So, missed the chance to see the INDUCE hearing last week? Too bad… Congress doesn’t keep the video accessible. Out of luck, I guess - who’s going to serve up a huge video of a Congressional hearing?

How about we the people? Isn’t this the sort of problem that p2p was designed to solve? Well, there’s a .torrent here to provide you with your very own free and legal video of the hearing! Grab a copy, and be sure to leave the torrent running so that you share! (for more information on BitTorrent, as well as a client, go here) Alternatively, if you prefer a p2p application that supports magnet, try this instead.

There are two great effects to this: 1) people have access to raw and unfiltered information about the workings of their government, and 2) it rather forcefully makes the point that p2p can be used for truth, justice, and the American way… Help us demonstrate what p2p can do - make information that is not otherwise available accessible easily, cheaply, and legally!

ADDENDUM by Rebekah: For the broadband deficient (or, in addition to watching the video), check out Ross’s excellent report on the hearing.

For those who haven’t been following INDUCE, check out LawMeme’s collection of Ernest Miller’s writings on the INDUCE Act.

We ask you to join us in excercising your First Amendment rights and celebrating a legal victory for artistic freedom… by taking pictures of Barbie in a blender and sending them to us!

Press Release

“National Barbie-in-a-Blender Day” Exhibit to Open July 27 Supporting Free Speech

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 13, 2004
contact:Nelson Pavlosky, Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons
mobile: 973-580-7510 | nelson@freeculture.org
Rebekah Baglini, Bryn Mawr College
mobile: 610-405-0420 | rbaglini@brynmawr.edu

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Freeculture.org, an international student movement for Free Culture has organized the “National Barbie-in-a-Blender Day” Campaign to support free speech rights.

The project was inspired by a legal case involving a lawsuit filed by Mattel, maker of Barbie dolls, against Utah-based artist Tom Forsythe. In 1999 Forsythe created a series of photographs, titled “Food Chain Barbie,” portraying nude Barbies in suggestive poses among kitchen appliances. Mattel filed a lawsuit, claiming copyright infringement and demanding that Forsythe stop
selling prints. After five years, the case was finally settled on June 30th, 2004: a federal judge ruled that Mattel pay Forsythe 1.8 million in legal fees and court costs, calling Mattel’s suit “frivolous” and “unreasonable.”

The Forsythe case highlights the increasing challenges faced by those who wish to comment on popular icons, symbols, or cornerstones of culture, most of which are copyrighted by large corporations. “If you want to talk about the problems with society, all of the widely recognized figures are copyrighted,” says Nelson Pavlosky of Freeculture.org. “In the past, cultural icons belonged to everyone…[now] if you want to use a relevant character to critique society, you’ll get burned by companies who can silence you, not by winning in court, but by outspending you and forcing you to cave in or lose all your money.”

Freeculture.org has launched an official site for the National Barbie-in-a-Blender Day project, at www.barbieinablender.org. Users are invited to submit artistic pieces inspired by Forsythe’s “Food Chain Barbie” series to blended@barbieinablender.org for the site’s upcoming gallery of submitted work.

“This project is a response to the free speech victory in the Mattel v. Forsythe case, a rare triumph in a time in which too often elements of our culture are off-limits and fair use rights challenged, ” says Rebekah Baglini of Freeculture.org. “This campaign is a celebration of our free speech rights, rights that we must defend by exercising them.”

Artistic submissions will be accepted at barbieinablnder.org until the opening of the online gallery on July 27th.

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Freeculture.org is an international student movement dedicated to defending a free and open cultural space and protecting public intellectual capital from privatization and exploitation. Freeculture.org promotes a bottom-up, participatory structure to society and culture, in which cultural elements are accessible to all citizens for interpretation and innovation. Freeculture.org sees opportunity in technology, opportunity to cultivate this intellectual commons, opportunity to build a culture to support and cultivate the new freedoms that we have found in the digital age.

Disney was the dominant political force behind the Mickey Mouse Protection Act of 1998, citing not fear for the company’s continued profit-making–dependent on the gamble of continued innovation and creativity–but instead hiding behind a mask of defending “property rights.” It should come as no surprise, then, that Disney cannot even manage to practice what it preaches. According to Reuters, “South African lawyers are suing U.S. entertainment giant Walt Disney Co for infringement of copyright on ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight,’ the most popular song to emerge from Africa, the lawyers said on Friday.” There should be no doubt now that Disney–and others in favor of extended IP–are motivated solely by corporate greed. Read the Reuters article here.