In 2007, it’s time to not only talk the talk, but also to walk the walk. Part of why I greatly enjoy being a lawyer in IT, Internet and media law is because there are so many people out there using (new) technologies and tools to shape their thoughts and create things that are beautiful, mesmerizing, evocative and provoking.

So, it’s time to join in the fun, and being a bit of a touche-à-tout, I have started to write and design an account of a trip to Japan that I took in between jobs in the spring of 2005, almost two years ago now. (It largely builds on a set of 100 pictures.) Of course, thinking a bit about this project, I quickly managed to come up with a number of legally-related questions surrounding it; not in the least because I am looking to use some (Creative Commons-licensed and public domain) content that is out there, and because I am looking to (re-)license the work under some type of Creative Commons license. So, while I work on the book in the following couple of months, Technology Law Culture (Netherlands!) will explore a number of legal issues that are likely to come up in the course of making and distributing it.

What to Expect?

I am not too sure what exactly to expect for the topics to be covered. Buzz-word compliant – and sometimes tangential – topics are likely to include: choosing an appropriate Creative Commons license (and changing your mind); what you might understand the non-commercial in Creative Commons to mean; monetization of your user-generated-content, or that of others; using and abusing API’s; the user-centric web, Greasemonkey and unintended uses of websites; and public domain works and their reproduction.

Admittedly, the series approach is a departure from the previous focus of this blog (what, TLC has a focus?) of reporting on legal developments (including court cases) in the field of IT and media law in the Netherlands. Those post are likely to continue as events happen, but the idea of a series of posts centered around the production of the Japan travel account is to have a central point to return to, and to show and illustrate, by first-hand experience, a number of the legal issues surrounding digital DIY.

Why Now?

Are you still giddy from being picked as Time’s person of the year for 2006? So am I, it’s like 1996 all over again ^^, except that this time we are with more users, and have more bandwidth, more content, and more tools to play with. And with that comes more responsibility, and more need to take others, and their interests and intentions, into account. In the wake of large-scale production, distribution and consumption of digital content on the Internet, a number of the legal questions that have come up before are coming back, and we need to come up with answers at one point. I am looking forward to participating in asking and hopefully answering those questions, as a lawyer and as a user. Untill next month, when we will pick a CC license for the book.

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[This is a post from Technology Law Culture: http://tlc.oosterbaan.net/. Olivier Oosterbaan, IT and media lawyer in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, maintains this blog.]

(Picture by: me, having some participatory fun with colleagues in Tokyo. Some rights reserved.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 7th, 2007 at 11:52 pm and is filed under culture, publishing, copyright, media, contentcreating, japanbook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.