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Renderfarm.fi loves Creative Commons

Submitted by prodigal_son on Tue, 2012-01-24 13:09
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Last spring I wrote a script that I hoped would transmit the important values that Creative Commons stands for in a funny but informative way. I wrote the original draft with the aim of explaining the six basic Creative Commons licenses Renderfarm.fi supports, but after applying for and receiving a small grant from the Cloudberry fund, I went on to write a story aimed at promoting Creative Commons both in the Nordic region and the rest of the world. This became the script for "BBB loves CC", a short film production that we release today.

I personally feel that Big Buck Bunny and the rest of his Blender Foundation colleagues represent a new chapter in an art form that is as probably as old as speech itself: storytelling. When creative materials are released under Creative Commons and other open licenses, people are free to take those stories to new directions and make up their own where they feel like. This freedom is where endless possibility lies in terms of the story. Fan art thrives, new stories emerge and characters are "kept alive" for generations - not for the love of money, but for the love of the characters and stories themselves.

Obviously not all characters have what it takes to survive in a world packed with information and in constant transition. Some do. Perhaps the most loved Creative Commons character to date is Big Buck Bunny. We have had the pleasure to work with him (notice the wording, we do not "use" him, that would be just wrong!) in many previous Studio Lumikuu productions (including Renderfarm.fi's very own "What is Renderfarm.fi?" video). It was indeed clear to us from the start that there was only one bunny big enough to pull off this enormous task!

Please note that even though this video is aimed at encouraging people to use Creative Commons, we will not force you to do so here on Renderfarm.fi. Ultimately big decisions like this should always be left for the artist to decide. Still we feel that if you can afford it, using Creative Commons is a sure way to gain that many more loyal followers. Anyway, without further due, we'll let The Bunny (as in The Dude) do the talking from now in the Renderfarm.fi/Studio Lumikuu production "BBB loves CC":

 

Uploader joy - or the lack thereof. Call for help

Submitted by jesterKing on Wed, 2012-01-18 16:42
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Those who have been following the forums and our IRC channel #renderfarm.fi on Freenode.net will know that we have users who are for unexplainable reasons unable to successfully upload sessions to our server using our wonderful integrated Uploader in Blender.

We have been investigating our logs a lot, tried many things, but still this remains as elusive as ever.

Now, we're determined to get it nailed and fixed, so I created a short video tutorial explaining how to create a net capture of a failing upload attempt. Please visit and watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr4J-sTlAQ4 to learn how to get one for Renderfarm.fi. I've attached the video to this post for your convenience :)

We ask those who experience the annoying upload problem to generate a net capture and to send us the resulting file. We hope that this will shed more light on what is going on. All of our developers have been unable to reproduce the issue, so we need to go low-level. A net capture will be tremendously useful.

Send your capture files to nathan@letworyinteractive.com, don't forget to mention your userid or username.

/Nathan

Video: 

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

Submitted by prodigal_son on Wed, 2012-01-18 09:55
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When I first started using the Internet at the start of the 1990's, anon.penet.fi (operated by the Finnish Internet pioneer Johan Helsingius) was the most famous anonymous email relay service on the Internet. Through Helsingius's well-loved service one could obtain anonymity (correction: the real term is pseudonymity, though let me assure you at the time it really did feel like anonymity) on the Internet and discuss things without the fear of harrassment. A change came in 1995 when the Finnish courts forced Helsingius to release the real IP address of a user thought to have released compromising information about a US entity (according to some reports the Church of Scientology). Helsingius fought the lawsuit but lost. Less than a year later, he decided it was time to take anon.penet.fi down for good.
 
In the world of legislation, precedents count - even across national borders. To Helsingius, the move must have been partly motivated by the knowledge that the Finnish courts had been compromised and any further legal fights for true anonymity on the Internet would be likely to fail. On this day, 18th of January 2012 anonymity on the Internet is harder to reach than ever, but that aside, right at this very moment we stand upon an even more threatening ledge. The whole Internet, as we have come to know it, could become extinct. You might already recognize the words I used for the title of this blog post. If you didn't yet, you are likely to later today, for they are written on the front page of the English version of Wikipedia. What has driven Wikipedia to protest in such a strong way? The SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) house bills.
 
As the Wikipedia article on SOPA explains: "The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement."
 
Though Renderfarm.fi will not join the blackouts (I feel we have been down too many days of late), we support the protestors by not accepting any new renders today.  Let us not go down this path. If SOPA and PIPA would get accepted by the US House, what would be next? How soon would the Finnish legislators follow suit and how would this affect free, democratically motivated services like Renderfarm.fi?

Stop SOPA. Stop PIPA.