Berkman Buzz, week of January 21

BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
Week of January 21, 2008

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What's going on... take your pick or browse below.

* The Citizen Media Law Project releases Copyright Liability and Fair Use Primer
* Ethan Zuckerman reaches his goal
* Dan Gillmor values a hard day's work
* Corinna di Gennaro prepares for Data Protection Day
* Jonathan Zittrain codes inside and outside the walls
* Doc Searls only wants to know your breakfast plans if he can have a plate at the table
* Weekly Global Voice: Morocco's 2007 Censorship Report

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The full buzz.

"As a lead up to the launch of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide later this month, we are putting up longer, substantive blog posts on various subjects covered in the guide. This post is the second in our series of legal primers. The first addressed the subject of immunity and liability for third-party content under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. In this post we discuss copyright and fair use in the context of citizen media.
I. COPYRIGHT PROTECTION AND FAIR USE
A broad array of creative, expressive media are subject to copyright protection, including literature, photographs, music compositions and recordings, films, paintings and sculptures, and news articles – any “original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” 17 U.S.C. § 102. Citizen media creators who use the works of others need to be careful that they do not open themselves to copyright liability when doing so.
Fortunately, there are several circumstances in which the work of others may be used without liability..."
The Citizen Media Law Project, "Primer on Copyright Liability and Fair Use"


"Global Voices reached a totally arbitrary milestone recently - we broke into the top 100 blogs listed by Technorati. It’s very hard to tell what methodology Technorati uses to make this top 100 list - search for “globalvoicesonline.org” or “www.globalvoicesonline.org” and you’ll find a profile page giving us a rank of 202… which is lots lower than it’s been past months, generally hovering around 130 or so.  Perhaps the top 100 page is an aggregate rank, combining the links we get to our various language sites and to sites like Rising Voices and Global Voices Advocacy - it’s hard to know.
Given that I recognize that this ranking is arbitrary, you’d think I’d be able to take our appearance as good news and then go about my business. Nope. I’ve probably checked it half a dozen times so far this week. It may be arbitrary, but it’s one of the goals I’ve told supporters and funders we were trying to reach with Global Voices, and I feel really good about reaching it..."
Ethan Zuckerman, "Success. Success? Success."

- continued -

"There are plenty of reasons to wonder about citizen media’s business model. One, which I’ve talked about many times here and elsewhere, is the tendency of site owners to rely on free labor. The method goes roughly this way: “You do all the work and we’ll take all the money, thank you very much.”
People do things for many reasons, but it’s always about getting something of value back. The value may be a psychic reward of doing something good for someone else. It may be ego. It may be money, or the ability to save money. In community-driven websites it may be contributing a tiny bit of effort to something that gives the overall community, and thereby individuals, great value. Usually it’s a combination.
But when the big money starts to flow to a few who are leveraging the work of the many, a disconnect emerges..."
Dan Gillmor, "reddit’s New Features; and an Amazing Request for Free Labor"


"On 28 January 2008, the second annual Data Protection Day will take place, organized by the Council of Europe, with different events planned in the different member states. The aim of this initiative is to raise awareness amongst citizens about how personal data is collected about them, why, and what is done with these data. It also aims to help European citizens understand what are their rights when it comes to data protection issues in several fields of their everyday life: health care, work, their relations with public authorities and when using and surfing the Internet.
In Italy the day will be marked by an initiative by the Garante della Privacy (the Italian data protection authority) particularly aimed at schools, in order to educate high school children about the privacy risks and rights, as well as the opportunities, provided by new technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones..."
Corinna di Gennaro, "Educating the public about privacy"


"I love Facebook — it’s a great way to keep up with friends and acquaintances, and it’s got a gorgeous interface.  It’s gone through several phases of growth, and the most important milestone — beyond opening up to the world at large instead of just people enrolled at a school — is opening up the Facebook platform for nerds at large to code..."
Jonathan Zittrain, "Facebook and the dangers of Web 2.0"


"This morning I decided to start un-following every Twitterer whose majority of tweets are crumbtrails announcing what they are doing now, but whose crumbtrailings do not intersect mine. My twiver has grown too thick with crumbs, and something must be done.
The question is, by whom? Is this a problem Twitter alone can solve? I suggest not.
What I’d like to do is set conditions that trigger following and unfollowing various Twitterers, expecially when we chance intersecting in meet space. I see two ways that can happen..."
Doc Searls, "A VRM approach to managing Twitter and Dopplr together"


"2006 was a rough year for Moroccan internet freedoms, with several sites being blocked; 2007 wasn't much better with sites that were previously open becoming only sporadically accessible.
Moi, dans tous mes états (fr) summarized freedom of internet (as well as other forms of media) in a recent post:...
In the age of podcasts and other internet shows, regulation is a decoy.
"And we've arrived at the same conclusion: the internet regulation battle is already lost,” said Ahmed Ghazali. The choice of more and more shows and channels necessitates greater audacity on the part of Moroccan [producers of media] in the realization of this project..."
Jillian York, "Morocco: Censorship Update"