commonsExplorer: a browser for Flickr + more

commonsExplorer is an experimental interactive browser for the Flickr Commons, a collection of pictures with "no known copyright restrictions." It provides a "big picture" of these collections with a single screen interface that reveals structures and patterns and encourages exploration.

commonsExplorer is a Java executable, so Windows and Linux users will need to have Java installed. The application requires a network connection, and may not work from behind a firewall or proxy.

Creative Commons has had its own search function for awhile according to a post at Google Operating System, which has a nice cache of articles on new features in Google Image search, which can filter for usage rights under advanced search.

For video, see Free Online Stock Video Footage | 9 Of The Best Public Domain Video Resources from WebTV Wire (one dropped out); for audio see Videomaker's compilation of royalty free sound FX and Legal Music For Videos from Creative Commons.

Update: via @juanmiguelsalas comes 15 Best Places for Designers to Get Free Stock Photos Online by Six Revisions.

Update 2: see Royalty Free Music For YouTube Videos at Who Is Matt, and Openfootage.net.

The PEN story: another YouTube Dilemma

A Filmbot RT Twitter notes The PEN story controversy, which was discussed by PDN in Did Olympus Steal Idea for Viral Ad About EP-1 Camera? (UPDATED) and Gizmodo in Olympus Stop Motion E-P1 Ad Concept Is Clever (Also, Stolen).

This topic ("great artists steal") was discussed with many examples at Creative Review in May; see The YouTube Dilemma for creatives.

Also of note is an open blog ‘you thought we wouldn’t notice’ that's dedicated to pointing out these things (via El Gordo).

The YouTube Dilemma for creatives

Via Motionographer is The YouTube Dilemma from Creative Review. Here's an excerpt and example:

"YouTube provides a steady stream of inspiration to advertising creatives, but it also leaves young directors vulnerable to having ideas stolen and agencies open to accusations of plagiarism. How can both directors and agencies protect themselves?"

YouTube's January Fair Use Massacre

Watching TV Online notes YouTube's January Fair Use Massacre from Electronic Frontier Foundation, which notes that YouTube's automated copyright filtering system ("Content ID tool") even censors teenagers singing "Winter Wonderland."

Also, from the cloud, the Wall Street Journal talks about "transformative" vs. "just stealing" in Color This Area of the Law Gray. Other recent news items in copyright and fair use were posted here.

Remixing Colbert & Lessig

Along the lines of a yesterday's post on Copyright Criminals and RiP: A Remix Manifesto... Lawrence Lessig appeared on The Colbert Report last week. The seriously funny Colbert challenged remixers "not to remix" the segment to great dance beats. Lessig and a Comedy Central blog has The Inevitable Colbert/Lessig Remixes.

Here's Lessig on Colbert:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Lawrence Lessig

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Here's a Lessig talk at TED:



Fair Use is part of copyright law. Here's an explanation from The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education by Center for Social Media:



Update: Oddly, even using headlines and linking to articles is up in the air -- see Lawsuit over website links in spotlight, Copyright violation or fair use to be decided at The Boston Globe.

Update: WSJ talks about "transformative" vs. "just stealing" in Color This Area of the Law Gray.

Copyright Criminals: a new documentary

Speaking of YouTube audio filtering... There's a new documentary being finished:

'Copyright Criminals: This Is a Sampling Sport examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and (of course) money.

This documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry. For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.'

It's mostly a fine line even if Coldplay/Eno-type excesses seem clear; pay-to-play, or payola, is a game of finesse. Here's the trailer:




Update: Via Infinicine and Shooting People, here's a similar project from another musical genre, RiP: A Remix Manifesto (director's blog):



Update: note also Good Copy Bad Copy.

Adobe introduces its own DRM for Flash

No matter Who Needs Flash on the iPhone More: Adobe or Apple?, Beet.TV leads with Adobe Introduces Digital Rights Management for Flash, and an interview below to ease you in.

Also, consider if you will EFF critical of Flash Video DRM and Look mum, no DRM: BBC launches iPlayer on iPhone and iPod touch.



