Animator Nina Paley Releases Source Files for Sita Sings the Blues

Animator Nina Paley, who single-handedly made the feature film, Sita Sings the Blues, has released all of the Flash animation source files (.fla files) that make up the entire film.  She’s giving away the building-blocks of the entire film!  That’s like a traditional animator giving you all the drawings.  Paley has given the files a Creative Commons License which means animators can use her art and animation techniques in full or in pieces for their own projects as long as she is credited.

Sita Sings the Blues is a musical, animated personal interpretation of the Indian epic the Ramayana.

Remix: Lawrence Lessig’s Book for Free Download

remix_cover_lSome of the most interesting writing about copyright and remix culture comes from attorney Lawrence Lessig.  His latest book, Remix, is available as a Creative Commons licensed download.  In a world where kids can download everything for free, how do you make commerce thrive and how do you avoid criminalizing an entire generation?  These are the primary questions Lessig asks in this book.  If you make a baby video that happens to have Prince playing on the radio in the background and you upload it to YouTube, have you broken a copyright law?  Prince thinks you have.  But Prince is an idiot with a guitar.  I seriously doubt that the guy can even read.  Lessig is much smarter than Prince.  Read his book with Prince playing on the stereo in your room.  Film yourself.  Then upload to YouTube.  That will make Prince go insane.

I found this book via BoingBoing.

And by the way, you have our permission to film yourself with our audio playing on your stereo in the background.  We’re much smarter than Prince too!