Cool stuff for free on the Interweb

First up, Boing Boing has a story about the US Library of Congress publishing a bunch of copyright free historical photos on Flickr with the aim being to have people label them, which will be useful for the purposes of preservation. The photos, which are from the 1910s and the 1930s-40s, are fantastic and well preserved and definitely worth a gander. And remember, they're copyright free so anyone can use em!

Some samples (which are slightly cropped on the right side due to their width being larger than the damned column):


Delano, Jack,, 1914-, photographer.

General view of one of the classification yards of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, Chicago, Ill.

1942 Dec.



Bransby, David,, photographer.

Woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Shown checking electrical assemblies

1942 June



Sherwood, Mark,, photographer.

North American's P-51 Mustang Fighter is in service with Britain's Royal Air Force, N[orth] A[merican] Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, Calif.

1942 Oct.



Vachon, John,, 1914-1975,, photographer.

House, Houston, Texas

1943 May



Vachon, John,, 1914-1975,, photographer.

Workers leaving Pennsylvania shipyards, Beaumont, Texas

1943 June



Bain News Service, publisher.

Around the block for 2 cents [car]

[between 1910 and 1915]



Bain News Service, publisher.

Miss Moore [tennis]

[between 1910 and 1915]



Bain News Service, publisher.

Olympic

[between 1910 and 1915]



Bain News Service, publisher.

Jap [sic] torpedo boat, driver ashore

[between 1910 and 1915]



Bain News Service, publisher.

J.M. Johnson in Bleriotype [plane]

[between 1910 and 1915]

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Not sure how long these have been available, but the 'Daily Bits' has a list of comics that are free or have freely available first issues. Some are online comics, others are downloadable files. I haven't had time to check 'em out yet - except for 'Fell #1' - but I'm looking forward to sampling the likes of 'Deadman', 'Y: The Last Man', 'Sandman', 'DMZ', 'Hellblazer', and 'Swamp Thing'.

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And finally, Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons and advocate of reduced copyright restrictions, has released his 2001 book The Future of Ideas for free under a CC license. Naturally, I haven't read it yet, (and I'm not sure I want to read 300 pages of book on a screen), but it's probably worth a read. Once I finish the 50 or so other books I have waiting for me, that is.