Henrik Moltke

O HAIs & kthxbais: thoughts on my new job with Mozilla.

I’m extremely happy to announce I have accepted a new position with Mozilla as the European Drumbeat project producer. Unfortunately, I will be leaving both Socialsquare and Creative Commons. My new job will be leading projects that make the web better. Or, in the words of Mozilla: “lead projects that help people around the world to understand, participate and take control of their online lives”. This is what I love doing, and i am both humbled, proud and eager to get started.

“Ok, so, I know Mozilla, but what is this Drumbeat thing?”
Friends and family were initially as confused as I was, when I first heard about Drumbeat. “Does it have something to do with Firefox?” most of them asked. Well: Drumbeat is related to Firefox, but it is not the same thing. Drumbeat is about taking the story and mission of Mozilla beyond code (the stuff that browsers and the web is made of) and reaching into the broader internet culture. It’s about engaging new people in new ways.

So what is this really about?

For the critical reader – one of my first questions when I was interviewing in Paris was: “What’s the real agenda here?” (meaning: this is too good to be true!). I’m trained as a journalist; and supposedly always looking for hidden agendas. So far there seems to be none. This is NOT about Mozilla or anyone else harvesting ideas from many to the benefit of a few. It’s about keeping the web free and open, working together, and defining what the future of the web should be like. Mozilla has proven that large-scale collaboration can result in great, perhaps the greatest, results. The success of Firefox is both reassuring and an extremely tough act to follow. I don’t know how to code. I donated a few bucks to help Firefox at the outset, and got my name in the Firefox 1.0 NYT ad in return. I’ve had a Spread Firefox banner on this blog; stickers on my laptop, submitted bugs when my browser crashed. But, with Firefox, even if I could not contribute directly writing brilliant lines of code, I always felt part of a mission, something bigger.  My ownership was proportionate to my contributions. This is how Drumbeat projects will be. And, importantly, Mozilla will provide seed funding (grants) to projects which are well-defined and ready for support. This is an ideal way to spend some of the money Mozilla has made from search royalties.

“What kind of projects will you be looking for? Could it be anything?”
So, while projects will be varied, all of them will include a strong element of people participating and lending their skills to activities that directly improve and protect the open nature of the internet. Some of the existing projects are related to the free culture advocacy and activism which has been a big part of my life for the past few years, others will be new and exciting territory. This could be arts, education, journalism, governance or, hopefully, something completely unexpected – if it helps the overarching goal of making the web better, stronger and more open, it’s relevant.

Where, what, how?
I will be based in Paris, France, at Mozilla’s European headquarters. About 25% of my time will be devoted to Web Made Movies, one of the first Drumbeat projects, headed by web documentary pioneer Brett Gaylor.  Web Made Movies will, if successful, spread a deeper understanding of how openness makes the internet the wonderful thing it is, develop new practices and tools based on HTML5 technologies. And it will create a networks of web-native filmmakers who want to push the envelope. But mainly over the next months, I’ll be identifying and supporting projects with a clear idea and strong potential for user participation, and working to push them forward.  Since it’s still early days, we will be focussing on bringing new people into the circle. So, if you’re reading this and you have an idea, submit it here. At the end of the year at least one will be moving forward, will be funded, and will be getting a lot of attention and support from the Drumbeat team, from a great community of talented people, and from me in particular.  I will be blogging (less words, maybe some audio, lots of video) along the way; more details about that later.

So, I’m sad to be leaving my colleagues at Socialsquare and friends in Copenhagen behind, but confident that everyone who knows me understands why I have to do this. Keep in touch, and please help me make Drumbeat successful!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDl-oAiLL5U]

Min blog holder ferie. Er snart tilbage.

Mysteriet om Comedy Centrals blokering af Danmark breder sig

REMIX ude som fri download – læs den, køb den, fat det

(via @lessig)

The Bloomsbury Academic Press version of REMIX is now Creative Commons licensed. You can download the book on the Bloomsbury Academic page.

