Creative Commons and Open Source Media
If you have not figured it out by now I am an avid proponent of open source software. I believe that people should have the opportunity to have access to technology, software, and information regardless of where they live, or their socioeconomic status. In addition to open source and free software, I am also a huge fan of the creative commons license.
This license is in a way, the direct opposite of DRM (Digital Rights Management) which places restrictions on music, movies, books, etc.. that you purchase. Creative commons has several different levels of licenses, but the ultimate goal is to promote the free sharing of information, music, movies, and art.
There is nothing wrong with making money, there is nothing wrong with selling the art and music that you spent your talent, time, and energy to create. There is however, in my opinion, a big difference between making a living - and selling your soul to your publisher who’s only goal in life is to make a profit - not promote art.
So in the spirit of creative commons (which also licenses this blog :) ) check out a couple places where you can find some great music and movies. If you like what you hear or see – donate to the artist. The same goes for open source software. If you are using LibreOffice or GIMP for your personal or professional use and you find that it is useful and allows you to get your work accomplished, do not forget that you saved over $1000 buy using them over the commercial product (MS Office and Photoshop). Donate something to show the people who worked hard to make this software that you support their cause and in turn your donation will help to facilitate even better open source software in the future.
When I say donate - I do not just mean give money. You can donate your time, you can spread the word on your own website, you could donate your talents (programming, marketing, documentation, web design) and your time. If we all work together - then great things will happen.
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- Edge Detection with Inkscape
- Using cgit
- Making cgit Pretty
- Lev Lazinskiy
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- Pluralistic: Enshittification and Reverse Centaurs go global (29 Jul 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making from Ludicity
- No-One Escapes the Permanent Underclass from Fernando Borretti
- Is it ethical to use AI? from charity.wtf
- The logical destination of LLMs from Andy Bell
- Revised rules of engineering leadership. from Irrational Exuberance
- The circus freaks of open source from Drew DeVault's blog
- Clanker: A Word For The Machine from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
Now we have a timeline of the OpenAI accidental attack against Hugging Face
OpenAI gave a last-minute presentation at the Black Hat security on Wednesday about "the Hugging Face Incident" (previously on this blog). The video was published yesterday. It's short and information dense and well worth watching, in particular because it...
via Simon Willison's Weblog: Entries August 7, 2026Spoiler: Wil Wheaton is a Wizard
I am holding pink pages in my hand, reviewing them before I collate them into my script. A magic battle ensues between Wil and Bert (fireballs, energy bolts, conjured beasts, etc.) I look at the script again, to make sure I haven’t misread it. Yeah, it rea...
via WIL WHEATON dot NET August 7, 2026Seeing like a state
The post about the dark mode toggle reminded me of two similar things rattling in my brain. On the positive side, here’s a delightful interaction from macOS. I can easily maximize the window to take up half the screen, but the moment I start dragging it, i...
via Unsung August 7, 2026Generated by openring