On the final day (August 31st) of the public consultation on Brazil's copyright bill (English translation) a group of academic, educational, consumer, musical and digital cultural organizations joined in the Network for copyright law reform. In their fifteen contributions for access to knowledge they propose, among others, an exception for educational non-profit use and a term reduction from 70 to 50 years after the death of the author.

Under the slogan "Compartilhamento legal! R$3,00 de todos para tudo," this network is proposing to legalize non-commercial file-sharing in exchange for a levy on broadband Internet access. The idea is nearly as old as peer-to-peer file-sharing itself. It has been tested in technology and in law making a few times. Here and now in Brazil, it feels like it might actually become a reality. [06sep10]

This pamphlet -- 10 Rules for Radicals -- is the transcript of US rogue archivist Carl Malamud's keynote at the 19th World Wide Web Consortium conference in April 2010. Quoting author Cory Doctorow on boingboing, "It's a thrilling and often hilarious account of his adventures in liberating different kids of information and networks from various bureaucracies in his storied and exciting career."

Carl Malamud is the President and Founder of Public.Resource.Org, author of 8 books, and long-time advocate of public domain in the US. In his speech (also available in video and on Scribd) he provides a detailed guide about how to deal and work with public agencies for making Government and public sector information more accessible and re-usable.

A must-read for anyone interested in the history or future of universal access, open networks and free societies. [01sep10]

In his new book Common As Air, Professor Lewis Hyde says he's suspicious of the concept of "intellectual property" to begin with, calling it "historically strange." Hyde backs it up with an impressive amount of research; he spends a significant amount of time reflecting on the Founding Fathers, who came up with America's initial copyright laws. ...

Hyde advocates for a return to a "cultural commons" and quotes, approvingly, Thomas Jefferson, who believed that "ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man." ...

America's intellectual property law hasn't changed much in the past few decades; it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon (at least not toward a larger public domain, one of Hyde's main goals). But Hyde has crafted a compelling argument that copyright is "a limit that has lost its limit," and it's one that every American who is concerned about our nation's cultural heritage should consider.

Read the full NPR story, including some excerpts from "Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership". [23aug10]

In July the New Zealand Cabinet approved the Government Open Access and Licensing framework (NZGOAL), providing guidance for State Services agencies to follow when releasing copyright works and non-copyright material for re-use by third parties. It standardises the licensing of government copyright works for re-use using Creative Commons licences (specifically the Attribution [BY] license) and recommends the use of ‘no-known rights’ statements for non-copyright material. It is widely recognised that re-use of this material by individuals and organisations may have significant creative and economic benefit for New Zealand. [12aug10]

What can and can’t be copied is a matter of law, but also of aesthetics, culture, and economics. The act of copying, and the creation and transaction of rights relating to it, evokes fundamental notions of communication and censorship, of authorship and ownership – of privilege and property.

"Privilege and Property" is a collection of 15 essays for 450 pages, edited by Ronan Deazley, Martin Kretschmer and Lionel Bently, and available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 License on the Open Book publishers website. [28jul10]

We are continuing the process of reviewing and organizing the considerable material produced in the three-day event in Torino (28-30 June). The main Conference page now includes all slides presentations, ready for downloading. Also available are the video-streaming recordings, divided in morning and afternoon sessions for each day. A useful timetable and recap about such video-streaming sessions is also available here, thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken and his Experientia project. [14jul10]

The first day of the conference covered the relevant history and traditions of universities, move through the current state of play, and focus on the emerging landscape of universities, articulating both their changing role in society, the significant challenges these institutions are facing for the future and, more specifically, their role vis a vis the increasing commons of knowledge facilitated by the Internet. This day provided intellectual scaffolding for the primary ideas and tracks explored. The opening keynote, focused on "Universities as Knowledge Institutions", laid the foundation for integrative plenaries on university responsibilities on day 2. The three track sessions, "Digital Natives", "Information Infrastructure", and "Physical/Spatial Infrastructure", explored the pressing questions universities face in these areas, and provided the basis for working groups on subsequent days.

The second day attempted cross-sectional reorientation, by examining universities’ emerging responsibilities as ‘horizontal’ themes, especially as they intersect with future challenges described in the first day’s ‘vertical’ tracks.  The day begun with interactive breakout sessions exploring each of the priority areas (or verticals) covered the previous day. The balance of the day concentrated on “the Civic Role of Universities” (Universities as Civic Actors or Institutions), “Educating Students” (Universities as Platforms for Learning), and Research (Universities as Knowledge Creators). These plenary sessions served to contextualize the tracks within broader institutional roles, offering provocations and driving us toward innovative and holistic responses.

The third day consciously combined the three tracks and the cross-sectional issues with an orientation towards solutions and next steps. The day begun with a high level keynote intended to inform, provoke and energize the participants for the integration of the substance and the generation of actionable insights. This was accomplished in the final working session of the tracks and in the final roundtable session envisioning potential futures.[09jul10]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

THANK YOU everybody for making this three-day conference a successful and exciting event!
We are currently putting together the full proceedings and other material, while the video-streaming recordings, divided in morning and afternoon sessions for each day, are already available. [04jul10]

The second day of our Conference is going strong, with exciting panels and lots of attendees interaction — here is the on-going live streaming on the web.

Reports, interviews and more coverage is available on the Italian daily La Stampa's website, while several video-interviews with speakers and other material is being produced by the Polimedia awesome team. And don't forget the Twitter stream at #communia! [29jun10]

Almost 400 people from all over the world are convening in Torino (Italy) for the COMMUNIA 2010 “University and Cyberspace” Conference, starting tomorrow Monday June 28 at the Politecnico di Torino. This is a one-of-a-kind event featuring three days of academics, policymakers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, architects, and activists addressing some of the most significant issues facing universities in a networked age through keynotes, plenary sessions, high order bits, break out discussions, dinners, and celebrations.

The event is free and open to the public but registration is required -- there are still a few seats left for registering (and attending) directly at the main campus of Politecnico di Torino. [27jun10]