I’m currently in the process of writing an article about remix culture and the notion of the Commons. It is taking me in all sorts of fascinating directions, from Girl Talk to Brett Gaylor’s open source film about the musician, RIP: A Remix Manifesto. From Creative Commons to Brad Lichtenstein’s work in progress What We Got: DJ Spooky’s Quest for the Commons. I like this animated video by Laura Hanna and Gavin Browning that examines the notion of the Commons…

I’ve just added some links to the blogroll on the right hand side of this blog that link to sites working to protect our digital rights. The more excited I get by the possibilities for filmmakers in the digital age the more aware I am that we need to fight to continue to exercise our creativity (flexible copyright law is key here) and keep the channels of distribution open (if you don’t know what net neutrality is I really urge…

It has been so frustrating not having time to blog about all the films and other events I attended at HotDocs and then Tribeca. Work has foiled me every time. It has just been a nutty couple of weeks – full of good things but no time to sit and think and write. Yesterday I got home and was so tired that I watched the end of Music and Lyrics and then the end of Just My Luck before crashing…

Own-it provide intellectual property advice for creative businesses and while their free events are located in and around London, they have lots of free resources for anyone to download. Just see below… Tamsin SP London Own-it provides: free legal contract templates, articles, podcasts and factsheets available for download free legal advice and a detailed FAQ section events to enable creative people to make the most of their ideas a directory of useful resources and contacts across creative sectors.

Watch Steal This Film Part 2, for everything you ever wanted to learn about copyright. . . but were afraid to ask! It was downloaded 35,000 times on the first day it was available online which is pretty damn good. As an added joy you can watch it on the Shooting People website which you should definitely visit if you haven’t already. We will be posting more on this soon but in the meantime check out the film itself.

International copyright is such a tricky issue. On the one hand I understand that artists and businesses need to make money in order to survive personally and commercially, but it is also clear that the winds of change are blowing and, as one man says in Steal This Film, “When the winds of change are blowing, some people build shelters while others build windmills.” People thought that the VCR was going to destroy the film industry but it didn’t. What…