Copyright in real-time

This post from BusinessWeek touches on some interesting issues regarding copyright and the emerging realities of a real-time web.

Copyright law wasn’t written with today’s content consumption in mind. The way online video copyright functions is based on a reading of the 10-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act that equates video hosting sites with Internet service providers. That law provides a “safe harbor” for hosts who respond to copyright claims by taking down infringing content “expeditiously.”

There doesn’t seem to be widespread motivation to modernize that process. Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion , claiming YouTube should take more responsibility than the current reading of DMCA requires — but that’s plodding along in the courts . Meanwhile, Internet users are sharing and consuming content at a furious rate. And what’s being called the “real-time web” is even less equipped to deal with copyright infringement. READ MORE

Open Video

Next month I’ll be attending the Open Video Conference in NYC. I’ll be speaking with producer Ted Hope about the “evolution of storytelling.” In other words how is technology and changes in media consumption impacting the art and craft of telling stories.

Today I posted a short interview with OVC organizers over at the Filmmaker Magazine blog.

If you’ll be attending the conference drop me a line. I’m going to try to attend both days but unfortunately won’t be able to attend the Open Hacker day on Sunday have to fly to Europe.

Where is my mind?

Got the vinyl out and spinning some pixies. This song reminds me of a time when I was shooting film with Mario Sorrenti, Amber Valletta, and Juliette Binoche. Spring wound bolex, reversal film stock, southern plantations, prop planes over panama, and many long hours on islands in the middle of nowhere.

play

Open Creativity

DIY DAYS, a roving conference for those who create, will be kicking off in Philadelphia on August 1st. This marks the second year of the conference which stoped in LA, SF, Boston, NYC and London in 2008. This year, DIY DAYS will travel to Philadelphia, LA, Portland, NYC, London and Stockholm.

The conference is free and much of it is recorded and released as open media online. The goal is to share information and resources while at the same time provide a networking opportunity for those wishing to sustain from their creative work.

For more info visit DIY DAYS

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

Danger Mouse’s new Dark Night of the Soul to be released as a blank cd-r along with a 100+ book of conceptual photographs by David Lynch inspired by the music. The decision to release the blank cd-r stems from a legal dispute with EMI. Dark Night of the Soul features collaborations with Iggy Pop, Sparklehorse, The Flaming Lips and many more.

Track featuring Vic Chestnut
play

Will be interesting to see how the album leaks and if it takes a similar path that Danger Mouse’s Grey Album did.

TEXT OF LIGHT

For those who may wonder what Text of Light means, it’s a 1974 experimental feature film by Stan Brakhage. I’ve been a fan of Brakhage’s films since I was 17 and making my first films with a spring wound bolex. His films are visually intoxicating and have been a major influence on many. Prolific, Brakhage made hundreds of films most of which had no sound. His film Dog Star Man is by far the film I’ve seen the most times – and I mean of any film not just his work. In 1992, while traveling on a cross country trip, I stopped off in Colorado in hopes of meeting him. I ended up tracking him down and we spent the day hanging out – we even shot some film!


Getting all meta – Text of Light an improvisational group of musicians inspired by Brakhage’s film of the same name re-score the film live in Rotterdam.