Students for Free Culture (SFC) is a diverse, non-partisan group of students and young people who are working to get their peers involved in the free culture movement. Launched in April 2004 at Swarthmore College, SFC has helped establish student groups at colleges and universities across the United States. Today, SFC chapters exist at over 30 colleges, from Maine to California, with many more getting started around the world.

Students for Free Culture was founded by two Swarthmore students after they sued voting-machine manufacturer Diebold for abusing copyright law in 2003. Named after the book Free Culture by Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig, SFC is part of a growing movement, with roots in the free software / open source community, media activists, creative artists and writers, and civil libertarians. Groups with which SFC has collaborated include Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, and Downhill Battle.

Students for Free Culture has four major functions:

• Creating and providing resources for our chapters and for the general public
• Outreach to youth and students
• Networking with other people, companies and organizations in the free culture movement
• Issue advocacy on behalf of our members

To contact us, e-mail us at freedom@freeculture.org, or visit the Contact page.

Board of Directors

• Brendan Ballou (Columbia University) Email

  Brendan Ballou is currently a junior studying philosophy at Columbia University (though he is spending the 2007-2008 academic year at Clare College, Cambridge). He is the former president of Free Culture @ Columbia, which he started as part of the larger national fight to save network neutrality. He is an adequate runner, an avid reader, a poor cook, and a decent logician. He is also more interesting than this paragraph makes him sound.

• Fred Benenson (New York University) Email

  While studying Philosophy and Computer Science, Fred co-founded the Free Culture @ NYU chapter of FreeCulture.org, an international student movement and currently serves on the board. After graduating from NYU in 2005, he interned at Creative Commons in San Francisco and then moved back to NYC to stage the first-of-their-kind DRM protests, as well as organize several other related public events, all receiving national media attention. Since the summer of 2006 Fred has been the Creative Commons Cultural Fellow and has worked with organizations, schools, and major art institutions in New York to help shape their copyright policies through the use of Creative Commons licenses. He regularly travels to speak on these topics and is planning to graduate with his masters from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts in May of 2008. He spends his spare time with the Rubik’s cube, bicycles, and cameras.

• Kevin Driscoll (MIT) Email

  Kevin Driscoll is a graduate student in Comparative Media Studies at MIT. Prior to this return to academia, he spent three years teaching Computer Science and Mathematics at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School where he co-founded Developing Curriculum, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to developing high-quality free / open education projects. In addition to his work in education. Kevin is a
  frequent collaborator with internet-based artist Claire Chanel and a hip-hop dj responsible for Gold Chain and Todo Mundo events. http://kevindriscoll.info

• Christina Ducruet (Brown University) Email

  Christina Ducruet is a Modern Culture and Media concentrator at Brown University where she founded Brown Free Culture in Spring 2007 in reaction to the RIAA law suits on Brown’s campus and other campuses throughout the country. Christina has coordinated with the Digital Freedom campaign to bring a panel event to Brown’s campus and has also worked closely with the global organization, helping to coordinate volunteer efforts, manage press, and foster relationships with other organizations such as the Digital Freedom Campaign and EDUCAUSE. Christina is spending her spare time this spring writing her honors thesis on architecture of the information age, making films, loving dance parties fueled by rip, mix, burn, and Getting Things Done, hopefully in time for graduation this May.

• Elizabeth Stark (Harvard Law School) Email

  Elizabeth Stark is the founder of the Harvard University chapter of Students for Free Culture. She went to Brown University and is currently a student at Harvard Law School. At Harvard, she conducts research for the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is an Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law Technology, and has worked as Teaching Fellow for courses in Cyberlaw, Electronic Music, and Internet and Society. She has collaborated with organizations such as the EFF, Creative Commons, and iCommons. Elizabeth speaks French, German, and Portuguese and has lived and worked in places such as Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and Singapore. She is highly interested in the impact of technology on digital culture, and is (semi-)obsessed with electronic music.

Board Alumni

• Gavin Baker
• Nelson Pavlosky
• Karen Rustad

Other officers/volunteers

• Chief Web Wrangler: Asheesh Laroia (Johns Hopkins University alumnus) Email

  Asheesh Laroia received a M.S. in computer science at the Johns Hopkins University in 2007. He received his B.A. in cognitive science from JHU. In 2004, he filed a deposition in the Diebold lawsuit that first earned the student free culture movement coverage in the national media. A long-time participant in free software and free culture, he interned at Creative Commons in 2006. (This photo of him in front of shoes is courtesy of Creative Commons.)