Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 05:45 AM

Mass Revocation

On taking the DRM authorization servers down.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 06:12 AM

New Gig: Songbird

2,484 miles later, I find myself in San Francisco working, for the first time, on something I really love.

Thursday, May 12, 2005 at 01:00 PM

Roxio is Apple's Bitch

Software houses bowing to OS vendors never ceases to amaze me.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005 at 11:01 AM

Tools for Democracy / Distributed Journalism

On using the web to co-ordinate massive grass-roots efforts quickly.

Monday, January 10, 2005 at 07:04 PM

Knowledge and Power

They have more in common than I thought.

Saturday, December 11, 2004 at 08:33 AM

But the world doesn't work that way

I miss Mark Pilgrim.

Friday, December 03, 2004 at 10:20 AM

Is BoingBoing a Legal Honeypot?

BoingBoing as tractor-beam for litigation. Xeni says I'm on crack.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004 at 02:06 PM

Culture War

Some notes on Dan Hunter’s excellent work on Free Culture.

Sunday, February 22, 2004 at 05:28 AM

IP Costs Millions of Information

How protecting “intellectual property” ends up destroying it.

gizmodo.com / Friday, October 10, 2008 at 08:51 PM

Walmart Changes Mind on DRM, Keeps Servers Running

That makes sense to me. Gizmodo seems to think ripping off all those people who purchased that crap is a better idea. I hate DRM as much as the next guy but that’s a really dumb take on the situation, IMO.

itmanagement.earthweb.com / Friday, October 03, 2008 at 03:35 PM

A Big Change for Open Source

Bruce Perens on the recent JMRI/GPL ruling:

“For a decade there'd been questions: Are Open Source licenses enforceable at all? Are their terms, calling for a patent detente or disclosure of source code, legal? Are they contracts, which require agreement by all parties to be valid, or licenses, which are binding even if you don’t agree to then? What legal penalties can a Free Software developer employ: only token damages, or much more? The court’s ruling makes the answers to these clear. Did such weighty questions come up in cases involving IBM, Sun, HP, or Red Hat? No, this is the quirky world of Free Software: it was a court case about model trains.”

arstechnica.com / Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 04:08 PM

Court: violating copyleft = copyright infringement

“Unlike the lower court, the appeals court seemed to understand that reciprocity lay at the heart of free software licenses. Just as traditional software firms thrive on the exchange of code for money, free software projects thrive on the exchange of code for code.”

news.cnet.com / Sunday, August 03, 2008 at 06:47 AM

What if Apple stopped issuing DRM keys?

Single points of failure always suck. Always, always. There’s five billion songs out there that depend on a very small (comparatively) number of key servers owned by a single company. It’s just horrible engineering.

lifehacker.com / Friday, July 18, 2008 at 05:16 AM

Why You're Better Off Avoiding the iPhone

My feelings exactly. I can’t believe I'm going to consciously purchase something that’s so over the top defective-by-design, but I'm definitely going to buy it.

rc3.org / Monday, June 23, 2008 at 03:56 PM

Dead media strike again

Rafe on Bruce Sterling’s Dead Media Project: “… a catalog of media formats that are no longer in use. In many cases, media stored in these dead formats can no longer be read because readers are no longer available for them.”

badvista.fsf.org / Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 07:11 PM

Don't give Microsoft the remote control

Short and exceptionally well written take on Microsoft’s Vista DRM strategy. I'm really enjoying the FSF going on the offensive with sites targeting very specific issues (badvista.fsf.org).

freedomdefined.org / Friday, May 16, 2008 at 11:31 PM

Reasons Not to Use a Creative Commons NonCommercial (-NC) License

Sold! All my stuff will soon be non-NC.

diveintomark.org / Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 01:43 AM

The day the music died

“Apple calls these songs ‘iTunes Plus’, because it sounds so much better than calling everything else ‘iTunes Minus.’”

