This has already been picked up by at least one blogger, and I’ve been remiss in not blogging it earlier. Cogniview has developed an open source tool for embedding CC license metadata in PDF output. You can find a screencast and download information on their website.
The CC PDF Converter takes a slightly different approach than most of the other tools we’ve seen. It’s installed as a Windows printer and allows the user to select a license when they “print” a PDF of their document. The tool embeds license metadata in the document as XMP and provides an optional facility for “stamping” the document with visible CC license information — either as a small image in the header or footer, or as a full-page deed appended to the document.
Some additional details are available on Cogniview’s blog; anyone want to write a similar tool for Mac OS X or Linux?
Don’t forget that tonight we are back at Shinesf.com (1337 Mission St. in San Francisco) for this month’s Creative Commons Salon! We are pleased to announce that Live365, an internet radio network where members can create their own online radio stations, will be joining us as presenters. They will be discussing netradio’s effects on independent artists, CC’s role in this relationship, and the most recent legislation in congress which will determine netradio’s future. Joining them will be Yahoo’s Jumpcut Online Video Editing Community, OWL Music Search, and slideshare.net.
After the presentations are said and done, SlideShare will be treating us to Powerpoint Karaoke, MC-ed by EFF’s Danny O’Brien! Today marks the release of the SlideShare Karaoke Randomizer, the first tool that utilizes their just-released API (be sure to check out their Google Code Project Page to learn more).
It’s wonderful that a CC Salon will be the first time this is used in the wild. By combining CC-licenses and open-source software, SlideShare has created an infinitely fun and useful way to scour their repository of open-content presentations. It should be an absolute blast, and in their words, “we are told that pptkaroake is more fun when there is beer involved”.
Wellcome Images, an online image repository “depicting 2,000 years of mankind and medicine”, recently launched their enormous collection online under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-commercial Licence 2.0. From their press release:
Launched on 15 June 2007, ‘Wellcome Images’ is the world’s leading source of images on the history of medicine, modern biomedical science and clinical medicine. All content has been made available under a Creative Commons License, which allows users to copy, distribute and display the image, provided the source is fully attributed and it is used for non-commercial purposes.
Wellcome Images is constantly updated with new clinical, and biomedical and historical images from the Wellcome Library, Europe’s leading resource for the study of history of medicine which recently re-launched as part of the new and forthcoming Wellcome Collection.
This is absolutely amazing news. Projects like Wellcome Images are phenomenal resources for those in the academic world, allowing students and teachers alike open access to a wealth of information. By utilizing CC-licensing, Wellcome Images is more able to fully realize the true spirit of academia - an unblocked and open pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
Blast Magazine, an online publication that focuses on “lifestyle issues, trends, fashion, sexuality, romance, movies, music, literature, arts, poker, technology, video games, computers and gadgets in the 18-35 demographic”, has recently adopted a CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License for all their content. You can read their press release here.
This is fantastic news - as of late, we have seen more and more publishers adopting CC-licenses for their content, an inspiring trend to say the least. By choosing to use CC-licenses, publications like Blast are able to distribute their content in terms that account for the dynamic relationship between reader and author new technologies have helped foster. This flexibility is essential to the way we access and consume content, be it written or otherwise.
