In just a few days (February 3, at 5:30pm, Salmon Library room 111), I am going to be giving a talk about copyleft. You can see more information about it on the event page: The Left Side of [Copy]right. A flyer is down below, click to get a big printable one.

Why should you attend? Here are just five reasons.

1. Copyleft is fun to learn about

What is it? Well, right now I am using terms like “copyright’s cousin” ; really,  though, it is a wide collection of ideals generally built around the notion that information works best when it is easier to share and to remix.

2. Copyright is not a perfect system

I personally like copyright, and recognize a lot of good that it has done. However, it is not a perfect system. At the talk, I will bring up some of its flaws, especially the ones that copyleft can help to solve.

3. Copyleft helps add to the share/remix aspects of culture’s dialogue

Culture can be thought of as a dialogue of shared ideas and remixed older concepts. Copyleft has built in notions for how to inspire more sharing and more remixing.

4. Open Access can help to all levels of academic research

While open access sometimes fails a purely-copyleft test, by making research information more freely available, and more available for follow-ups and wider peer review, it can help all levels of academic research from those publishing articles all the way down to students driven to find cutting edge research.

5. Where did the sort of silly name, “Left Side of [Copy]right” come from?

Well, that’s one I’ll save for the talk.

Some reminders. This is open to all. It is free. It requires no RSVP, but I like to have a “RSVP Form” you can fill in if you have questions you would like me to specifically answer.