radioheadremix.com / Friday, April 04, 2008 at 06:09 PM

Adrian Holovaty's Insanely Great Remix of Radiohead's "Nude"

Ranked #22 of 470 derivative works — that’s up from #35 as reported on Waxy at 2:47 PM (roughly five hours ago). Unfortunately, there’s no mp3 / ogg in sight. Somebody really ought to torrent all 470 of them up.

technology.timesonline.co.uk / Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 01:11 PM

DVD Jon Cracks iTunes DRM Using Fast-Forward

Where would the world be without DVD Jon?

waxy.org / Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 04:39 AM

Pirating the 2008 Oscars (Now with 6 Years of Data)

Wow.

schneier.com / Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 09:15 AM

My Open Wireless Network

Schneier adds a bit to his Wired article last week on running an open wireless network.

arstechnica.com / Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 11:40 AM

Under pressure from EMI, RIAA could disappear

Could be huge: “rumors continue to swirl that EMI will pull its funding from music trade groups like the RIAA and IFPI, an IFPI spokesman tells Ars that the group is in the middle of a major internal review of its operations.”

wired.com / Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 12:03 PM

Steal This Wi-Fi

Schneier advocates running an open wireless network at home. I've been doing this for about a year because I couldn’t get the Wii to work with security enabled. When I thought about it, I came to many of the same conclussions Bruce does in the article.

torrentfreak.com / Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 04:40 AM

The Pirate’s Dilemma

“We live in a world where it is legal for a company to patent pigs, or any other living thing except for a full birth human being, but copying a CD you bought onto your hard drive is considered an infringement of someone else’s rights.”

diveintomark.org / Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 02:58 PM

Freedom 0

Ahh, those were the days… What’s left to fight for?

arstechnica.com / Thursday, November 01, 2007 at 08:42 PM

Fair use advocates hit back with copyright principles of their own

“The Fair Use Principles for User Generated Content offer a set of guidelines that video sites should use in order to ensure that their attempts to keep infringing video offline don’t run roughshod over users' rights to fair use of the content.”

arstechnica.com / Monday, September 17, 2007 at 09:57 AM

Leaked Media Defender e-mails reveal secret government project

“The e-mail was leaked to the public by a group that calls itself MediaDefender-Defenders.” … “Apparently, MediaDefender employee Jay Mairs forwarded all of his company e-mails to a Gmail account, which was eventually infiltrated.”

rubyinside.com / Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 12:27 PM

David Heinemeier Hansson says No to Use of Rails Logo

I must say, I'm a bit bummed that we're having this conversation at all.

boingboing.net / Friday, July 20, 2007 at 09:11 AM

Last Harry Potter leaks online [boingboing.net]

“With the last book, the publisher was so freaked out about ebook piracy that they refused to release an official electronic edition. The result? Fans made their own electronic text in 24 hours. And other fans translated the book into German in 45 hours.”

blog.case.edu / Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 08:56 PM

Java's Overton Window [blog.case.edu]

Oh, wow. Have we come that far, then?

tectonic.co.za / Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 09:53 AM

Microsoft 'evidence' turns against them [tectonic.co.za]

“The market needs to understand that the study Microsoft is citing actually proves the opposite of what they claim it does.”

news.com.com / Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 01:26 PM

Gonzales proposes new crime: "Attempted" copyright infringement [news.com]

“Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including ‘attempts’ to commit piracy.”

blog.outer-court.com / Monday, May 07, 2007 at 02:08 PM

A Chat with Aaron Swartz

Q: Are you working for Reddit as full-time programmer? A: No, I left reddit several months ago. Q: Why did you leave? A: My boss asked me to.

ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com / Friday, May 04, 2007 at 08:58 AM

Did Microsoft just patent sudo?

