Peter Rasmussen, the producer behind the soon-to-be-released machinima feature film Stolen Life, has written a wonderful piece over the weekend, titled "Why Machinima is Different." Peter comes at machinima as someone who was first a filmmaker, and the strengths he highlights in this article are compelling and sometimes overlooked as we get caught up in the technology side of things. It's a well-written and extremely uplifting article about the craft. Incidentally, Peter is the next guest interview on the overcast podcast; we recorded our conversation about a week ago, and it is next in the queue for release. It's a show you definitely don't want to miss.

Mitch Featherston has a great post today on Free Culture and The Law, where he takes a link-filled foray into the roots and purpose of the Public Domain, Creative Commons, and IP Rights. The article puts things in perspective very nicely.

Finally, Mark Methenitis on his blog I recently discovered (The Law of the Game), continues his series titled "Let's Talk About Machinima." Mark provides an excellent overview of the legal issues surrounding machinima. The three articles take three different perspectives on the legal issues: first, from the eyes of a machinima maker; in this second article, he covers the view of the game makers. The third and forthcoming installment will present his own forward-thinking perspective on the topic. I look forward to seeing what he suggests.