Zeugma

Creative Commons & James Hogg’s mother

Larry Lessig launched Creative Commons in Malta directly after the BILETA conference.  When he quoted Sousa’s words about the ubiquity of ‘talking machines’ that played music, and Sousa’s lament that this would stop people singing songs as they did of old, I was reminded of Walter Scott’s encounter with James Hogg’s mother, Margaret Laidlaw. 

Au revoir to BILETA

Goodbye to the BILETA Chair I’ve been sitting in for the past three years or so.  Thanks to my ineradicable habit of deadlining and a lethal combination of Easter holiday roadworks & rush hour traffic outside Luqa airport I was late for the AGM; but since one of the first items was the election of the new Chair and depute-Chair, my being late didn’t stop proceedings for too long. 

BILETA conference again -- Lessig was presenting.  Very slick presentation that was another take on the Dick Hardt approach.  Or was Lessig the first, as Karen has reminded me?  Anyway, really engaging stuff.  Oh yes, and the content was great too.  While listening, I went to his blog and saw another edition of Code out -- or at least thought I did.  But it appears that he's editing the second edition online using a wiki -- practising what he preaches re networked economies and creative commonality. 

BILETA 2006

For conference participants attending the legal educational sessions, my draft paper is listed under 'Publications' to the left.

Learning: a space of absence

Went to a RSNO concert last month, a North American programme which included John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls – commissioned by the NY Phil to commemorate those killed in the events of 9/11.  I’m going to have to listen to it a number of times to really make up my mind, but I wonder if it deserves the lavish praise heaped on it.