Gizmodo: creative commons

Remainders - The Good, Bad and Ugly Things We Didn't Post (and Why)

Dan Nosowitz — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:40:00 EST

Today in the un-scratchable part of Gizmodo's back we call Remainders, we've got a Tron-inspired Android phone, the top YouTube videos of the year, some more videos of the Google Nexus One in action, and more (well, one more)!

OPPO Android Concept Is All Tronned Out

So this is a pretty interesting-looking Android phone concept, what with the neon teal backlighting and spacious keyboard and all. It's supposedly due for a 2010 release, although we'll believe that when it happens, and hopefully it'll actually be running Android by then—it looks like somebody accidentally Photoshopped the WebOS dialer onto this thing. It's in Remainders because nobody really got all that excited about it; it's weird enough to be catch your eye, but not enough to make you want one. [Ubergizmo]

Why Can't These People Take a Decent Video of the Nexus One?

So TheNexusOne has been posting videos of their namesake Android phone, and while that would normally deserve a bigger post, these are really just teaser videos—when we get a real, comprehensive video tour of the Nexus One, we'll be sure to let you know. But for now, we've got a video of the incoming call screen, which looks exactly like it does on Android 2.0.1, we've got the bootup sequence we've seen before, and a 15-second clip of the Tron-like (there's a Tron theme in Remainders tonight, it seems) animated wallpaper. [TheNexusOne via Android Central]

iFixit Publishes Apple Repair Manuals Under Creative Commons License

iFixit, known round these parts for their teardowns, just published five years of DIY Apple repair manuals for free under the Creative Commons license, which permits free, non-commercial use. That's over 125 manuals for Macs, iPods and iPhones, and should be a big help for anyone who's got an out-of-warranty Apple product and needs help fixing it, or for anyone who just likes to tinker. [iFixit via 9to5Mac]

Catching Up: Gizmodo, Now With More Creative Commons

Brian Lam — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:31:24 EDT

Hey, I'm happy to announce that we're being published under a Creative Commons license now. Although it's a non-commercial license, remixes and quotes are fine by blogs commercial or otherwise, with attribution/links. But splogs can—as always—go to hell. This has always been our policy, but it's nice to have the license right there on the bottom.

In related news, the NYTimes just C&D'd apartment therapy blogs, asking them to take down all past stories using any of the NYTimes photos (which all link to the NYT).

Rifflet, Like Twitter For Music

Mark Wilson — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:00:00 EDT

I like to believe that all of us have rock star alter egos. For most of us, these inner rock beasts sleep latently, awaiting the proper heartbreak or drug cocktail to wake from slumber and cut a hit record. Rifflet.com is a place that shares my theory—a social networking site in which users can share 1-minute clips of music they've had bouncing around in their heads, just to get it out there. Others can then download these tracks, respond to them or even incorporate them into songs of their own.

We had a chance to shoot off an email to the site's creator, Jon Schwab, and ask him some questions about the site. Here's what he had to say:

Why are you starting the site? (Other than making money, of course)
I play guitar, and when I come up with a song idea, I'm terrified of forgetting it, so I immediately head to the computer to save it for posterity. As a result, I have hours and hours of 45-second songs sitting on my hard drive. I'm sure other people are the same way, and I thought it would be great to make a place where song ideas can be shared and combined into new ones. It's kind of like we're making a giant virtual band together.

How do you hope to see the music community respond to the site?
It's scary to take ownership of an unfinished idea (which is one reason we allow anonymous uploads) but it would be great if the music community embraced Rifflet as a means of online collaboration. There's lots of sites that allow you to upload music for promotional reasons, but we wanted to make a site focused on the creative process, rather than the marketing one. I also hope that DJs would use Rifflet as an untapped source for re-mixing material. I love hip-hop, and I would crap my pants to hear someone rapping over a guitar riff I recorded.

By uploading music, are you consenting to allow anyone to use it for commercial purposes?
When you upload a song, you have the option of applying one of several flavors of the Creative Commons license to your work. I personally use the 'public domain' version, which allows unlimited commercial use with no need for attribution. There are other options that allow re-mixing only for non-commercial uses, for instance. Hopefully, we've made it clear on the site that anything that gets uploaded will be reworked and combined into something else.

What formats can you upload?
Rifflet will accept .MP3, .WAV and .OGG formats. Unfortunately, due to software restrictions, the inline player won't work unless the file is recorded at 44.1 khz. We hope to overcome this in the near future. But, if you want to upload a higher-quality file, the system will still accept it, and users will see a text download link in place of the flash player.

Why the 1 minute limit?
Originally I envisioned this site as sort of a "Twitter for rock and roll," although we've since decided that's not such a great description. [Ed note: oops on the headline!] The thing I love about Twitter is the amount of conciseness it requires. If you're writing a traditional pop song, for instance, there's time for an intro, a verse and a chorus in 60 seconds and not much else. Unless you're NOFX (and trust me, you're not) you can't really pack a full song with a ton of ideas into less than a minute.

What's next for the site?
In the near future we plan extending the Rifflet's social component. Right now if you register for an account, you can take credit for you material and e-mail someone who has uploaded a song, but we like to extend that to help create more online or offline collaboration. [rifflet]

Charles Manson Cuts Killer Creative Commons Digital Album From Prison

Jack Loftus — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:59:55 EDT

Convicted murderer and future American Idol contestant Charles Manson has used the liberal Creative Commons license to release a new 16-track album from prison. The album, called, ironically, One Mind, is free to download at LimeWire. As an added bonus, the CC license allows listeners to copy the tracks as much as they want and distribute them, so long as they don't use them for commercial purposes-like starting a cult or something. Hear the man himself croon a killer tune after the jump at about the 1:15 mark.

[LimeWire Music Blog]