i found the e.c.c. way back in undergrad while i was doing a project about copyright and mashups that took me to illegal-art, which looks like it was an awesome site, but has kinda withered in the past few years.

i love how the whole set up is based on hacks, copyright infringement and general mashups.

the south central wisconsin library system is in the process of signing a contract that would see all of the libraries they serve transitioning from their proprietary ILS (integrated library system) to the open source Koha! the south central system will be the largest so far to implement the open source system, and they are using liblime as a go between to assist in the implementation and the migration of their records.

i for one am overjoyed by this news, and so should everyone in the middle part of the open source/library community venn diagram.

the idea of open source ils software hadn’t even occurred to me until i was sitting in the students for free culture unconference discussion pertaining to libraries. after doing a bit of digging and reading about Koha and Evergreen, i asked the librarians at the madison public library central branch (where i’m doing my library school practicum) and not only did they say that they had heard of it, but that they were in the process of transitioning to it!

there hasn’t been any press release that i know of, and no contracts have been signed as of the last time i discussed this with anyone, but everthing seems to be GO about it, and it should be installed and running sometime around 2010.

YES! this is the sort of thing that i’ve been wanting to happen to the RIAA p2p cease & desist brouhaha since the beginning.

“Professor Charles Nesson of Harvard Law (a founder of the prestigious Berkman Center for Internet & Society) has agreed to help Tenenbaum, and he has enlisted the help of students in his Fall 2008 course, ‘CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion.’ The group wants to do more than help Tenenbaum out of a tough spot; they want to challenge the underpinnings of the entire lawsuit campaign against the “born-digital generation.’”

there’s no problem with artists trying to get paid for their work and trying to control a certain amount of the ways it’s passed from person to person. the trouble is that in this present day and age, technology has enabled a completely new supply for the demand in regards to music and movies. new business models need to be drawn up, and are in fact being drawn up by some of the more savvy record labels, as well as music distributors. suing your customers and demanding ridiculous and exorbitant amounts of money is not going to be a functional aspect of this future business model, and in perpetuating these witch-hunts and hanging on for dear life to the old ways of buying and selling music and other media, the RIAA is doing a disservice to the record industry as a whole.

having said that, i’m gonna be keeping an eye on this trial, as will many others i would imagine.

“The ulterior purposes of [the RIAA] creating an urban legend so frightening to children using computers, and so frightening to parents and teachers of students using computers, that they will somehow reverse the tide of the digital future.”

seriously… i can’t wait to see the amazing results of this legal confrontation.

the audio from the “When do Expressive Works Infringe Trademarks?” talk is posted, though sadly i haven’t had a second to listen to it. make with the clicky to download it below.

When do Expressive Works Infringe Trademarks? (Part 1)

When do Expressive Works Infringe Trademarks? (Part 2)

those, and more, can be found at the wisconsin law school’s media page.

the picture above was by Ai Kijima, and was acquired from illegal-art.org which, though sadly in need of an update, is still a great resource for fun examples of infringing artwork and music.

this is a really great graphic novel about copyright that has beena round for a while, and just recently got expanded upon with a new introduction from everyones favorite high-altitude balloon blogger, cory doctrow.

the comic does an exceptional job at breaking down issues such as fair use and public domain through the story of a documentary filmaker. it’s creative commons licensed and can be downloaded as a pdf, or purchased for a (thoroughly) reasonable fee.

“As a part of the Templeton Debate Series, The Federalist Society and the Intellectual Property Students’ Organization present:

When Do Expressive Works Infringe Trademarks?

A debate featuring: William Ford from The John Marshall Law School and Wisconsin Law School’s own Shubha Ghosh This will be followed by a discussion section on the topic Wednesday October 22nd, at 6:00 pm in Lubar Commons at the Law School. Qdoba food and refreshments will be provided.”

*obligatory facebook event link*

so, to summarize:

When Do Expressive Works Infringe Trademarks?
Wednesday October 22nd, at 6:00 pm
Lubar Commons at the Law School
***Qdoba food and refreshments will be provided.***

this looks awesome, and i’m really really bummed i have class during this thing. if anyone who reads this goes, would you be interested in writing a post about it for the organization to see? pretty please? if not, i’ll take you out for a drink and you can tell me? pretty pretty please.

as sort of a paralell (mathematically, can a tangent be simultaneously parallell?) to uw students for free culture, i recently set up a copynight for the city of madison.

on the last wednesday of every month (starting oct 29th) at 7:30 pm, we’ll meet at the old fashioned (23 N. Pinckney St.), have a beer and some curds, and chat about issues relating to copyright for about an hour or two. it’ll be a pretty informal affair with hair being let down left and right, and (best of all!) the first pitcher’s on me.

point of fact: this isn’t affiliated with either uwsfs, or the university, and is open to anyone in the community who has an interest in copyright.

let me know if you’re able to to spare some time to post some fliers around the department you’re in for this.

this looks incredible. good copy bad copy and what i will forever refer to as steal these films, have been the go to free culture films, but i think this is going to more or less blow them out of the water for straight up fun, intelligence, and all around awesomeness.

the film is getting shown at a handful of festivals right now i’m in the process of tracking down the people who are behind it. i would LOVE to arrange a screening here, hopefully to be preceded by a round-table or panel discussion made up of professors from various disciplines.

if anyone has any way to help make this happen, let me know. we’ll need a place to screen the film, professors to speak, and (if all works out how i think it will) a place to have an after party with djs playing music at rediculous volumes. make any and all suggestions in teh comments, if you dare,

keep your eyes peeled, cause i’m gonna keep everyone posted as to the progress right here.

“The second day, the spontaneous participant-organized “unconference”, provoked a lot of good conversations and was surprisingly productive–by the end of it, everyone agreed to what people are calling the Wheeler Declaration (after the building we were in): an agenda for Students for Free Culture to focus on for next year. We’re still arguing about what to call it (since Open University is trademarked, apparently), but the idea is to pressure and grade our campuses based on five criteria: opening access to research, creating/using open courseware, embracing free/open-source software and open document formats, using university-held patents for the public good (think cheap drugs for the developing world), and keeping the university network unfiltered and uncensored. We’ll see how SFC executes this plan, but I think it’s an excellent target for the org to have.”

keep checking back here for some more madison SFC related posts, cause there’s a lot of interesting stuff on the horizon, for serious.