[A2k] Unbounded Freedom A guide to Creative Commons thinking for cultural organisations

[Teresa Hackett (eIFL)]

This is the first work from the British Council to be published under a
Creative Commons licence.

http://www.counterpoint-online.org/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=3D618

Unbounded Freedom

A guide to Creative Commons thinking for cultural organisations

Unbounded Freedom by Rosemary Bechler is a new publication from
Counterpoint to be launched in partnership with the London Book Fair on
29 September 2006.

To mark the occasion, we shall hold a debate in central london to be
chaired by Bill Thompson, technology critc for BBC Webwise and BBC News
Online with Christian Ahlert, Creative Commons UK and Caroline Michel,
William Morris Agency UK.

The growing popularity of cultural commons thinking sets new and
provocative challenges for traditional copyright law. Changes are
occurring in politics, the economy and law, but first and foremost in
the domain of culture.

One third of all internet users have now downloaded music, videos and
information using P2P file sharing software. New attitudes to the
accessibility and ownership of intellectual property have become a force
for change that will transform communication in the information age.
User-led innovation is reshaping cultural production so that it is
trans-national, more egalitarian, less deferential, much more diverse
and above all, self-authored.

Creative industries face the challenge of keeping pace with this sharing
economy, and any organisation wishing to work with them will need to
understand the thinking, ethics and communicative conventions of rising
generations.

Written by Rosemary Bechler, this short book argues that we must look at
the history of traditional copyright law in order to understand the
current debates about ownership and availability. In doing so, it not
only elucidates the development of intellectual property law, but also
reveals a unique glimpse of existing principles and developing trends.
Bechler argues that Creative Commons thinking enables cultural
organisations to embark on mutual relationships of trust with huge new
publics. Describing the transformative potential of new attitudes, she
offers us a vision of the future in which =91unbounded freedom=92 is not
simply a romantic notion.

Rosemary Bechler is a freelance writer and commissioning editor. After
securing her doctorate in eighteenth century literature from Cambridge
University in the mid 1980s, she gravitated towards political
journalism, helped found openDemocracy and became its first
International Editor. She was Series Editor for the Birthday
Counterpoints on key cultural relations issues marking the 70th
anniversary of the British Council, and has this summer edited the
second of two volumes on Britain and Ireland: Lives Entwined for the
British Council in Ireland.

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Counterpoint The cultural relations think-tank of the British Council

Counterpoint is a think-tank charged with developing thinking about
Cultural Relations. Effective, open communication between people of
different cultures is a strategic as well as a moral good: in the 21st
century it is a practical necessity, not a luxury. Cultural Relations is
the science of effective communication and active trust: the British
Council is committed to building the intercultural networks,
relationships and debates that underpin both.
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This is the first work from the British Council to be published under a
Creative Commons licence. It has been designed specifically for you to
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