Creative Commons Olympics. How Big Media is Learning to License From Amateur Authors

NBC Universal’s decision to use Creative Commons-licensed photographs in an Olympic broadcast is an example of how media conglomerates are experimenting with collaboration with amateurs, but it also reveals potential problems of letting non-lawyers negotiate copyright licensing agreements. In the process, NBC’s producers nearly opened the door for a multimillion-dollar infringement law suit. To avoid such pitfalls, media companies need to adopt policies and best practices for using amateur licensed works. These guidelines should instruct how a production can attribute collaborating authors and how the Open Content licensing terms affect the licensing of the productions. The guidelines should also instruct how producers can seek alternative licensing arrangements with amateurs and contribute back to the Open Content community.

Stereocopic Photography Encounters the Staircase

The staircase is presented as the architectural component that most potently embodies thresholds, boundaries and passages due to its diagonal orientation and essence as an intermediary zone. Connections then are made between the kinesthetic requirements of traversing a staircase and viewing a stereoscopic photograph. From this foundation, the haptic essence of stereoscopic photography is proposed as uniquely qualified medium through which to view a staircase and therefore thresholds, boundaries, and passages within architecture. Analyses of stereoviews of staircases in the Palais de Justice in Brussels, the Library of Congress in Washington, and the Palais Garnier (Opéra) in Paris close the essay.