#23. This is the final discovery exercise on Copyright and Creative Commons. When I finish it, I will go to the PA Online Survey to complete an evaluation.
It's interesting to me when I go to the School Library Learning site to find out about assignment #23 that I'm seeing the video "A Fair(y) Use Tale." I'd seen this video bookmarked on Del.icio.us in a friend's networked bookmarks, and I'd considered using it as the YouTube item I was going to embed in my blog, until I started to watch it and saw Disney characters and the Disney logo. I realize now, after watching the whole thing, that I didn't watch far enough previously to realize what the creators were doing. They took such small portions of each movie clip that they were not infringing on copyright, and they were putting the clips together in such as way as not to infringe upon the original work or retell the original work. They demonstrated how to put together a new creative work that does not break copyright law, and they properly gave credit to the original productions and the owner of the original copyrights, Disney Productions. It's really a very clever work showing how "fair use" can work for someone.
Part of our assignment is to find something that indicates that this video was changed from its original. That indication is on the screen that says, "The following film is not associated with, authorized by, or should be confused with any product produced by" and then the "Walt Disney Pictures" logo appears.
I just visited the Creative Commons Web site and I was surprised to see an entry about Lawrence Lessig having appeared on "The Colbert Report" on TV's Comedy Central channel on January 8th. Lessig is the founder of Creative Commons and he was promoting his new book, Remix, when he appeared on Stephen Colbert's show. I'd seen that show, but I didn't know who Lessig was, and I didn't know I'd be visiting Creative Commons and finding out about the connection. It just seems like an odd coincidence that I'm doing that within three days of the show.
Another coincidence: Even as I am in the process of working on this assignment and I found another blog I wanted to add to my blog reader, I see that my blog reader has brought me Joyce Valenza's "NeverEnding Search" blog about "Remixing: Lessig vs. Colbert". Talk about timely matters!
Creative Commons is a site with tools that lets people license their work and share it legally. It allows the owner to reserve all rights or only some rights to their creative work, so others can take the work and use it in a "remixed" way.
I visited the Arts Project Web site of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain and found some interesting links there. I paged through a bit of the comic book about intellectual property, but I've never liked having to read comic books -- they take so much longer to absorb than just text. Nonetheless, some people like their instruction in graphic form, so it's nice to know that this comic book on intellectual property can be viewed online.
I enjoyed watching the short film called "Great Composers Steal", with Anthony Kelley giving examples of how the limitations of the Western musical scale can make many tunes sound as though they are borrowed from others but really are not. He played notes that sounded like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star when played at one rhythm and I'm In the Mood For Love when played at another rhythm, to give examples the audience would recognize as being very different works even though they use identical notes. When you have only 11 notes of a scale, and thousands (millions?) of tunes to write, some of them will have to have the same notes because there are no others from which to choose.
I've enjoyed this journey through the "23 Things" of Library 2.0 and am heading now to complete my evaluation on the PA Online Survey site.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Week Nine, Assignment #22
#22. eBooks and Audio eBooks
The World EBook Fair site was operational for one month, July 4, 2007-August 4, 2007. I found it on May 23, 2007 and explored it during the month of its availability. (I was blogging in another place at that time and remarked on it in that blog.) I had just discovered Playaway audiobooks and had written a grant proposal that had landed quite a large collection of audiobooks for my library, so I had little interest at that time in finding ebooks I'd have to read on my computer when I much preferred to go out walking while listening to my new audiobook collection. After all, it was midsummer and I wanted to be outside. Also, at that time, I had no interest in an e-book collection that I'd have to read on my computer, because as it is I spend not only most of my working day on a computer sut also most of my free time in the evening with a laptop computer on my lap while I type away at various Web sites I administer. I wish now that I'd shown more interest in downloading these books, because my library now has a Kindle and I'm wondering if I would have been able to read them on it. The Kindle is a wonderful way to read e-books because the weight of it doesn't put your legs to sleep (like my laptop computer does).
I explored the Gutenberg Project to find what e-books are available there. I downloaded the English version of Gaston Leroux's The Mystery of the Yellow Room, primarily because my husband is currently reading both the English and the French versions of the book and I was curious whether he could have been just as happy with the free e-book as with the print version in his hands. The download is a "text version" and I have to say that I personally don't care for the bleakness of it, written in small font in unrelenting paragraph after paragraph to be scrolled through, ad infinitum.
By the way, if someone wants the French version of that book as a free download, both the text and the audiobook are available free here. Literatureaudio.com has more than 600 free audiobooks in French.
The Web site DailyLit also has some free and some really inexpensive books that may be of interest.
The British Library Online Gallery, Turning the Pages((TM) system has some free e-books. I attempted to view the original Alice by Lewis Carroll, but the Shockwave Player installation did not go through on my computer and rather than re-try (and possibly mess up something on my computer), I clicked to cancel it. Then I noticed on the site that there's a Turning the Pages (TM) version 2 for Vista and I went to it. It also works if you have SilverLight downloaded on your computer. There I found The Original Adventures of Alice Underground and clicked for it. It took about a minute for the download, and it's really impressive-looking when it finally comes on the screen. You can read Lewis Carroll's original handwriting or you can read the text in regular computer font (in a variety of sizes) in a window that opens. It took me a little time to find how to turn the pages. You click on the edge of the page and then drag your mouse in a "page flipping" direction. You'll see the page flip over to reveal the next page. You also can click "Listen" and have it read to you. Re-click "Listen" when you want it to stop. This is a beautiful resource, and I intend to go back and look at other books available there.
I also liked Best Places to Get Free Books - The Ultimate Guide. There are so many sites listed there that it will take some time to explore them. Note that they are not all e-books. (That doesn't make the sites any less interesting to explore!)
The World EBook Fair site was operational for one month, July 4, 2007-August 4, 2007. I found it on May 23, 2007 and explored it during the month of its availability. (I was blogging in another place at that time and remarked on it in that blog.) I had just discovered Playaway audiobooks and had written a grant proposal that had landed quite a large collection of audiobooks for my library, so I had little interest at that time in finding ebooks I'd have to read on my computer when I much preferred to go out walking while listening to my new audiobook collection. After all, it was midsummer and I wanted to be outside. Also, at that time, I had no interest in an e-book collection that I'd have to read on my computer, because as it is I spend not only most of my working day on a computer sut also most of my free time in the evening with a laptop computer on my lap while I type away at various Web sites I administer. I wish now that I'd shown more interest in downloading these books, because my library now has a Kindle and I'm wondering if I would have been able to read them on it. The Kindle is a wonderful way to read e-books because the weight of it doesn't put your legs to sleep (like my laptop computer does).
I explored the Gutenberg Project to find what e-books are available there. I downloaded the English version of Gaston Leroux's The Mystery of the Yellow Room, primarily because my husband is currently reading both the English and the French versions of the book and I was curious whether he could have been just as happy with the free e-book as with the print version in his hands. The download is a "text version" and I have to say that I personally don't care for the bleakness of it, written in small font in unrelenting paragraph after paragraph to be scrolled through, ad infinitum.
By the way, if someone wants the French version of that book as a free download, both the text and the audiobook are available free here. Literatureaudio.com has more than 600 free audiobooks in French.
The Web site DailyLit also has some free and some really inexpensive books that may be of interest.
The British Library Online Gallery, Turning the Pages((TM) system has some free e-books. I attempted to view the original Alice by Lewis Carroll, but the Shockwave Player installation did not go through on my computer and rather than re-try (and possibly mess up something on my computer), I clicked to cancel it. Then I noticed on the site that there's a Turning the Pages (TM) version 2 for Vista and I went to it. It also works if you have SilverLight downloaded on your computer. There I found The Original Adventures of Alice Underground and clicked for it. It took about a minute for the download, and it's really impressive-looking when it finally comes on the screen. You can read Lewis Carroll's original handwriting or you can read the text in regular computer font (in a variety of sizes) in a window that opens. It took me a little time to find how to turn the pages. You click on the edge of the page and then drag your mouse in a "page flipping" direction. You'll see the page flip over to reveal the next page. You also can click "Listen" and have it read to you. Re-click "Listen" when you want it to stop. This is a beautiful resource, and I intend to go back and look at other books available there.
I also liked Best Places to Get Free Books - The Ultimate Guide. There are so many sites listed there that it will take some time to explore them. Note that they are not all e-books. (That doesn't make the sites any less interesting to explore!)
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