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Senate iPod Content

Each iPod has been pre-loaded with video, music, images, and text that is in the public domain or released under permissive terms like those provided by Creative Commons licenses. This means that everything on the iPod is free.

But that does not mean it isn't valuable.

Far from it. We have included the complete works of Shakespeare, the Constitution of the United States, and other important literature. The audio content is a mix of music by David Byrne, the Beastie Boys, and scores of independent artists. We also created a slideshow with 101 photos selected from the millions in flickr.com's Creative Commons image pool. Under "Videos," you'll find a special presentation for IPac from Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig on "Read/Write culture." Download all of the content on your right or browse below. And please consider making a donation so that we can educate more Senators on the importance of balancing copyright and the public interest.

Links:
1. Back to the "iPods for Senators" campaign page.
2. Read the letter that accompanies each iPod.

Moving Images

"Read/Write Culture" by Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig's 'Read/Write Culture'

"Creativity Always Builds on the Past" by Justin Cone
Justin Cone's 'Creativity Always Builds on the Past'

"Panorama Ephemera" by Rick Prelinger
Rick Prelinger's 'Panorama Ephemera'

Pictures

All of these pictures are from flickr's Creative Commons-licensed image pool, which contains over 11 million images.

Audio

CCMixter

CCMixter "is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want."

The Creative Remix

"The Creative Remix, with host Benjamen Walker, is an hour-long "lawyer free" examination of the art, culture, and history of the remix. The hour kicks off with a musical analysis of DJ Dangermouse's infamous remix of the Beatles and Jay-Z. Then we go back in time to check out the ancient Roman art of the poetry mash-up, or the Cento. Then we rewind to the 18th century to check out the birth of copyright and how it effected writers like Alexander Pope; and the early 20th century when the visual artist Marcel Duchamp used the remix to reinvent everything. We also take a field trip to the Mass Mocca museum of modern art to check out the exhibit "Yankee Remix." Walker brings along a few grad students and a pair of curmudgeonly New England antique collectors to investigate different attitudes towards remixing."

The Wired CD

"These musicians are saying that true creativity needs to be open, fluid, and alive. When it comes to copyright, they are pro-choice. Here are 16 songs that encourage people to play with their tunes, not just play them."
— WIRED magazine, November 2004 issue (CD was included with magazine. Link to more CD info.)

Magnatune

Magnatune is a music distribution service that uses Creative Commons licenses, allows free listening for all of its music, and encourages podcasting.

Fading Ways Music

Fading Ways is an international, indie music label that uses Creative Commons licenses and promotes its artists by encouraging people to share.

jamendo

"On jamendo, the artists distribute their music under Creative Commons licenses. In a nutshell, they allow you to download, remix and share their music freely. It's a "Some rights reserved" agreement, perfectly suited for the new century."

"These new rules make jamendo able to use the new powerful means of digital distribution like Peer-to-Peer networks such as BitTorrent or eMule to legally distribute albums at near-zero cost."

Text

Bound By Law

"Bound by Law translates law into plain English and abstract ideas into 'visual metaphors.' So the comic's heroine, Akiko, brandishes a laser gun as she fends off a cyclopean 'Rights Monster' - all the while learning copyright law basics, including the line between fair use and copyright infringement."
-Brandt Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal online

Project Gutenberg

The text below is from Project Gutenberg, which provides public domain texts in multiple languages and formats. Click on the links below and search for the title of each work to see different formats.

US Constitution

Last but certainly not least, we have included a copy of the Constitution of the United States. In particular, we'd like to draw your attention to Article I, Section 8, which reminds us that copyrights and patents are supposed to advance "science and the useful arts." If our country's information policy isn't doing that, the Constitution says that it needs to be fixed.

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