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Derek Powazek went to

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Derek Powazek went to

SXSW Interactive again this year and has posted a great summary of a panel session called “The Future of Darknets”: SXSW to MPAA: STFU. The panel featured a representative of the MPAA, among others. Also check out the links to the MP3 of the session and some video clips. Powazek didn’t just write a summary, though, he added important commentary as well. One quote:

Artists (and I include myself in that word) need to rise up and tell these people to go get stuffed. We can decide when a mashup is perfectly fine with us. We can decide to embrace file traders to build awareness of our work. We don’t need you anymore. You’re just holding us back.

Via Boing Boing today

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Via Boing Boing today

I have learned that a court in Nevada has ruled that Google ‘s cache is legal, or more specifically, that it constitutes Fair Use. This is an important issue because as we move forward into ever-more-complex relationships between writers, publishers, aggregators, and re-publishers, it’s important that there be a clear legal edifice for all of that activity to stand on – and with which people can assess the appropriateness and legality of new combinations as they are launched. You can also read the EFF’s Fred von Lohmann’s summary of the ruling.

Joey deVilla, aka

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Joey deVilla, aka

the Accordion Guy published a great piece today on the Cowboy Junkies today prompted by the fact that Margo Timmins, the Junkies’ lead singer, is giving a solo performance at Sam Bulte’s fundraiser, being held tonight in Toronto. DeVilla notes that when the Cowboy Junkies second album was released independently, the buzz created by word-of-mouth and spreading around cassettes of the song is probably what propelled the band to a major label contract in the first place. There’s also this: A buck doesn’t go as far anymore, contrasting the $250 total that it cost the Cowboy Junkies to record The Trinity Session with the price per plate of the Bulte fundraiser.

There’s another issue

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There’s another issue

on the table related to TopTenSources.com that is also very instructive in the context of copyright legalities and such. There is evidence of questionable faith on the part of the company (Newsilike Media Group) in that they do not seem to respect CC licenses. Considering their Original Bloggers page, I noted that they re-publish the feed from Matt Haughey’s blog, which is published under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. That license clearly states that “If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.” Well, TopTenSources has done exactly that, but have not published the resulting work (the entire site) under the same license – they assert copyright.

I agree with John Palfrey and the other experts who write on this field that this is a critically important issue. But it’s never going to be solved when even companies like the Newsilike Media Group with such expert and well-regarded supporters as Palfrey don’t take it seriously. Actions speak louder than words. Or blog posts.

Update: You know this if you read the comments here, but if you don’t I think it bears mentioning on the index pages of this blog. John Palfrey noted the issue I raised in this post and asked the company to address it, and so they have done. I think that’s a good demonstration of the kind of leadership that will serve us all well as Web 2.0 is invented.

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