creative-commons

The first of January has been designated Public Domain Day, as the year’s beginning is when under most countries’ intellectual property laws is when copyrights expire and authors’ works make the transition into the realm of public domain and fair-use, especially important for community theatre and local orchestras and the like. The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University lists some of the works from around the world entering into the freely licensed sphere this year as well as some further resources and information behind copyrights and their longevity. Be sure to give our friends at the Public Domain Review a visit as well.

the island of the day before

Year in and year out, as the Earth’s rotation marks the procession of the hours around the globe—although with geo-political license that apportions certain time zones to one area and groups national entities, especially those comprised of disperse archipelago and the divisions aren’t smoothly radiating from pole to pole—one’s given to wonder how it might feel to live in a place that’s off-set from the rest (majority of the population, perhaps, but there are quite a few of these zones and ones that describe great swathes of the Earth’s surface) by a half-hour and even rarer lesser increments.
Any readers in those places, please let us know your thoughts. Would it be strange and jarring to be synchronised at the top of the hour or does it even register? Maybe that is by turns convenient and awkward for scheduling and meeting dead-lines.  Though probably not longer than living memory Tonga (UTC +13:00) and New Zealand’s Chatham Islands (UTC +12:45), places which are sadly usually covered up by the frontispieces of globes, have lied precarious close to the international date line, the edge of tomorrow—by convention—and now are afforded times later than, ahead of the neighbouring, relatively neighbourless waters, which to my mind would push them into tomorrow, instead of just later that day. We’re eager to hear from any residents of Nuku’alofa or Waitangi or anyone else that might have some insight into this perplexing situation.

mmxvii

Happy New Year’s to one and all. Warm greetings to all and hopes that your dreams be fulfilled and that everything starts out on the right footing. For the sake of re-introducing any reductio ad diffidenita into the discourse and colouring our expectations too garishly, we’ll refrain from predictions for the moment—both the expert and the astrological varieties and invite all to take comfort and strength in new beginnings.

eine guten rutsch ins neue jahr!

Previously we’ve learnt that wishing someone a good stumble into the new year wasn’t exactly like telling someone to break a leg but rather just to have a good start, but regardless of how you’re ticking off these final moments of 2016 and what lucky rites you’re practising, we’ll cross that threshold together. Thanks for visiting and best wishes for a healthy and auspicious new year from us at PfRC.