Under US law, pretty much anything you write down is copyrighted. Scrawl an original note on a napkin and it’s protected until 70 years after your death. Facts, however, are another matter - they can’t be copyrighted. So while trivial but creative scribblings are copyrighted, unless you choose to release them into the public domain, the information painstakingly discovered about the human genome - DNA sequences, for instance - aren’t. But the containers they’re stored in - the databases they’re held in - can be copyrighted.

The Creative Commons Foundation launched a much-needed database of case studies today, highlighting CC licensed content from around the world. Creative Commons licenses are built on top of international copyright law but let content producers offer their work with more refined permissioning for re-use than the de facto "it's mine don't touch it" sentiment of standard copyright.

Remember the scene in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress where Manny sketches a structure for an underground organization? Now imagine that, done properly. With X-boxes.

Last January 14, 2008, Philippine Commons was launched. This is a movement developed to create a common avenue for those who wish to collaborate in open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities within the Philippines.

This movement is being developed to create a common avenue for those who wish to collaborate in open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities within the Philippines.

DRIP's 2nd album launch - IDENTITY THEFT - makes a CREATIVE COMMONS historic first - as the FIRST full-length ALBUM released in the PHILIPPINES under a CREATIVE COMMONS license - check out some of the blog love from the PHILPPINE COMMONS BLOG.

Yes, your album will be the first in the Philippines to be released commercially under a CC-PH license.

The Philippines license has now been integrated into the Creative Commons licensing process, so you are able to license your works under this jurisdiction's law.

Lawrence Lessig's final talk on Free Culture.

One of the unsung heroes of the Asian internet, is Frederick Noronha, who has been tirelessly reporting for years about the Asian scene from his base in Goa. Here he is reviewing how Asian artists are taking up the sharing ethos and practices that have been largely enabled by the Creative Commons. The excerpt we choose does not cover the Arab Commons and the developments in Australia and New Zealand. The booklet on which the story is based also describes the activities of the P2P Foundation, which is ‘physically’ based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.