Posts tagged creative commons

Gage Skidmore: How one teenager gives the GOP its Flickr close-up

shortformblog:

You don’t know him, but you’ve seen his work: The rise of Creative Commons has leveled the playing field for bloggers, giving many the opportunity to illustrate stories with free-to-use images that are at times comparable to wire photos. But the quality varies, and it’s rare to find someone sharing high-quality pictures consistently — but Gage Skidmore pulls it off. The 18-year-old photographer, who shoots celebrities and conservative politicians largely as a hobby, has uploaded nearly 9,000 photos to Flickr since early 2008, and thanks to favorable licensing, finds his photos of famous and important people in use all over the Web — including such sites as MSNBC, Fox News, The Atlantic and Mashable. What drives his work? Click on to see his take on the matter.

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FJP: Over at ShortFormBlog Ernie Smith interviews Gage Skidmore about the photos he’s been taking of political candidates. Definitely worth the read. 

Not familiar with the Creative Commons? Familiarize.

The Open Textbook Challenge Each year US college students spend about $1,000 on textbooks. The Saylor Foundation wants to change this by providing free and open textbooks that can be used throughout an undergraduate education.  To do so they’ve launched the Open Textbook Challenge and offer $20,000 prizes to authors who create Creative Commons licensed textbooks in topics ranging from art history to business management to mechanical engineering.  For authors, the next round of grants and prizes closes May 31. Information about submitting material is here. For students, petition your professors (and schools) to start using these materials. Image: Screenshot from Elementary Linear Algebra (PDF) from Open Textbook Challenge winner Kenneth Kuttler of Brigham Young University.

The Open Textbook Challenge

Each year US college students spend about $1,000 on textbooks.

The Saylor Foundation wants to change this by providing free and open textbooks that can be used throughout an undergraduate education. 

To do so they’ve launched the Open Textbook Challenge and offer $20,000 prizes to authors who create Creative Commons licensed textbooks in topics ranging from art history to business management to mechanical engineering. 

For authors, the next round of grants and prizes closes May 31. Information about submitting material is here.

For students, petition your professors (and schools) to start using these materials.

Image: Screenshot from Elementary Linear Algebra (PDF) from Open Textbook Challenge winner Kenneth Kuttler of Brigham Young University.

Wired’s Photos are now Your Photos Wired.com announced yesterday that it’s releasing all staff photography under a Creative Commons license. The photos are available via Wired’s Flickr stream. Via Wired: The Creative Commons turns 10 years old next year, and the simple idea of releasing content with “some rights reserved” has revolutionized online sharing and fueled a thriving remix culture. Like many other sites across the web, we’ve benefited from CC-licensed photos at Wired.com for years — thank you, sharers! It seems only fitting, and long overdue, to start sharing ourselves. This is a great — and bold — move. Before grabbing anything and everything you find there, click through to read some important caveats about images Wired licenses from third parties in order to see what’s fair game and what’s not, and how to know whether it’s fair game or not. Image: The Toy and Action Figure Museum, Jim Merithew/Wired.com. 

Wired’s Photos are now Your Photos

Wired.com announced yesterday that it’s releasing all staff photography under a Creative Commons license. The photos are available via Wired’s Flickr stream.

Via Wired:

The Creative Commons turns 10 years old next year, and the simple idea of releasing content with “some rights reserved” has revolutionized online sharing and fueled a thriving remix culture. Like many other sites across the web, we’ve benefited from CC-licensed photos at Wired.com for years — thank you, sharers! It seems only fitting, and long overdue, to start sharing ourselves.

    This is a great — and bold — move. Before grabbing anything and everything you find there, click through to read some important caveats about images Wired licenses from third parties in order to see what’s fair game and what’s not, and how to know whether it’s fair game or not.

    Image: The Toy and Action Figure Museum, Jim Merithew/Wired.com. 

