Archive:Summit 2006 press release

Press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Nelson Pavlosky | Mobile: (973)580-7510 | nelson@freeculture.org Alex Benn | Mobile: (610)308-1770 | abenn1@swarthmore.edu http://freeculture.org

FreeCulture.org Announces Inaugural Student Summit

A new student movement celebrates its second year of fighting for the Ã¢â‚¬Å“information commons.Ã¢â‚¬Â

SWARTHMORE, PA -- March 27, 2006 -- On April 23rd, FreeCulture.org will be two years old. In that time, the fledgling student movement has taken a multi-billion dollar corporation to court (and won), spread to more than thirty college campuses in the United States, and forever changed the way people think about copyright, trademark, and patent law. To mark the occasion, Free Culture is bringing it home with a student summit and rally back where it all started: Swarthmore College, 20 minutes outside Philadelphia. On April 21-23, students from around the country will gather for a weekend to learn, share skills, network, and plan for the future of the movement.

FreeCulture.org co-founder and spokesperson Nelson Pavlosky said: Ã¢â‚¬Å“We're looking forward to one of the most exciting events since our generation joined the battle to preserve freedom and civil liberties in the digital age.Ã¢â‚¬Â He continued, Ã¢â‚¬Å“We're training the next wave of Free Culture activists and organizers, who will continue to take the fight to anyone who would attempt to fence in the information commons.Ã¢â‚¬Â

Guests will include Free Culture author and Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, Peter Decherney of the University of Pennsylvania, low-power FM experts from Prometheus Radio, Derek Slater of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Alex Curtis of Public Knowledge, and Holmes Wilson of Downhill Battle. Participants will learn everything from campus organizing strategies to FM radio engineering.

Co-founder Luke Smith added: Ã¢â‚¬Å“FreeCulture.org is going to be a force in the copyright debate for decades to come. This conference represents the passing of the torch to a new generation of organizers who will continue to spread the word about Free Culture.Ã¢â‚¬Â Of the struggle over copyright, he said: Ã¢â‚¬Å“We're fighting a war in the shadows. The decisions legislators are making now, while no one's looking, will determine our rights for the next hundred years. Free Culture's mission is to shine a light into that darkness.Ã¢â‚¬Â

Attendees can register for the summit at . The conference is free and open to the general public, although it is targeted at student activists.

FreeCulture.org  is an international student movement dedicated to promoting cultural participation, and protecting the information commons from overly restrictive copyright, patent, and trademark law. Swarthmore students and Free Culture founders Luke Smith and Nelson Pavlosky successfully sued the electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems in 2003 over their illegal use of copyright to suppress information revealing flaws in their machines. Today, FreeCulture.org chapters around the world inform students about their rights as citizens of the digital age and stakeholders in our common media culture.



Press to contact

 * NY Times
 * Lessig's Blog
 * rhizome.org
 * Digg
 * http://geekentertainment.tv/
 * http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/
 * Your school, if you are going
 * Edit the press release to fit you and your school

Contacted, and what came of it

 * BoingBoing - Karen submitted it
 * Swarthmore College - It should end up featured on Swarthmore's front page closer to the conference.
 * Washington Post - Asheesh - I emailed Susan Kinzie; waiting for some reply.