Alex from Copy Me (previously) writes, "Copying is one of the most essential steps to creativity. And if we don't understand how it works, copyright can easily become detrimental to the very creativity we want to protect. Copy-Me's got a new video about how even the great geniuses copied others and how this practice goes waaaay back to the most famous artists and inventions. — Read the rest

Alex from Copy-Me writes, "Copy-Me's got a fresh video out on the myths behind the way we process and arrive at 'fully formed' ideas. Minds do not operate differently for different people. Minds do not leap. And they don't work unconsciously.

In 1998, the US Congress retroactively extended the copyright on US works, placing public domain works back into copyright and forestalling the entry into the public domain of a great mass of works that were soon to become public domain; now, 20 years later with no copyright term extension in sight, the US public domain is about to receive the first of many annual infusions to come, a great mass of works that will be free for all to use.

The wonderful Copy Me project (previously) has revealed the first installment in its new three-part series on The Creativity Delusion, which takes aim at the "myth of genius," which picks a small subsection of creators, scientists and entrepreneurs and declares them to be "original" by ignoring all the work they plundered to create their own and erasing all the creators whose shoulders they stand upon.

Alex from Copy-Me writes, "We've just released its fourth episode, called 'Pirates Are The Best Customers' – which talks about piracy and artists."

Alex writes, "It features censorship, hangings, dissent and criticism, a whole bunch of state and church control, angry queens, sad Stationers, and, of course, our terrible culprit: the printing press."

Copy Me is a new webseries (here's its Indiegogo fundraiser) constituting a series of short animations presenting accessible, informative, concise information about copyright, copying and culture. It's marvellously promising, and, as Mike Masnick points out, it's a much-needed addition to a canon that includes such brilliant material as Nina Paley's Copying is Not Theft and Kirby Ferguson's Everything is a Remix. — Read the rest