International Day Against DRM 2012

Day Against DRM vertical banner

SFC @ UCF is holding a tabling event to get the word out about DRM and the dangers of Digital Restrictions Management on iPhones, iPads, Apple devices, Amazon Kindle, Sony, and others. Look for us at outside the UCF Student Union Friday May 4th, 2012.

Check out Defective by Design

A Rough Start.

 

I have not been able to get enough of a word out to really get things started for the Chapter, and this last week has been rough as I’ve had some pressing matters to deal with in the family.  We will be back at it. A meeting date will be posted shortly.

Ubuntu: A Gateway Drug to GNU/Linux

Ubuntu is a Linux based operating system by the community and a company called Canonical. The system is easier to use than most Linux distrobutions in that it has a very intuitive interface and some good support if things do go wrong. They rarely do. Ubuntu is a stable, open, and cutting edge Linux operating system that most people can use if they give it a chance.

Check out a great review for Ubuntu 12.04 that just came out by ZDNet.com:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/say-hello-to-canonicals-new-linux-desktop-ubuntu-1204-beta-review/10651

Here is a guide to download and installation:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

Music Mash Mix

Free culture believes in collaboration and one way to express that is remixing art. This can be done through Creative Commons licensing for msuic and other “intellectual property”.

Music mash ups and remixes are at the core of that ideal. For the first meeting of Students for Free Culture @ UCF we’re doing a Mix CD trade to stick it to the RIAA (and because its fun, bro).

Here go some music resources that aligns with the Free Culture outlook:


Girl Talk is Gregg Gillis, the ultimate remixer/masher.  His music is bordering on illegal thanks to his long sample/mashes/improvements on other artists.  This stuff is great for parties.

People Like Us is Vicki Bennett, a multimedia artist.

Her latest awesomeness is the curration of a 744 hour long radio show.  Check it here: http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2012?category=radio&date=

^Those two artists are part of Illegal Art, “a record label pushing the limits of sample-based music since 1998. ”  They have some other amazing music on there as well. GO!

http://illegal-art.net/home/

“The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads.” Its got an insane amount of music available for legal download thanks to Creative Commons licensing by the artists.

Listening to and supporting artists who use Creative Commons is an act of activism against oppressive copyright licensing that restrict artists, listeners, and make it so the big bucks go to the record label execs.

Jonathan Coulton is a singer/song writer who does music about zombies, love, and other things.  He’s funny, heartfelt, and his music is CC.  Go support him:

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/primer/listen/

Here is some other free music resources and record labels:

Opsound

CashMusic

Jamendo

Records on Ribs

Vosotros

BlocSonic

rcrdlbl

Internet Archive’s Netlabels Collection

Hope you find some excellent stuff.

Join us on Tuesday April 10th in the Technology Commons area with the Coffee Shop facing the Student Union at 6 PM for Students for Free Culture @ UCF’s first meeting.

BRING YOUR MIX CDS!!!!!!

Hello world!

Hello! Welcome to Students for Free Culture @ UCF!

Students for Free Culture is a national organization dedicated to advocacy of

  • Free and Open Source Software
  • Freedom of Knowledge and Open Information
  • Sharing and Collaborating in Art and Culture
  • Reform and Liberalization of Copyright laws

You can find out more at freeculture.org

Our first meeting will be held in the Technology Commons (located on the first floors of the UCF computer center building. Door facing the Union) at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, April 10th.
We will be discussing what Free Culture means and what we can do as a group to advocate Free Culture.

I’m Michael Pagnotti, the SFC @ UCF organizer.
If you have any questions email: freecultureucf@lavabit.com

Hope to see you there!