Cultivating the (Oz) Commons

Aside from its intrinsic interest, there is a good reason for observing closely what happens to content in Australia. Because of the Free Trade Act kit passed, Australia is imposing many of the US's most stupid legal instruments in this domain; how content fares under this regime could well serve as a warning for all those other countries contemplating similar moves.

The best place to find out about content down under is the book Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons, which brings together a couple of dozen papers from a conference that took place a couple of years ago (what took so long?). As well as the always-entertaining Lessig trot down copyright's memory lane, there's plenty about the particularities of Australian law and practice, as well as an unusual section on computer games and law. It's available as a free PDF.