The Concord Free Press has been publishing books and giving them away for two years. This unorthodox business model was profiled yesterday on NPR: A Novel Approach: Free Books For Donations. A fantastic story and fascinating proposition in the age of the e-book. Concord Free Press says of generosity-based publishing: We publish great books and [...]

On Tuesday, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel, released the Joint Strategic Plan to Combat Intellectual Property Theft. In a blog post, Espinel notes the importance of balancing enforcement and creativity via fair use, “The Obama Administration has always embraced the free flow of information, online collaboration, and fair use by average citizens, which [...]

Long before Josh Brolin played Jonah Hex on the big screen, the grisly bounty hunter graced the pages of DC Comics. In 1995, Hex appeared in Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such (Volumes #1-5). The third volume of the series ends with a reference to the Autumn brothers, with the teaser, “Next: The [...]

At TEDxNYED, Lawrence Lessig gave a talk on the importance of balancing commercial and sharing culture through copyright. “Freedom,” he states, “is [the] opportunity to both have the commercial success of the [] works and the opportunity to build this different kind of culture — and for that to happen, you need ideas like fair [...]

Looking for something to do in the New York area this weekend? Visit the RE/Mixed Media Festival 2010: Sunday, May 30th 2010; 2 PM Galapagos Art Space 16 Main Street DUMBO, Brooklyn FREE! (21 and over) Presented by the League of Independents (LOFI): The RE/Mixed Media Festival is our way of contributing to the ongoing [...]

It’s not uncommon for artists to settle disputes out of court to avoid protracted litigation. For instance, in 1980 Robert Rauschenberg settled with photographer Morton Beebe after discovering that his photograph was used in Rauschenberg’s seminal work Pull (1974). The agreement included $3,000 and a copy of the work. Whether for financial or PR reasons, [...]

Google’s effort to create a digital library is once again under legal scrutiny. The Open Book Alliance issued a study detailing how the proposed Google Book Settlement violates international laws and treaties. The report, compiled by notable intellectual property attorney Cynthia Arato, notes, if approved, the settlement would grant Google automatic rights to exploit digitally [...]

Willem B. pointed me towards a great post by David Bollier from On The Commons. It explores transformative literature via a mashup of Nabokov’s Lolita and Lawrence Lessig’s The Future of Ideas. Otto Lambert’s A Tangle of Thorns Or, the Fair Use of the Commons in a Transformative World “improbably manages to blend the warped, [...]