April 25, 2005

Models for Sustainable Media

Eli Chapman does a round-up of the ways in which traditional artists are using not-so-new media to grow their audience and leverage digi culture.

Models_For_Sustainable_Cinema_eli_chapman_IIFF.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Posted by .M. at 04:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 18, 2005

Murdoch's view of the Internet

So how does Rupert Murdoch factor in the Internet into his empire? A recent speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors gives a clue.

News Corporation

"...In this spirit, we’re now turning to the internet. Today, the
newspaper is just a paper. Tomorrow, it can be a destination...."

As one commentator notes - "Murdoch discovers the Net".

Posted by .M. at 02:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 17, 2005

NIN release re-mixable single

NIN sets the stage for re-mixable industrial with their latest single release in GarageBand format. This is the first time a major-label recording artist has so directly supported remixes. The cat is out of the bag...

Slashdot | Trent Reznor Challenges Music Norms

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April 16, 2005

UK Creative Commons vs Creative Archive

In one corner we have the Creative Commons UK licenses, finally released after 16 months of deliberation.

http://creativecommons.org.uk/

And in the other corner, we have the newcomer - the Creative Archive License Group (a consortium of the BBC, Channel 4, BFI, and Open University).

http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk/

After all the build-up given the BBC Creative Archive project, it's a bit of a disappointment to see that they've decided to spin-off their own license rather than endorse Creative Commons.

In one fell swoop, the BBC has both endorsed the exploration of free-for-non-commercial-use licensing for its content and denied the benefits to the rest of the world. The license is explicitly for "use within the UK".

Two other main difference is a tighting up on the re-use provisions with "No Endorsements" being specified. This will certainly ease the minds of many industry groups - a major sticking point with my own project preparing for CC-AU releases.

Feedback to the Creative Archive:


Thank you for endorsing free-for-non-commercial-use licensing and opening up your collections. This is a move which no doubt can benefit copyright holders across the UK. However you could do better in two respects.

1) Your group has chosen to encourage license proliferation rather than adopt Creative Commons - the de-facto standard platform. In doing so you fail to heed the warnings from the open source software community now suffering from OSS license proliferation, with over 50 different licenses cluttering the scene. There was an opportunity here to learn from their experience. You could have strengthened a global framework but you chose to have your own brand.

If Brazil can pioneer CC Sampling licenses, the UK can pioneer "Country-Specific" and "No Endorsement" provisions through CC without going to the extent of having your own separate platform. Doing so would be a greater service to the UK population, then this current measure, which weakens support for the Creative Commons framework set up to reduce the reliance that copyright holders have on lawyers.

The lack of a joined-up licensing platform with the rest of the world inevitably makes the process of open licensing for UK copyright owners that much more difficult and expensive. This does not serve UK audiences. No country's creative archive should be an island.

2) Your FAQ fails to explain why turning your back on world-wide distribution is a good thing for UK copyright holders. Knowledge and art should not have border patrols. To suggest that world-wide online distribution is "subsidising overseas audiences" is short-sighted and somewhat provincial. Are you sure that restricting non-commercial use to the UK is in the best interest of UK copyright holders?

It does appear that this launch is two steps forward, one step back. Another Betamax vs VHS war could be looming in which UK content providers will be the losers.

Posted by .M. at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 13, 2005

Indie band uses Bittorrent for music videos

The Decemberists claim to be the first band to be distributing a music video by Bit Torrent. Triple J radio in Australian was certainly excited about this today.

http://decemberists.com/16mw-torrent.html

Posted by .M. at 01:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 12, 2005

Half-Life 2 accepts plug-ins

Half-Life 2 has a Source Engine Plugin Interface which makes it relatively easy to integrate 3rd party functionality with the game platform.

Posted by .M. at 08:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 07, 2005

Sketching at Pixar

The facility of being able to sketch on top of video is being used to good effect at Pixar. The Review Sketch tools is emerging as a powerful communication device.

Tool Time at Pixar

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April 05, 2005

Yahoo trials Creative Commons search facility

Yahoo becomes the first mainstream search engine to allow users to restrict their search to material that has only Some Rights Reserved. Expect to see other companies follow suit.

http://search.yahoo.com/cc

Posted by .M. at 11:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Matrix Online

Wired News: Matrix Online: Gaming Repackaged has very few nice things to say about the latest MMORPG.

"The Matrix Online manages to make elevators in the game work more poorly than they do in real life."

Posted by .M. at 01:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MEAA rages on about CC

MEAA is up in arms over growing support for Sanctuary. The art of getting up the establishment' nose continues...

http://modfilms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=517#517

Not everyone is impressed. Brian Flemming writes of the Return of the Boston strangler

Posted by .M. at 01:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack