RiP!: A Remix Manifesto not all audiences are equal!?

Yesterday Creative Commons Netherlands wrote that the Canadian documentary “RIP a remix manifesto” by Brett Gaylor would be broadcasted by the Dutch public broadcasters NPS and VPRO later that evening. I had heard some good things about this documentary, but hadn’t seen it yet. Since we don’t have television (a subject for another post) anymore I though I might be able to download the documentary instead. After all it’s all about remixing and download culture. At least that’s what they claim on the frontpage of their website:

RiP: A remix manifesto is a documentary film about copyright and remix culture.

So I went to their download website and went looking for a dowload option. Instead I got this message:

I interpreted this message as: the people inside the gated community may download a documentary on remixing and download culture and for those outside you may jump through some more hoops before you will be able to watch the same film streaming. As you might understand I am confused and even insulted by this difference in treatment. Why treat your audience outside (in this case the US) differently from those inside the US? Especially when the subject of the documentary is about remix and download culture. A global culture. Not just a North-American culture. What are the arguments that support this difference in treatment?

Update: Huh? Found this snippet in Brett Gaylor’s bio on the ‘global’ website, which makes the difference in treatment of the audience even weirder:

He is also the web producer of the Homeless Nation.org, a web project dedicated to bridging the digital divide – allowing everyone to participate in online culture.

(emphasis is mine)

Update2: You can find the documentary also here in case you’re not willing to be treated differently from our North-American friends. Yes, controlling downloads based on geography is a failure.

Update3: Brett Gaylor (as far as I can tell it is genuine) responded in the comments and I have responded on his comment.

Update4: Brett’s email bounched. Brett, if you’re reading this I tried to email you at your first name at opensourcecinema dot org and it did not work.

Creative Commons tech summit

I wrote this summary of the first Creative Commons tech summit in 2008 at the Googleplex, however somehow it ended up in being a draft in WordPress for more than a year. I decided to add links and publish it although in the meantime two follow up conferences have already been held. Maybe it still holds some value. Enjoy my rather lengthy ‘summary’.

Thanks to Creative Commons.org and The institute of Sound and Images I was able to join the first Creative Commons Tech Summit in San Francisco. Since the amount of participants was limited to 100 people I decided to write a summary for those not able to attend on this blog. There have been more people writing about the summit and the whole thing is made available on Youtube as well. I hope this summary will be of use to you. Feel free to comment. More after the jump.. (more…)

Ridley Scott works bladerunner prequels licensed as CC-BY-SA

Just read this on Identi.ca (free software microblogging service a la Twitter):

Wow! So Ridley Scott of Bladerunner and Alien fame is working on a Bladerunner ‘inspired’ prequels available on the web under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. Can’t wait to see them!

See also the slightly longer announcement on CC.org.