About
Posted by Matthew Bendert in Uncategorized on May 8 2007live without possessing
make without claiming
develop without controlling
this is the secret of a fulfilling life
– a translation from Verse 51 of the Tao Te Ching
OK, so it’s not much of a mission statement, but that little quote pretty much sums up the philosophy here at Copyleft: the magazine. We are an online publication dedicated to covering news and events involving the practical application of copyright and patent laws on everyday life. While most of the news on patent disputes and copyright infringement focuses on who is suing who and what companies stand to lose the most money, we want to look at these issues from the perspective of the end user, the average person who downloads music and movies, has a blog or uses software. If you are reading this site, you are doing at least one of those things and the effects of DRM technology and open source software development do have direct consequences on your everyday life, particularly when it comes to how you use that software or those media files that are clogging up your hard drive. For more information on what we are (or aren’t) check our our Frequently Asked Questions section.
Staff Profiles
Matthew Bendert
Matthew is a freelance journalist, editor and general news junkie based out of San Diego. In addition to writing on copyright and licensing issues, Matthew is also Copyleft: the magazine’s webmaster and customized Wordpress to make the site look good.
Luc Gagnon
Luc is not this guy’s real name, but he works in an industry where writing what he writes might threaten his full-time gig. So, he has chosen to write under an assumed name. He primarily covers music for us at Copyleft: the magazine, but will often foray into other subjects when he feels like it.
Full Disclosure
Web space is not free (alas) and we have to pay our bills. So, we have a few sponsors:
Google Ads
You know them. They are on the left side of the screen. Not much else to say here.
Cafepress.com
While it’s not an open source platform, CafePress has some good clothes and swag that we are more than happy to display on our site. See the t-shirt on the left side of the screen? That’s them. We might also, on occasion, embed a link to some of their stuff in our stories (if it is appropriate, of course). Also, this banner:
eMusic.com
eMusic is a little new to us, so we’ll see how this goes. We like the fact that they offer DRM-free music. Hopefully, we’ll be able to point you to those DRM-free tracks in the near future. For now, here’s a banner: