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Public policy, technology, and copyright in Halakha: a sourcesheet

Image: "Copyright Khaf" by Aharon Varady (License: CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported)

Last Sukkot 5771 (2011), Efraim Feinstein shared the sourcesheet for his late night shiur (lesson) on copyright in Rabbinic Halakhah (Jewish law). Efraim’s research adds a great deal of important perspective to our work here on the Open Siddur Project. It provides relevant historical context for our work advocating the adoption of free culture principles and free-culture licenses to facilitate sharing (tachlis) within the Jewish world. . . . → Read More: Public policy, technology, and copyright in Halakha: a sourcesheet

Openness, remixability, and free culture

In an insightful blog post on eJewish Philanthropy — which you should read if you haven’t already — Russel Neiss writes “[w]hile we have had many illuminating conversations since our presentation [at the JFNA General Assembly], the questions and feedback we have received overwhelmingly surrounds the first value of “Open, Discoverable and Accessible.”” He refers . . . → Read More: Openness, remixability, and free culture

Free as in Freedom

Often we are asked here at the Open Siddur Project why we cannot simply use the digitized texts of the siddur that are available from Davka Corporation. Our instinct was that Davka only granted permission for individuals to use their digitized Hebrew texts under fair use doctrine. To be certain, we sought to find the . . . → Read More: Free as in Freedom

Pirate Siddurim vs. Open Siddurim

The Pirate Siddur

Culture hacking either respects copyright or ignores it. One of the pillars of the Open Siddur is its respect of copyright and its attempt to make available a digitized repository of Siddur content that is available for editing, mashups, and remixing, i.e., “derivative works” that may be redistributed without restriction.

. . . → Read More: Pirate Siddurim vs. Open Siddurim

A Pushka-appeal

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