Tag Archives: freedom

Photos, Copyright, and Independence

Leave a comment | Posted by Patrick Calder on in photo

World Press Photo recently posted a gallery of the winners from their 2006 competition. There are some incredible images there. I can’t even link to the ‘good ones’, because there are so many there. Just start anywhere and look at them all.
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I went to the DC Copynight this week, for the first time, over at RFD in Chinatown. From their website:

CopyNight is a monthly social gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law. We meet over drinks once a month in many cities to discuss new developments and build social ties between artists, engineers, filmmakers, academics, lawyers, and many others.

In general, it was a positive experience. The moderator referred to it several times as a “salon”, which was a very apt description. The discussion was very intellectually-based. The people were fairly intelligent, (some of them consciously so). But it was very much a discussion group, with no thought, speech, or action given to remedying the problem they believe exists. It’s a small group, that still seems to be trying to find it’s feet. I’ll definitely consider going back again next month. And maybe offer them advice on what seems to have worked for Refresh DC.
I did get to meet the man behind the Command Line podcast. We didn’t really talk, but he seemed friendly. And listening to yesterday’s podcast, he brought up my name, which made my skin crawl in self-consciousness.
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Observation:
Independent workers — be they self employed or professional freelancers — seem to be much less emotionally invested in their work than people employed full-time by a company or organization.
It’s great when you can find people who are enthusiastic about a goal that’s not their own, But by being emotionally involved with a project that they do not control, it leaves those people open to a lot of personal conflict.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Survey Finds First Amendment Is Being Left Behind in U.S. High Schools

Leave a comment | Posted by Patrick Calder on in news

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new national study, the largest of its kind, says America’s high schools are leaving the First Amendment behind.
In particular, educators are failing to give high school students an appreciation of the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and a free press, say researchers from the University of Connecticut, who questioned more than 100,000 high school students, nearly 8,000 teachers, and more than 500 administrators and principals.
The two-year, $1 million research project, titled ‘The Future of the First Amendment,’ was commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The survey suggests that First Amendment rights — freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, of assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances — would be universally known if they were classroom staples.
‘High school attitudes about the First Amendment are important because each generation of citizens helps define what freedom means in our society,’ the report reads.
Among its findings:
Nearly three-fourths of high school students either do not know how they feel about the First Amendment or admit they take it for granted.
Seventy-five percent erroneously think flag burning is illegal.
Half believe the government can censor the Internet.
More than a third think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.
‘These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,’ said Knight Foundation President and CEO Hodding Carter III. ‘Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.’”

— John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!