This Hallow’een we decided to pay our respects to the scariest public domain work south of the border: Night of the Living Dead. Though the word “Zombie” is never used, Romero’s film introduced the theme of zombies as reanimated, flesh-eating cannibals.

Night of the Living Dead ushered in the slasher and splatter film sub-genres. Horror prior to Romero’s film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from rural and suburban America. Romero revealed the power behind exploitation and setting horror in ordinary, unexceptional locations and offered a template for making an “effective and lucrative” film on a “miniscule budget.” Slasher films of the 1980s such as John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980), and Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), owe much to the original Night of the Living Dead. Learn more horror history at Wikipedia.

PS: We suggest you watch this with the lights on! Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

Creative Commons has just launched its 2nd Annual Fundraising Campaign!

The second annual campaign features new support pages on the Creative
Commons website which offer new swag including a new T-shirt design, new
vinyl stickers and hipster CC buttons. In addition, bloggers and others with an
online presence can incorporate “Support CC 2006” buttons into their site.
More details about the campaign can be found at
http://creativecommons.org/support/supporters. CC has also launched a new
Creative Commons store where you can purchase the “Commoner Shirt” and
the new “Support Your Favorite Licenses” shirts, which showcase the different
Creative Commons license icons, so that people can choose the shirt that
corresponds with their favorite license.

Another feature of this campaign are the letters that Creative Commons CEO
and Chairman – Lawrence Lessig – will be writing to anyone subscribed to this
list http://creativecommons.org/support/letters. This series of 6 email
letters will address what Creative Commons has achieved over the past 12
months and what the organization plans to achieve over the next 12 with the
help of the funds raised during this campaign. Lessig will be featuring stories
from the CC communities in different jurisdictions around the world in order to
actualize what’s happening internationally. To date, Creative Commons
licenses have been ported to over 30 jurisdictions around the world.

“With the number of Creative Commons licenses reaching 145 million this year,
CC has demonstrated that many authors and artists around the world invite use
and reuse of their creativity,” said CEO & Chairman Lawrence Lessig, “This
fundraising campaign allows Creative Commons secure valuable support needed
to allow us to continue to serve and enable the interests of these authors and
artists and the general public who benefits from flexibly licensed content.”
Last year Creative Commons raised over US$250,000. This year it hopes to raise $300,000 to continue work on their ongoing projects and to initiate new and
exciting endeavors.