What’s next? which(1)?

freedom-to-tinker.com / Thursday, May 03, 2007 at 12:28 PM

Why the 09ers Are So Upset [freedom-to-tinker.com]

“Giving a private party ownership of a number seems deeply wrong to people versed in mathematics and computer science.”

blogyoulikeahurricane.com / Wednesday, May 02, 2007 at 12:33 AM

The Day Digg Went Crazy

“It’s a mutiny of sorts.”

google.com / Wednesday, May 02, 2007 at 12:22 AM

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 [google.com]

“Results 1 – 10 of about 283,000 for 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0” – This is officially the craziest thing I've ever seen on the internet (with the exception of the Hasselhoffian Recursion).

en.wikipedia.org / Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 11:49 PM

Streisand effect [wikipedia.org]

“Streisand Effect is a category of Internet phenomena in which an attempt to censor or remove a certain piece of information instead backfires, causing the information in question to receive extensive publicity…”

youtube.com / Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at 09:55 PM

Leo Laporte hates the Zune! (video)

I need to get back into following free culture. The anti-DRM sentiment is unprecedented.

freesoftwaremagazine.com / Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 09:27 AM

Free software is a weak mode of production | Free Software Magazine

“The success of GNU/Linux and other free software projects is annoying.”

lists.canonical.org / Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 01:06 AM

Reclaiming the Oxford English Dictionary for the public

“That means that every page I scan, out of the fifteen thousand or so, produces about $19.5 million of value for the world; that’s about $9.8 billion an hour. My hourly wages have usually been less.”

nkhstudio.com / Friday, February 24, 2006 at 09:09 PM

The Amen Break

History and potential future of. (via Paul Hammond and Eric Meyers)

oreillynet.com / Friday, February 24, 2006 at 08:06 PM

Celebrating Independence By Making Part of it Illegal

Best post ever.

boingboing.net / Saturday, January 28, 2006 at 06:34 PM

Senators figure out the Broadcast Flag, curse it as an abomination!

or, “How the iPod destroyed the Broadcast Flag” :)

arstechnica.com / Sunday, January 22, 2006 at 06:18 PM

"Customary Historic Use" to replace "Fair Use"

Big Content would like to outlaw things no one has even thought of yet

linuxjournal.com / Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at 10:28 PM

Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes

Doc just got upgraded to hero status…

boingboing.net / Sunday, October 09, 2005 at 11:19 AM

Bill Gates shouts at Sony CEO that his crappy DRM is less crappy

I miss this Cory Doctorow: “…a stupid DRM standard for suck-ass next-gen DVDs, arguing that Microsoft’s sellout suck-ass next-gen HD-DVDs are better.”

craphound.com / Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 03:36 AM

HP DRM Talk

A sequel to Doctorow’s “Microsoft DRM Talk”

hymn-project.org / Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 01:43 PM

JHymn

Oh wow, I just ripped all my iTunes DRM'd songs down to unprotected AAC in about 10 minutes. These guys did a great job.

boingboing.net / Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at 09:54 AM

DRM != SSL

Doctorow on why Open Source DRM makes no sense… In response to Sun’s recent OSS DRM implementation…

dmband.com / Tuesday, August 16, 2005 at 01:28 PM

Dave Matthews Band encouraging people to crack their DRM

… and encouraging Apple to not DRM their shit on iTunes. Awesome! (via Waxy)

theregister.co.uk / Wednesday, July 06, 2005 at 09:48 AM

EU Parliament bins software patent bill

“by a massive majority”

nootropic.blogspot.com / Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at 10:03 PM

Gallery of DRM-Related Antipixel Buttons and Badges

If you must put badges on your site, make it one of these…

boingboing.net / Monday, June 27, 2005 at 11:21 AM

Blogs on today's SCOTUS rulings, Xeni on Grokster on NPR

Initial coverage on MGM v. Grokster from BoingBoing. I'd like to hear what Cory has to say… and I'm sure we will shortly…

nytimes.com / Monday, June 27, 2005 at 10:36 AM

File-Sharing Networks Can Be Held Liable, Court Rules

New York Times covers the MGM vs. Grokster decision

scotusblog.com / Monday, June 27, 2005 at 10:26 AM

Grokster, StreamCast Lose

“The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that developers of software violate federal copyright law when they provide computer users with the means to share music and movie files downloaded from the Internet”

picker.typepad.com / Monday, June 27, 2005 at 10:22 AM

Picker MobBlog

Grokster MGM supreme court opinions are out. These guys are covering all the angles.

