Kategorie: English

The movie Patent Absurdity is based on a series of interviews conducted during the Supreme Court’s review of »in re Bilski« — a case that could have profound implications for the patenting of software in the US. The most impressive movie part is the acoustical demonstration (27:45–28:33) of Richard Stallman’s illustration (16:26–17:45) of what would have happened to Beethoven’s symphony when they have had patents on musical elements in Beethoven’s times.

The movie was released unter CC BY-ND license allowing copying and (commercial) usage, but disallow publication of derivative works. The movie can be watched here or downloaded here in free OGG format. Subtitles are partly available here. [via–via–via]

QuestionCopyright.org’s first „Minute Meme.“ Score arranged and recorded by Nik Phelps. Vocals by Connie Champagne. Song and animation by Nina Paley.

DE: Die Comic-Zeichnerin Alison Bechdel hat (in einem Comic) einen simplen Test erfunden. Es geht um die Frage, ob und wie Frauen in Filmen vorkommen. Filme erfüllen den Bechdel-Test, wenn sie drei Kriterien genügen:

1. Mindestens zwei (namentlich genannte) Frauen kommen in dem Film vor.
2. Sie reden miteinander …
3. … über ein anderes Thema als einen Mann.

Nur wenige Filme bestehen den Test. Denn »mehr Frau« ist dem männlichen, weißen, heterosexuellen Zielpublikum echt nicht zuzumuten. Der Test sagt übrigens nichts über die Qualität des Films aus. [via]

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[First part]

During the last years, humanity has consumed about 500 exajoules of energy per year (an exajoule is a million million megajoules, or 10¹⁸ joules). As usual, levels of energy consumption vary strongly from country to country. While the average consumption per person is about 70 GJ (gigajoules), the inhabitants of Bangladesh, Eritrea, and Senegal use less than 10 GJ on average.

At the other extreme, the inhabitants of the United Arab Emirates and Iceland use 450–500 GJ per year, while per-capita usage in the small emirate of Qatar is a whopping 900 GJ. Germany uses about 180 GJ per person—more than twice the global average. Other Middle European countries are similar, while the United States and Canada use twice as much (330–350 GJ).

Is it realistic that in the future, everybody will reach the consumption level of Germany or the USA, or even more? (mehr …)

A proposal for a World Day of Commons October 15, 2010!

Following the Manifesto Reclam the Commons, we suggest organizing the first World Day of Commons on October 15, 2010

This would be a day of public actions, presentations, debates, workshops, shows, meetings,… around the world to share the visions and the practices of Commons and to make them known to the public. (mehr …)

The inventor of WWW and HTML, Tim Berners-Lee, shows mashups using open data, e.g. OpenStreetMap after the earth quake in Haiti.

Der Erfinder von WWW und HTML, Tim Berners-Lee, zeigt Mashups mit offenen Daten, z.B. OpenStreetMap nach dem Erdbeben in Haiti.

[Deutsche Version beim CommonsBlog]

Reposted from counterpunch

Human solidarity as expressed in the slogan “all for one and one for all” is the foundation of commoning.  In capitalist society this principle is permitted in childhood games or in military combat. Otherwise, when it is not honored in hypocrisy, it appears in the struggle contra capitalism or, as Rebecca Solnit shows, in the disasters of fire, flood, or earthquake.

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Great video on openness, open design, and sharing — created during the Open Design Workshop at the Betahaus as part of Social Media Week Berlin 2010 [via].

Delivered in Beta from KS12.

[via OnTheCommons, deutsche Übersetzung unten]

The vocabulary of the commons is expanding as people increasingly realize the practical value of this concept. No longer simply a noun, the commons now is talked about as a verb and adjective.

Commons: What we share. Creations of both nature and society that belong to all of us equally, and should be maintained for future generations.

Commons-based society: A society whose economy, political culture and community life revolve around promoting a diverse variety of commons.

Commons-based solutions: Distinctive innovations and policies that remedy problems by helping people manage resources cooperatively and sustainably.

Commoners: In modern use, the people who use a particular commons; especially those dedicated to reclaiming and restoring the commons.

Commoning: A verb to describe the social practices used by commoners in the course of managing shared resources and reclaiming the commons. Popularized by historian Peter Linebaugh.
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Adrian Bowyer gave a talk at FOSDEM 2010 in Brussels about RepRap, the cool GPL licenced 3D-printer which could (partly) replicate itself. Watch the talk and learn, why personal fabrication will succeed over old industrial mass production, even in its decentralized form, and why personal fabrication will succeed in the run for creativity [via].