Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

Information as Public Domain: Access through Libraries

This is a declaration from an international conference in Russia held last month. The link only has the declaration in English with the program listed in Russian. Be that as it may, it’s a good reminder that the entire world is interested in information access and that the public domain extends beyond American borders! Check out the World Summit on the Information Society

On 27-29 October 2004 St. Petersburg hosted the International Conference On 27-29 October 2004 St. Petersburg hosted the International Conference “Information as Public Domain: Access through Libraries”, which was attended by over 120 representatives of public authorities, academic research organizations, libraries and other institutions from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Great Britain, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, Moldova, Russia, USA, Tajikistan and the Ukraine.

Having examined an extensive range of agenda items, the participants of the Conference hereby confirm their view that enabling access to public domain information produced by public authorities should become fundamental to the national information policies of all nations striving for democracy and freedom of human development. Public authorities, as well as libraries, archives and various information services providers should assume a primary responsibility for the expansion of openness and management of information as public domain. The mainstream principle of information management should be as follows: information produced by public authorities should be deemed publicly available, and any exceptions to this rule officially banning the said access should be justified, minimized and supported by the power of law. The national information policy and its legislative and regulatory support should be based on the presumption of openness of government information.

The participants of the Conference take note that any national information policy should reside on the determination to develop a knowledge society and a civil society. Libraries of today constitute an indispensable institution of civil society and an effective tool for building it. Support of the development of library services should be elaborated in national information policies.

The participants of the Conference take note of the need for meaningful efforts to implement the key documents passed at the World Summit on Information Society, i.e. the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action (2003), as well as the Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of government public domain information (UNESCO, 2004).

There’s an interesting discussion of the “Inducing Infringment of Copyrights Act” over at The Importance of…, a blog by Ernest Miller.

Senate Bill 2560 was introduced by Senator Orin Hatch on June 22, 2004. Strangely enough, the cosponsors are Leahy, Frist, Daschle, Graham
of South Carolina, and Boxer. Strange bedfellows to say the least.

Read on and decide for yourself if this bill is a big piece of pork for the DRM crowd (aka RIAA, MPAA, and other big copyright holders) or sane legislation?

A new Flash movie describing the Creative Commons has just come out. View it, download it, share it, mix it, create new culture! It’s … Reticulum Rex.

Ars Technica: Apple’s iTunes Music Store: dissed by Microsoft, breakin’ some machines, and facing challenges by Ken “Caesar” Fisher. (10/2003).

This article analyzes some of the technical issues as well as the and DRM social issues.

The Register Oct. 20, 2003.
“Microsoft monopoly says Apple monopoly is too restrictive” By Andrew Orlowski.

Microsoft warns consumers that the Windows-based version of iTunes is a
“closed system.”

There’s plenty of irony in seeing one monopoly accuse another monopoly of restricting users’ choices. But monopolies they both are.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a new Flash movie aimed at explaining what’s good and what’s at risk with file-sharing. Check out the“Great MP3 Caper”. [shout out toboing boing]

From the Ethicist column of yesterday’s NYT Magazine. Here’s an interesting dilemma: to give or not to give a sibling who’s a non-offiliated student the password to a university library’s article databases? While the succinct answer–”if you’re unauthorized, then you shouldn’t accept the offer”–is pretty cut-and-dried, there are larger issues of freedom of information, fair use, intellectual property and such that he doesn’t even begin to answer. Should a student have to pay for information if it’s for educational use? What about MIT’s OpenCourseware where anyone can access course materials for 2000 courses [story in this month's Wired Magazine]? Any thoughts?

“Fair use under fire”, from the latest Library Journal, talks about the consequences of digital rights management on fair use. This is a critical issue that doesn’t get talked about at all in the midst of the RIAA PR juggernaut against “pirates”. (props to the shifted librarian!)