gnu.org / Sunday, June 26, 2005 at 04:00 AM

The Free Software Definition - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Just wanted to link to this because it pisses me off that download.com is the first hit in a google search for “Free Software”. Bha!

lessig.org / Friday, June 24, 2005 at 01:50 PM

Microsoft releases under Creative Commons ShareAlike

Holy shit Microsoft is copylefting stuff. What’s going on?

boingboing.net / Thursday, June 16, 2005 at 11:07 AM

Mark Cuban: Why Macrovision's customers are fools

This horse should be dead by now.

os.newsforge.com / Monday, June 13, 2005 at 05:38 PM

Linus compares Linux and BSDs

“Which mindset is right? Mine, of course. People who disagree with me are by definition crazy. (Until I change my mind, when they can suddenly become upstanding citizens)”

free-soft.org / Saturday, June 11, 2005 at 08:38 PM

The History of the GNU General Public License

“What led Stallman to the creation of this copyleft license was his experience with James Gosling, creator of NeWs and the Java programming language, and UniPress, over Emacs.”

itconversations.com / Tuesday, May 17, 2005 at 04:15 PM

Cory Doctorow - All Complex Ecosystems Have Parasites

I bookmark a lot of doctorow and I bookmark a lot of IT Conversations; this is two birds with one stone. Doctorow sick genius as usual…

freedom-to-tinker.com / Tuesday, May 17, 2005 at 03:52 PM

Register of Copyrights Misunderstands Copyright

Ed Felton digs into the Register of Copyrights. More informative than dig, really…

jessekriss.com / Monday, May 09, 2005 at 05:52 PM

The History of Sampling

Why free culture is important – in a java applet.

boingboing.net / Friday, May 06, 2005 at 12:30 PM

V-TV DAY: WE WON THE BROADCAST FLAG FIGHT!

Kick ass.

slashdot.org / Monday, April 25, 2005 at 09:40 AM

Will America's Favorite Technology Go Dark?

Superb slashdot pile-on regarding the switching off of analog TV signals on 1/1/2006. The FCC/MSM do not know what to do since NO ONE will be switched over to digital.

news.com.com / Wednesday, April 20, 2005 at 03:42 PM

Prison terms on tap for 'prerelease' pirates

New law puts your ass in jail for 3 years for leaking a pre-release movie.

headlesschicken.ca / Wednesday, April 20, 2005 at 08:16 AM

Cornell Copyright Debate In Pieces

The 3.5 hour copyright debate featuring all the players from the EFF, RIAA, MPAA, acedemia, etc. cut up into little pieces for ease of viewing.

pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca / Monday, April 04, 2005 at 11:15 AM

Emacs as Cargo

Came across this odd section in a “leaving Emacs for vi” document and it has a really interesting description of the history of FSF/GNU, Linux, and the evolution of Free Software. Seems out of place in this document but is worth reading.

primagama.com / Sunday, April 03, 2005 at 08:04 PM

Brazil: Free Software's Biggest and Best Friend

Brazil gets it. They could be the international version of Silicon Valley in the next five years…

boingboing.net / Thursday, March 31, 2005 at 09:55 PM

Stupid (c) laws block me from publishing own work online

Clay Shirky on how he doesn’t have access to his own copyrighted works.

itconversations.com / Thursday, March 31, 2005 at 09:45 PM

MGM v. Grokster - Law and IT

Panel discusses the Supreme Court ruling in the MGM vs. Grokster case.