    Let us pause for a second and consider copyright. This includes you and me and news organizations like the Daily Mail. Currently, the Daily Mail is accused of publishing a photo by Steve Leachman (above) without permission. That they should do so, and in the way that they’re accused, boggles. Via the British Journal of Photography: Leachman tells BJP that the watermarked image has been taken from his Flickr account or personal website, and has been airbrushed to remove the watermark - upon closer inspection of the image, BJP can confirm that the image used by Mail Online appears to have been airbrushed using Photoshop’s Clone Stamp tool. Simply, just because a content object is online doesn’t make it fair game. It doesn’t put the work in the “Public Domain.” In the United States, we have something called “Fair Use.” And if you’re in the United States, and producing work in the United States, you can read up on it here. If you’re elsewhere, learn what you can and cannot do… pronto. I can’t pretend to know global copyright law and certainly can’t pretend to be a lawyer, but I can point you to the Creative Commons which licenses work that those of us on Tumblr should be aware of and use. If you’re not familiar with the Creative Commons, I highly recommend heading there now to learn about content that you can use and remix for your own purposes. And if you’re a content creator of any type — be it indie artist or mainstream publisher — I recommend using the Creative Commons to both license and clarify the license on your work. Our social media, User Generated Content age makes for legitimate confusion but for publications like the Daily Mail: please, you know better. — Michael

    Let us pause for a second and consider copyright.

    This includes you and me and news organizations like the Daily Mail.

    Currently, the Daily Mail is accused of publishing a photo by Steve Leachman (above) without permission. That they should do so, and in the way that they’re accused, boggles.

    Via the British Journal of Photography:

    Leachman tells BJP that the watermarked image has been taken from his Flickr account or personal website, and has been airbrushed to remove the watermark - upon closer inspection of the image, BJP can confirm that the image used by Mail Online appears to have been airbrushed using Photoshop’s Clone Stamp tool.

    Simply, just because a content object is online doesn’t make it fair game. It doesn’t put the work in the “Public Domain.” In the United States, we have something called “Fair Use.” And if you’re in the United States, and producing work in the United States, you can read up on it here. If you’re elsewhere, learn what you can and cannot do… pronto.

    I can’t pretend to know global copyright law and certainly can’t pretend to be a lawyer, but I can point you to the Creative Commons which licenses work that those of us on Tumblr should be aware of and use.

    If you’re not familiar with the Creative Commons, I highly recommend heading there now to learn about content that you can use and remix for your own purposes.

    And if you’re a content creator of any type — be it indie artist or mainstream publisher — I recommend using the Creative Commons to both license and clarify the license on your work.

    Our social media, User Generated Content age makes for legitimate confusion but for publications like the Daily Mail: please, you know better. — Michael

    Copyright Friendly Audio for the Multimedia Producer The question knocking around our email is what are some copyright free and/or royalty free music resources for the multimedia journalist. The answer is in the list below. While not all encompassing, we think it a good start to get you going. ccMixter: dig.ccmixter is devoted to helping you find that great music, all of which is liberally licensed under a Creative Commons license so you already have permission to use this music in your video, podcast, school project, personal music player, or where ever. FreeSound.org: The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs. Musopen: Musopen is a non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free. Jamendo: Jamendo is a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. Library of Congress: Get that old-timey feeling from public domain works via the LOC’s American Memory project. SoundCloud: Creative Commons tagged music from this musician sharing site. Think of it as a Flickr for audio. Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project: Before their were MP3s there were CDs. Before that there were tapes and vinyl. And before that, the cylinder. UC Santa Barbara has been digitizing music from the late 1800s and early 1900s since 2002. Now free for you to use. Want a Giant Lists of Others? Check out this massive list from Wikispaces, or if you’re looking for beats and loops to create your own songs, the dmoz Open Directory Project has everything from electronica to banjo for you to sample. Have resources of your own? What would you add to the list?

    Copyright Friendly Audio for the Multimedia Producer

    The question knocking around our email is what are some copyright free and/or royalty free music resources for the multimedia journalist.

    The answer is in the list below. While not all encompassing, we think it a good start to get you going.

    • ccMixter: dig.ccmixter is devoted to helping you find that great music, all of which is liberally licensed under a Creative Commons license so you already have permission to use this music in your video, podcast, school project, personal music player, or where ever.
    • FreeSound.org: The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs.
    • Musopen: Musopen is a non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.
    • Jamendo: Jamendo is a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses.
    • Library of Congress: Get that old-timey feeling from public domain works via the LOC’s American Memory project.
    • SoundCloud: Creative Commons tagged music from this musician sharing site. Think of it as a Flickr for audio.
    • Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project: Before their were MP3s there were CDs. Before that there were tapes and vinyl. And before that, the cylinder. UC Santa Barbara has been digitizing music from the late 1800s and early 1900s since 2002. Now free for you to use.

    Want a Giant Lists of Others?

    Check out this massive list from Wikispaces, or if you’re looking for beats and loops to create your own songs, the dmoz Open Directory Project has everything from electronica to banjo for you to sample.

    Have resources of your own? What would you add to the list?