From free software to free culture: the emergence of open business

This paper provides an examination of the emergence of open business models — entrepreneurial strategies that take advantage of the ease of digital reproduction to distribute free content, while earning money from the sale of related products and services. Locating the origins of open business in the open source software phenomenon, the authors suggest that the business strategies innovated there have broader economic relevance. Through a case study of the tecnobrega music scene in Belém, the paper illustrates how open business models can be applied to the production of cultural materials more generally

Access to knoledge in Brazil: new research on intellectual property, innovation and development

The present volume is the fruit of a research initiative on Access to Knowledge begun in 2004 by Yochai Benkler, Eddan Katz, and myself. Access to Knowledge is both a social movement and an approach to international and domestic policy. In the present era of globalization, intellectual property and information and communications technology are major determinants of wealth and power. The principle of access to knowledge argues that we best serve both human rights and economic development through policies that make knowledge, knowledge-creating tools, and nowledgeembedded goods as widely available as possible for decentralized innovation and use. Open technological standards, a balanced approach to intellectual property rights, and expansion of an open telecommunications infrastructure enable ordinary people around the world to benefit from the technological advances of the information age and allow them to generate a vibrant, participatory and democratic culture. Law plays a crucial role in securing access to knowledge, determining whether knowledge and knowledge goods are shared widely for the benefit of all, or controlled and monopolized for the benefit of a few.

Televisão, frustração e agressão: um estudo de caso

Esta tese pretende levantar e problematizar a influência da televisão na investigação da agressividade infantil. Para esse objetivo selecionou-se dois grupos de crianças, um grupo experimental e outro de controle oriundos de dois estabelecimentos de ensino da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. As crianças que compuseram a população estudada variavam de idade entre cinco e sete anos. Projetaram-se dois filmes: ao grupo experimental, um filme de ação - aventura dado com frustração e ao outro grupo - grupo de controle - um filme neutro caracterizado pelo desenrolar de cenas da vida animal. A frustração ao grupo experimental foi introduzida através de três interrupções na projeção do filme, interrupções essas que, no contexto da programação infantil, seriam provenientes de anúncios, ou de quaisquer outros motivos. Os instrumentos utilizados foram questionários respondidos pelos professores e pelas crianças, anotados por dez auxiliares de pesquisa. O estímulo "diferencial foi introduzido através dos dois filmes. Seguiu-se a sessão lúdica onde predominaram brincadeiras de jogos e bola, sendo feito na ocasião um video-tape. As auxiliares de pesquisa anotavam também os itens que lhes foram solicitados.

Compliance to law and effectiveness of the rule of law in Brazil

The goal of this paper is to debate the degree of effectiveness of the rule of law in Brazil, through a survey measuring perceptions, attitudes and habits of Brazilians in regard to compliance to law. The survey conducted in Brazil is based on the study conducted by Tom R. Tyler in the United States, entitled Why People Obey the Law? (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990). The main argument of Tyler´s study is that people obey the law when they believe it’s legitimate, and not because they fear punishment. We test the same argument in Brazil, relying on five indicators: (i) behavior, which depicts the frequency with which respondents declared to have engaged in conducts in disobedience to the law; (ii) instrumentality, measuring perception of losses associated with the violation of the law, specially fear of punishment; (iii) morality, measuring perception of how much is right or wrong to engage in certain conducts in violation of the law; (iv) social control, which measures perception of social disapproval of certain types of behavior in violation of the law, and (v) legitimacy, which measures the perception of respect to the law and to some authorities. Results indicate that fear of sanctions is not the strongest drive in compliance to law, but more than legitimacy, indicators of morality and social control are the strongest in explaining why people obey the law in Brazil.