Mike Masnick on how Reznor / NIN found the “secret” of music business in the future

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njuo1puB1lg]

Spredt fægtning om Pirate Bay dommen

(UPDATE: Det kommer ikke som nogen overraskelse at dommer Tomas Norström sidder i diverse interessegrupper med anklagerne. Man kan ikke have en dommer i denne slags sag der grundlæggende tror på “copyright maximalism” – og sagen bør gå om. Se denne kommentar, igen af Martin Von Haller Grønbæk. Jeg håber at få tid til at skrive et indlæg om hvorfor den danske sag også har haft alt for mange for tætte bånd – nu hvor kommer for højesteret.

Det her startede egentlig som en kommentar til Martin Von Haller Grønbæks seneste blogpost, en analyse af Pirate Bay Dommen. Da jeg de sidste par dage har savnet informeret analyse og kommentar – og ikke kunne medvirke i DR2 udland i fredags – har jeg valgt at gen-poste min kommentar her. Den bærer præg af at jeg ikke har haft tid til at læse dommens ordlyd, og ikke er inde i detaljerne. Men here goes:

Jeg skimter en politisk slagside i dommen, fordi det i sidste ende er et spørgsmål om holdning – fremfor facts – der afgør den skade, Pirate Bay har påført industrien. Man kunne argumentere for at den rent faktisk har hjulpet dem – gratis reklame osv; alle ved jo at fildeling er vigtigt for kunstnere, der vil slå igennem idag – og ingen har påvist at fildeling entydigt skader selv has-beens der lever af rettigheder. Man kunne også mene at Pirate Bay har tvunget industrien til at nytænke – ellers sad vi med en Ghostbusters XXII på VHS til samlet leje på 98 kroner når man kom en halv time for sent til Blockbuster den dag idag.. Pirate Bay har aldrig diskrimineret eller forsøgt at pådutte brugeren en bestemt type af indhold, eller indirekte gjort det gennem begrænset udbud. De har blot indekseret det, brugerne ønskede at dele.
Så, for mig er det en dom FOR establishment og IMOD “det nye” – og det er et eller andet sted en politisk gestus som kan få konsekvenser ifht vækstlaget. Jeg havde ikke ventet en så hård strafudmåling, og det bekymrer mig at en flok nørder som har drevet gæk med Hollywood og iøvrigt udviklet et usædvanligt effektivt distributionsnetværk med himmelskrigende kommercielt og public service-mæssigt potentiale (jvf. NRKs brug af samme platform) ifælge dommeren bør stoppes et år i fængsel. Hvem hjælper det?
Som en af de medvirkende i Good Copy Bad Copy (goodcopybadcopy.net) – MAYO AYILARAN fra Copyright Society of Nigeria – udtrykker det:
“If I convict a pirate, the pirate will not put money in my pocket. He will still continue to spend my mone that I pay the government as tax. The government will have to feed hi, the government will have to clothe him, and take care of him while in prison. (…) Copyright is not about stopping people from using your work, but getting them to use your work legally and giving you money for what they’ve done with your work”.

Og så vil jeg lige kommentere på Piratpartiet. Hvis du læser deres politiske program vil du opdage at se ikke vil afskaffe ophavsretten, men blot vil begrænse omfanget: http://www.piratpartiet.se/politik/upphovsratt

“Stora delar av underhållningsbranschen som den ser ut idag bygger på upphovsrättens bestämmelser om ensamrätt att utnyttja verket kommersiellt. Vi vill bevara den ensamrätten när det gäller kommersiell användning.

Men dagens skyddstid – livstid plus 70 år – är absurd. Ingen investerare gör någonsin kalkyler med så lång återbetalningstid. Ingen kan påstå att den i praktiken nästan oändliga skyddstiden är nödvändig för att locka kapital till underhållningsbranschen. Däremot leder den till många negativa konsekvenser för dem som vill bevara eller bygga vidare på klassiska verk. Därför vill vi korta skyddstiden till en nivå som är rimlig ur både samhällets och investerarens synvinkel.”

