The word originality has never had a peaceful existence. In its early history it coincided with the issue of plagiarism where an author attempts to claim the works of another as his own. The Roman poet Martial (ca 41 – 104) accused one Fidentinus of repeating works he had not created in the Plagiarism cycle: [...]

The tiny island of Malta rarely pops up in my rss reader but when it does I usually pay the news more attention than it deserves. Malta is a tiny island with about 400 000 inhabitants and like most islands is fairly big on introspection. What makes Malta special (for me) is the fact that [...]

Techdirt wrote about a cyberbullying case last year where a group of students in New York created a private Facebook group which was used to make fun of another student. This student filed suit against Facebook and the parents of the other bullying students. Techdirt writes that “the judge has now dismissed both claims, noting [...]

The charge of the light brigade was caused when bad leadership sent British cavalry on a disastrous, suicidal charge against superior Russian forces during the Crimean War (1854) (Wikipedia). The American Society of Composers, Authors and Pubishers (ASCAP) is a typical collecting society. From its about page: ASCAP is a membership association of more than [...]

OK, so I should be writing but I needs a break and this seems like a worthwhile attempt at procrastination… Every time someone dares to create a canon they are naturally shot down. But at the same time I really want to list the 20  non-fiction books a well rounded person should read. A list [...]

There is obviously no perfect form of power-system. At present we praise democracy as the ultimate form of government. The main reason for this is that we have moved from power in a small group (autocracy) to people rule (democracy). But is democracy really the ultimate form of group control? Obviously not. In many hierarchical [...]

Being a huge fan of Calvin and Hobbes I was a bit skeptical about Jeff’s Ocean Calvin minus Hobbes when I first heard about it (via Neatorama) even though it worked pretty well with Garfield Minus Garfield… but this is so cool. Turning Calvin’s imaginary friend Hobbes back into a toy really is very touching

Eloquently argued by Xeni Jardinat Boing Boing Birds drenched in oil from BP spill: photo gallery In the Boston Globe‘s “Big Picture” this week: A series of heartbreaking images by AP Photographer Charlie Riedel of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana’s East Grand Terre Island. This is just the beginning [...]

The upcoming conference University and Cyberspace: Reshaping Knowledge Institutions for the Networked Age is shaping up nicely and is looking to be an event to be reckoned with. Here is something from the blurb: Universities are entrusted with the increasingly important responsibility of creating, sharing, and fostering use of knowledge on behalf of society, and [...]

In December 2009 I wrote a positive text in my Swedish blog about the Norska Forbrukerrådet (Norwegian Consumer Council) and their decision to write a report and demand answers from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority on the role of social networking sites in relation to personal integrity. I ended the post with the words: Detta [...]

The deadline for submissions of extended abstracts for the third Free Culture Research Conference (FCRC) is in 10 days. The conference this year will be in Berlin in October 8-9, 2010. The Free Culture Research Conference presents a unique opportunity for scholars whose work contributes to the promotion, study or criticism of a Free Culture, [...]