I think that any publicly funded content should (within, say, 5 years of its creation) be released to the public domain.

O incluso en menos tiempo. Vía Boing Boing.

Imagínese encender su ordenador personal para leer el periódico mientras desayuna. Bueno, pues no es algo tan lejano como parece…

No hacemos esto para ganar dinero. (David Cole)

Y aquí estamos, 28 años después.

Via Boing Boing.

So the natural inclination of anyone who is struck by a piece of creative work is to share it. And since “sharing” on the Internet is the same as “copying,” this puts you square in copyright’s crosshairs. Everyone copies.

It’s entirely possible that there’s a detente to be reached between the copyists and the copyright holders: a set of rules that only try to encompass “culture” and not “industry.” But the only way to bring copyists to the table is to stop insisting that all unauthorized copying is theft and a crime and wrong. People who know that copying is simple, good, and beneficial hear that and assume that you’re either talking nonsense or that you’re talking about someone else.

Because if copying on the Internet were ended tomorrow, it would be the end of culture on the Internet too.

Cory Doctorow: Why I copyfight.

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.

Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff’s department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than “fire code violations,” and early this morning, the Sheriff’s department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.

En la Convención del 2004 estos grupos de protesta ayudaron a que los cargos sobre 400 de 1.800 detenidos fuesen desestimados gracias a las evidencias en vídeo aportadas, y los policías que levantaron esos cargos, acusados de perjurio.

Via Boing Boing.