Så kan man diskutere hvor længe et værk bør være beskyttet for at balancere mellem incitament og almenvellet, eller hvordan man definerer “kommerciel”. Men Piratpartiet lyder her næsten mere Lessig-agtige end du gør

Jeg kender efterhånden parterne i denne debat godt, og selvom jeg godt ved at denne forestilling endnu ikke er slut, må det siges at industrien tog dette stik med de beskidte kneb, der skulle til. Nu må vi så se om Pirate Bay kan returnere. Og hvor det efterlader “os”. Min norske Creative Commons kollega Gisle vurderer at dommen rent faktisk kan sætte en stopper for mere dystopiske tiltag, fordi den viser at man ad rettens vej “kan” gøre noget ved tjenester som Pirate Bay. Lad os nu se.

RIP: A Remix Manifesto screening, Free Beer og Girl Talk på Vega

(klip-klip)

Efter filmen fortsætter vi til Store Vega hvor Girl Talk spiller live, med support af Lucy Love, Fagget Fairys, Copyfokking og DJ Schack. Der er 500 billetter til salg i døren (170kr), og Girl Talk spiller så vidt vides godt efter midnat. Vi har ingen formel forbindelse til arrangementet på Vega.

Om RIP: A Remix Manifesto

“The film’s central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? A participatory media experiment, from day one, director Brett Gaylor shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle”. Trailer: http://blip.tv/file/1329162

Hvis du ikke allerede har set Andreas, Ralf og min dokumentar Good Copy Bad Copy kan det stærkt anbefales. Klik he, tryk på fuld skærm, og læn dig tilbage i stolen.

New job at Socialsquare, swedish / norwegian news and bloprupcy update.

Sorry for not updating my blog lately – I have been bitten by the the microblogging bug, and slowly let my old blog go blogrupt. If you have no idea what I am talking about, don’t worry. If you do, here´s my twitter feed. Chances are I will find more time and motivation to maintain both this blog and creativecommons.dk in the near future.

So, I got a new job with Socialsquare. Socialsquare helps companies and organizations understand social media – ie. wikis, blogs and other collaborative / particatory tools and processes. I will continue to volunteer as public project lead for Creative Commons Denmark. At Socialsquare, part of my job will be to offer advice on how to use Creative Commons and other forms of open licensing: business models, strategy, general consultancy. I will also probably take more speaking jobs and organize mini-workshops, public meetings etc. on top of Socialsquare’s “normal” products aimed at creating participation.
Obviously, I am happy that Socialsquare allows me to continue my work in this direction. There aren’t many companies in Denmark that “get” the NEW in new media better (and see the business potential in openness), and I am proud to join their team. This also means I stop working as a freelance journalist at DR (Danish Broadcasting), at least for now. I will, however, still be playing around with cameras and microphones at 23 Video, a new video platform for companies and organisations.

Why the Stockholm image? I have been following the Pirate Bay Case (“spectrial“) closely and found the whole thing amusing, not least the whole mud slinging part that played out in swedish media and on various social networks. Even though painful at times, I miss a similar focus and discussion on the role of copyright law in Denmark. I was offered to comment on the case live on danish TV news and my main message was: whether or not the founders of Pirate Bay are convicted, their platform and view on technology are winning in the long run.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3254902&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Few days later NRK launched their bittorrent tracker which is basically a clone of The Pirate Bay, aimed at spreading NRK content efficiently. The technology is *very* similar. I am sure DR will do the same 5-10 years from now, when they have stopped focusing on “pirates” and understand the necessary transition from broadcast to participation.

Danish institutions are very conservative in this respect. Of course, the main author of danish copyright law for the last 5 year, Peter Schønning, recently left his job at the Ministry of Culture to join the anti-piracy thugs at Johan Schlüter law firm (“Antipiratgruppen”). Just in time to lead the precedence-setting case that resulted in danish ISPs to block the Pirate Bay. Cosy.

In general, the recent push towards digitizing the danish cultural heritage has not, to my knowledge, been very conducive of a more relaxed copyright regime in Denmark, but rather to retrofit the cultural heritage to “web 1.0″. This means that hundreds of millions of kroner will be spent on digitizing and making available danish culture in a “read-only” manner. On could fear this would lead to our cultural heritage becoming irrelevant to danes (and the rest of the world) for a number of years, while others countries make theirs available in more open ways that allow users more liberties. The image at the beginning of this blogpost is an example of this. It’s from Swedish National Heritage Board, the part of the swedish government responsible for cultural heritage and historic environment issues. This week the board joined the Flickr Commons, adding 121 photos from the Carl Curman collection as a first wave of “liberated” images.

