There is cool semi-recent news on the Free Cultural Works Definition front. The board of directors of the Wikimedia Foundation passed a resolution stating that all projects (including Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikibooks):
...are expected to host only content which is under a Free Content License, or which is otherwise free as recognized by the Definition of Free Cultural Works.
There is still room for several exceptions but this must be minimal and the use of such works, "with limited exception, should be to illustrate historically significant events, to include identifying protected works such as logos, or to complement (within narrow limits) articles about copyrighted contemporary works."
For WMF and it's member projects, this was a useful step because it documents and strengthens an important position in favor of explicit goals that I feel is important to successful freedom movements. But it's not a major change for them. The resolution merely codifies what has already become accepted practice within Wikimedia projects.
But this is a major change -- and a major victory -- for freedomdefined.org and the definition. Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, are the single most visible and important centers for the production and dissemination of free culture today. They're also the most successful and a model many want to emulate. Explicit buy in from WMF is a major victory indeed.
