The University of Pennsylvania has taken a great step in making 1500 poems freely available as MP3 files. They’ve gotten some very local press and are planning to make a searchable database for their content.

While their manifesto is pretty good, it would be nice if they specifically mentioned Creative Commons licensing as an option. (Private correspondence with one of the project’s directors indicates that he is “sympathetic” to CC but is not making it a formal part of their process, which I think is a great shame.)

So here’s the question: What do we do with this? Free Culture is not just about creating content but about disseminating it. Here’s a newborn member of our cultural commons and at present it’s lurking fairly unnoticed in an academic setting. FC.o is not a broker; we aren’t set up to play go-between for creators, performers, or plain old listeners. But if the pitch here is “Who knew you could listen to poetry on your iPod?” …well, there ought to be more than a few language lovers out there who would like to know about this. Any ideas for spreading the word?

Of course, supporting this database isn’t just about giving a heads-up to people who like poetry. It’s about making sure that the university and the people who put their days, sweat, and money into this project see it take off. Because that it will pave the way for larger and better free collections in the future. Free Culture needs midwives. Step up, folks!

Sci-fi author Will Shetterly asked the question “What happens when copyrights last forever minus a day?,” and came back with this absurd (yet frighteningly relevant) story.

Then Kurosh Jadali’s DNA proved he was the primary descendent of Zarathushtra, whose teachings about monotheism had been adopted by the Jews during the Babylonian Captivity. Kurosh said that since Zoroaster had taught religious tolerance, he would be glad to let the Jews use their sacred texts. In return, he only wanted a thousand Euros for each Torah that was published and three-fourths of any money that flowed through a synagogue. When the rabbis grumbled, Kurosh asked if they were communists who didn’t respect intellectual property.

So all of the branches of Judaism sent delegates to Disney, begging them to roll back the period of copyright so that Zarathushtra’s teachings would be in the public domain. But Disney had picked up the rights to the Epic of Gilgamesh, which looked like a great vehicle for Jim Carrey, so they made a counteroffer.

Read it.

On a cold April night in 1912, my great-grandfather sat next to a shortwave radio in Ohio, listening to the distress signals of the R.M.S. Titanic, hundreds of miles away in the dark Atlantic. Helpless to do anything, he was nevertheless at the forefront of a new technology — one that would help save many lives in the years to come.

Today, bloggers may be getting most of the press, but shortwave (“ham”) radio operators are quietly continuing a tradition of public engagement and service that is nearly a hundred years old. The recent tsunami spotlighted their continuing role as vital cogs in the flow of communication.

While it’s a bit harder to become a ham-radio operator than to start a blog (for one thing, you need a license), the principles are familiar: Ordinary people are well equipped to relay news, information, gossip and opinions to their fellow citizens. All they need is a platform.

So what does all this have to do with Free Culture? Well, as we continue to talk to our friends, families, co-workers and legislators about Free Culture issues, it’s important to emphasize how much these principles are already bound up in our daily lives.

In this case, it’s the principle that airwaves belong to the public. And while the big media conglomerates get the lion’s share, it’s worth remembering that for nearly 100 years, we’ve carved out a slice of the spectrum for regular people to have a voice. From truck drivers to hobbyists, from young folks to old, and regardless of physical disability, ham radio has provided thousands of opportunities for people to participate in creating and sustaining their own culture. It’s a tradition worth noting, and carrying onward with each new generation of media tools.

As we began trickling back home for the holidays, we got a nice present from WireTap magazine, a wonderful article called “From the Campus to the Commons.” I would like to take this opportunity to submit a correction… the article quotes me as saying, “The buggy manufacturers are trying to outgun cars, ya know?” I actually said something a bit more comprehensible, along the lines of “It’s as if the buggy whip manufacturers were trying to outlaw cars,” referring to how the entertainment companies are trying to ban technologies that threaten their outdated business models. Desirina also said that it’s a bit inaccurate to say that the RIAA lawsuits were her inspiration for starting the Emory chapter of FC.o, as she actually came across FreeCulture.org while reading about free software and other related issues. Aside from those corrections, it’s a great article, and I suggest you go read it