“The Swedish National Heritage Board has become a member of The Commons on Flickr in order to increase public access to our photos and provide a way for the general public to contribute with information and knowledge. New photos will be added regularly. You are welcome to share, to comment, tag or just enjoy!”

As one on my first projetcs, I will look at how danish institutions can participate in the conversation that is culture today. While we wait for them, you can browse Curmans photos tagged with “Denmark” here and find this great example of old and new meeting, thanks to the power of social media: flickr user dreadyboy has shot the same image as
Curman, and added in the comments:

Al Jazeera frigiver Gaza-stof under CC licens.

I går skrev jeg på Facebook at jeg var imponeret over Al Jazeeras dækning af Gaza. Et par minutter senere modtog jeg link til to artikler i hhv. Herald Tribune og New York Times der kom til samme slutning dagen før:

In a conflict where the Western news media have been largely prevented from reporting from Gaza because of restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera has had a distinct advantage. It was already there.

Samtidig kunne jeg læse at

Al Jazeera planned to announce this week that all its video material of the war in Gaza would become available under a lenient Creative Commons license, which effectively means it can be used by anyone – rival broadcaster, documentary maker, individual blogger – as long as Al Jazeera is credited.

Pressemeddelsen fra Creative Commons kom så ud nu, for et par minutter siden og kan læses her i fuld længde

Al Jazeera will release its exclusive Arabic and English coverage produced by the Network’s correspondents and crews in the Gaza Strip online at http://cc.aljazeera.net. The ongoing war and crisis in Gaza, together with the scarcity of news footage available, make the repository a key resource for anyone producing content about the current situation. This is the first time that video footage produced by a news broadcaster is released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, which allows for both commercial and non-commercial use.

På godt dansk betyder det at alle må bruge Al Jazeeras klip fra Gaza. Så længere de husker at kreditere klippene (altså nævne at klippene stammer herfra) kan de gøre med dem hvad de vil.

De sidste to-tre år har jeg arbejdet med levende billeder i og udenfor broadcastbranchen (læs: DR), og har ikke uden frustration måtte acceptere en del meningsløse begrænsninger som ophavsretten lægger på både skaber (journalisten) og bruger (dig på din computer). Situationen kan beskrives ved at vende denne nyhed om: Forestil dig at Al Jazeeras i stedet sagde: der er mangel på billeder fra Gaza lige nu. Dem har vi og derfor kan vi tjene penge. Ergo skal alle der bruger så meget som et sekund af vores billeder have en aftale med vores jurister og betale enorme summer, ellers sagsøger vi. Det ville både betyde at verden ikke hørte hvad der egentlig foregår. Det ville også betyde at en masse journalister og redaktører frustreret måtte lave dårligere journalistik fordi råstoffet ikke var tilgængeligt. Selvom det var lige der, foran dem. Ikke så fedt, vel?

Derfor er jeg også særligt glad for den her nyhed, for, som Joi Ito udtrykker det:

Video news footage is an essential part of modern journalism (…)[and] to allow commercial and amateur use is an enormous contribution to the global dialogue around important events. Al Jazeera has set the example and the standard that we hope others will follow.

Jeg mødte Mohamed Nanabhay og en del af Al Jazeeras new media hold i Japan denne sommer og var imponeret over deres friske approach og uspolerethed af “old media” dogmer som “ophavsret er godt. Mere ophavsret er bedre”. En anden Al Jazeera medarbejder beskrev holdningen som “det skal ud, så bredt som muligt” – og siden deres brugere ikke bekymrer sig om ophavsret, kunne de ligesågodt give dem stoffet så frit som muligt. Sidst jeg checkede handlede broadcast om at få tingene ud, så hurtigt, så bredt, så godt som muligt. Hvorfor gælder det ikke nettet?

Med dette træk har Al Jazeera endnu engang cementeret sin position som fornyer, provokatør og moderne broadcaster der fortjener respekt og opmærksomhed.