Critical Interfaces Main Menu Introduction Critical Making Origins of Vectors Vectors as interface Digital and social engagement Case Studies: Stolen Time Archive and Totality for Kids Scalar Critical Commons + Scalar Conclusion Works cited

Critical Commons

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In order to set the stage for understanding the motivation behind Critical Commons, imagine that literary scholars were compelled to seek permission every time they quote from a work of literature and that the largest internet service providers deployed filters that search for - and automatically delete - any web page that includes a quotation from a published source. It is not difficult to imagine the impact such restrictions would have on the field of literary studies; the analyses that would never be undertaken, the self-censorship and doubt that would haunt the field. Until very recently, this was the prevailing state of affairs for those who study media and popular culture. Even short excerpts from commercial sources, used to make a point or illustrate a critical example, are still routinely expunged from media sharing sites, sometimes accompanied by threats of litigation. At the very moment when electronic publishing emerged as a transformative presence in media scholarship, reactionary challenges arose with equal vehemence.
 
It was within this inhospitable climate that the public media archive Critical Commons launched in 2009 with support from the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. Critical Commons is a non-traditional “archive” that is uniquely committed to access, preservation and dissemination of copyrighted media under the protections of fair use. Virtually all of the media hosted and distributed by Critical Commons was contributed by an international community of scholars, educators and media makers, many of whom have experienced media takedowns or legal threats when using commercial media sharing services. After six years online, with over 5000 media files in active circulation, Critical Commons has never taken down a single piece of media in response to a copyright challenge. The ability to exercise fair use in the quotation of media sources is crucial to contemporary media and cultural studies and Critical Commons may well be the only public archive dedicated specifically to supporting this type of fair use.

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