The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Sign the PublicACTA Wellington Declaration!
- William Gibson answers questions
- Wildlife made from collaged maps
| Sign the PublicACTA Wellington Declaration! Posted: 11 Apr 2010 08:51 PM PDT  The PublicACTA activists have been meeting in Wellington, New Zealand -- site of the next round of negotiations on the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement -- drafting a declaration on how the next global copyright treaty should read, and how it should be negotiated. The "Wellington Declaration" says that the world copyright treaties shouldn't be conducted behind closed doors in smoke-filled rooms, but rather in the full light of public participation at the United Nations, where copyright treaties are customarily made. The UN admits non-governmental organizations, journalists, and representatives from poor countries, while ACTA is only open to rich countries and lobbyists from powerful corporations. The Declaration says that copyright treaties should preserve the flexibility to make unauthorised use for purposes consistent with the public interest, from criticism to education; it says that privacy should be protected in copyright law, rejecting the principle that we should all be spied upon in case we are infringing on copyright; that web-hosts and search engines should be protected from liability rather than charged with policing their users; that DRM is not part of copyright and shouldn't be in a copyright treaty; that Internet access is a human right and that disconnection from the net for accusations of infringement is disproportionate and unjust; and that damages for infringement should be reasonable. It asks that criminal sanctions for copyright be reserved for genuinely criminal acts, non casual sharing. In short, the Wellington Declaration says a bunch of extremely sensible things that, if implemented, would give us a much better world. Tonight, they are collecting signatures on the Declaration, and tomorrow morning, they will present it to the ACTA negotiators as they sit down to plot the world's future in New Zealand. I've signed it. I think we all should. The Wellington Declaration (Thanks, Nat and everyone else who suggested this!) |
| William Gibson answers questions Posted: 11 Apr 2010 08:53 AM PDT Having finished the manuscript for his next novel, Zero History, William Gibson is taking a break from fiction by answering a wide-ranging set of questions from the readers on his blog. His answers are really good and interesting. This one should be graven in marble over every beginning writer's desk. QUESTIONS Previously:
|
| Wildlife made from collaged maps Posted: 11 Apr 2010 05:58 AM PDT  Artist Jason LaFerrera makes wildlife collages out of old maps. His first show is coming up in Richmond, VA, and he's posted some samples of the material he'll be showing, along with some limited run prints on Etsy. Jason LaFerrera (Thanks, Jason!) Previously:
|
A "Creator's block" sounds like something afflicting a divinity, but writer's block is my default setting. Its opposite is miraculous. The process of learning to write fiction, for me, was one of learning to almost continually be doing it *through* the block, in spite of the block, the block becoming the accustomed place from which to work. Our traditional cultural models of creativity tend to involve the wrong sort of heroism, for me. "It sprang whole and perfect from my brow" as opposed to "I saw it mispelled, in mauve Krylon, on the side of a dumpster, and it haunted me". I was much encouraged, when I began to write, by Manny Farber's idea of "termite art". | You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment