More often that you might think, we get asked about how the Weblogs@Harvard project (the server on which this blog appears) got started and why we at the Berkman Center maintain it. I got several questions about it in the context of an event this week, in fact, eight years or so into the project. … Read more
These are my live-blog notes for the fourth and final full session at the DPLA content and scope working session: 1) The messy issue of rights and permissions for in-copyright works is the biggest issue that the DPLA will face. (We have a workstream set up for legal issues on the wiki.) A variant of … Read more
Here are some quick notes on three take-aways from Session III at the Content and Scope planning meeting of the Digital Public Library of America. 1) Materials that are in copyright will have to be thought about by the DPLA differently (the red zone) from those in the public domain (green) or orphan works and … Read more
My three take-away points/topics from the second session, focusing on characteristics of public domain collections and open business models: 1) We have done a lot of work toward collection-building in a DPLA. We need to learn from the experience of our own projects in the United States and those of others that are underway today. … Read more
Here’s my rough live-blog (while moderating; please excuse briefness) of the key points and problems from session 1 of the Digital Public Library of America working meeting on “Scope and Content” of a possible DPLA, today at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, MA: 1) We began with a voice from public libraries and one … Read more
In studying the practices of young people with respect to information and technology, one of the themes that comes up all the time is whether or not “their brains are being rewired” as they use new media. Conversations about how kids interact with one another through social media often turn to questions of whether or … Read more
The Kernochan Center at Columbia University Law School is hosting its annual symposium today in NYC on the timely issue of collective management of copyright. Non-IP lawyers may be scratching their heads after reading that sentence. What, after all, is collective management of copyright? Daniel Gervais, the opening keynote speaker, starts the conference by answering … Read more
The artist Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press announced today that they have reached a settlement in their dispute over copyright issues related to the Obama “Hope” poster created during the 2008 presidential campaign cycle. The AP has also issued its own press release about the settlement. (Disclosure: Along with my HLS colleague, Prof. Terry … Read more
I have had the great pleasure this evening of introducing Prof. Noah Feldman on the occasion of his talk on his new book, Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices (Twelve, 2010). Noah’s interlocutor: our great friend Christopher Lydon, former Berkman Center fellow and journalist who has led the way in … Read more
I’m preparing for a lecture tonight at Harvard Law School. Here’s the abstract: The Path of Legal Information November 9, 2010 I propose a path toward a new legal information environment that is predominantly digital in nature. This new era grows out of a long history of growth and change in the publishing of legal … Read more