Update: John Dowdell, Ryan Stewart, and Desiree Motamedi have some details on the Flash server DRM solution ($40,000 per CPU), which can encrypt FLV and H264 video content so that it only plays in Adobe Media Player (AIR integration built in), and manages on the server-side to restrict playback to rules set by the content owner.

Update 2: CNET reports Adobe realizes SDK not enough for Flash on iPhone,

Adobe clarified its CEO's comments in an official statement on Wednesday: "Adobe has evaluated the iPhone SDK and can now start to develop a way to bring Flash Player to the iPhone. However, to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone Web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it." Key words there: "beyond and above" (I always thought it was the other way around).

EFF critical of Flash Video DRM

from Last 100:

"In a recent blog post, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Seth Schoen lays out a number of criticisms of Adobe’s push to introduce Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology into its Flash Video and accompanying Flash Media Server products. If DRM was to become commonplace for Flash Video (the dominant format for streaming video on the Web e.g. YouTube) then it would stifle competition and dramatically hinder the burgeoning “remix” culture that the Internet has spawned, argues Schoen."

Read more of EFF critical of Flash Video DRM at Last100. NewTeeVee also has coverage in EFF Stirs Fear of Flash DRM.

Update: it might be interesting to compare the Adobe and Apple approach; see for example, Apple patent hints at a future of podcasting mash-ups at Last 100.

A Fair(y) Use Tale

A Fair(y) Use Tale, by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University, is a humorous & informative review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms (mp4 hosted at Stanford Law School).




Another similar view is given in The Disney Trap: How Copyright Steals our Stories.



Also noted by The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford: Marilyn Monroe In The Public Domain

ArsTechnica reports DRM cracked before release

see FreshDV's "Crack To The Future - AACS Revision Preemtively Hacked"

Could Digg Revolt Come to Video Sites?

NewTeeVee reports on the Digg user revolt against HD-DVD copy protection censors: "unhappy with the company’s compliance with a DMCA takedown request on the codes to break HD-DVD encryption, flooded and overwhelmed the social news site with stories containing the code, until its front page was filled entirely with references to the hack (visualization embedded below). Digg, whose premise is based on not controlling what happens on its site, capitulated last night..."

There's a Digg Swarm video of user activity as seen live from Digg Labs according to lorien1973: "In the first part of the video, the big dots are stories being submitted. The yellow dots that attach to them are people "digging" the stories. You can see the diggers disappear along with the stories as Digg deletes them."



Update: the latest on this item is available on Wired's Epicenter.

Fair Use Explained

via Sheila Curran Bernard, author of Documentary Storytelling: Making Stronger and More Dramatic Nonfiction Films:

Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use is a useful handbook from veteran filmmakers to help other filmmakers understand some instances where using copyrighted material without clearance is considered fair use.

DRM & Vista

Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte discussed the latest in Digital Rights Management (DRM) and DRM in Microsoft Vista in the last 2 Security Now podcasts.

DRM is also a favorite topic of Alex Lindsay's This Week in Media podcast, another TWiT sibling.

Yur Fuhnny

hard to believe, considering Zune's wireless DRM system, from EFF:

"Microsoft's Zune will not play protected Windows Media Audio and Video purchased or "rented" from Napster 2.0, Rhapsody, Yahoo! Unlimited, Movielink, Cinemanow, or any other online media service. That's right -- the media that Microsoft promised would Play For Sure doesn't even play on Microsoft's own device. Buried in footnote 4 of its press release, Microsoft clearly states that "Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264" -- protected WMA and WMV (not to mention iTunes DRMed AAC) are conspicuously absent."

Broadcast Flag flies again

via Stop Me Before I Vote Again...

Broadcast Flag flies again:
'And to no-one's surprise, "The audio flag provision, written by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), has the full support of the Recording Industry Association of America."...

By a startling coincidence, [media] cartel support for Boxer is rising. This year she's so far received a massive $750,660 from the movie, music and tv industries, says opensecrets.com. In the 2004 cycle, she clocked up $740,260, and in 2002, $485,340.'

more at Ars Technica and EFF...
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