filmmaking -- are at it again! Forget DC Comics. I want my IP Comics! Keith...
View ArticleIn the Copyright Wars, the Great News & the Setbacks
Two recent developments suggest that the reactionary regime of maximalist copyright can still command a lot of raw political power to beat back commoners, flout legal principles and craft the law to...
View ArticleThe Ongoing Enclosure of the Public Domain
Unbeknownst to millions of people recovering from their celebrations the night before, New Year's Day is a mini-celebration nested within a more famous holiday. Who among us realized that it was.......
View ArticleThe U.S. Government vs. Networked Culture
Wow! The save-the-Internet protests by Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Boing Boing and hundreds of other websites marks a watershed moment in the evolution of networked political expression. Millions of...
View ArticleMuseums Exploiting Public-Domain Artworks
The world’s museums are stewards of millions of images that constitute our cultural patrimony. But are museums willing to share the images that are legally in the public domain? Canadian legal scholar...
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