c-span.org / Tuesday, March 29, 2005 at 05:43 PM

Fred Von Lohmann (EFF) vs. Theodore Olson (RIAA/MPA) on CSPAN

The RIAA/MPA lawyer is a complete tool, yo…

boingboing.net / Friday, March 18, 2005 at 10:22 AM

DRM-free iTunes interface "PyMusique" (written in Python)

Looks like this let’s you use iTMS like normal but the files are stripped of DRM on the way down or something. And it’s written in python.

itconversations.com / Saturday, March 12, 2005 at 05:35 PM

Cory Doctorow - Web 2.0

Doctorow’s Web 2.0 presentation on IT Conversations.

joi.ito.com / Monday, March 07, 2005 at 11:54 AM

NASA using BitTorrent

Need more stuff like this to keep the RIAA/MPAA lunies from illegalizing our technology…

boingboing.net / Thursday, March 03, 2005 at 04:35 AM

Word-of-mouth is why authors succeed

Doctorow explains that the way to be successful in a distributed culture is to exploit long-tailisms like word of mouth…

blogmaverick.com / Friday, February 25, 2005 at 04:52 PM

A Note to the FCC - Call their bluff…

Mark Cuban on why the FCC should tell CBS (and the MPAA) to go screw themselves.

news.bbc.co.uk / Thursday, February 24, 2005 at 10:39 AM

Courts question anti-piracy rule

“You crossed the line,” Judge Harry Edwards told a FCC lawyer during arguments before a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.“Selling televisions is not what the FCC is in the business of.”

luminousvoid.net / Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 02:53 PM

Broadcast Flag Oral Arguments

This guy is live-blogging the broadcast flag hearings. Looks like the good guys did pretty good in oral arguments.

news.com.com / Wednesday, February 16, 2005 at 03:30 PM

Bill Gates and other communists

Stallman cutting through the bullshit.

boingboing.net / Friday, February 11, 2005 at 05:11 PM

Who did MPAA rip off "You can click but you can't hide" from?

Some dogfood for the MPAA. This kind of theft is obviously unacceptable. I'm sure they will be contacting Barlow and Joe Lewis' successors to work out a royalty program.

boingboing.net / Sunday, February 06, 2005 at 05:41 PM

Chicago's public sculpture can't be photographed by the public

Oh horse shit!

boingboing.net / Wednesday, February 02, 2005 at 05:18 PM

LA city councilman says open source = more cops

Next time someone asks you “why?” tell them you're all about putting more cops on the street.. That doesn’t have value?

boingboing.net / Friday, January 28, 2005 at 02:21 PM

Gilberto Gil's extraordinary engagement with Brazilians

Wow! You mean the political figures talk to the people in this backward country? That’s never going to work!

osdir.com / Friday, January 28, 2005 at 11:05 AM

JHymn - Removing DRM from iTunes

Excellent O'Reilly article describing Apple’s DRM apparatus in detail and pointers to tools for curing your crippled music..

freedom-to-tinker.com / Friday, January 28, 2005 at 02:45 AM

PlaysMaybe

Finally, CE manufacturers will be placing a badge on their crippled-with-DRM devices to inform the consumer that said devices suck and should be considered broken. Oddly enough, the badge reads: PlaysForSure.

archive.org / Wednesday, January 26, 2005 at 10:02 AM

Cory Doctorow: "Copyright vs Community" (MOV, MPEG)

Feature length lecture by Cory Doctorow on copyright, DRM, and other digital rights issues. CC share-alike licensed.

perens.com / Sunday, January 23, 2005 at 12:23 AM

The Emerging Economics of Open Source Software

Finally got a chance to read through this massive piece. It’s worth the time if you have it.

boingboing.net / Friday, January 21, 2005 at 03:51 PM

Sony: DRM cost us the Walkman

The first time I've heard a major player admit that DRM is harmful.

opensourceradio.blogspot.com / Friday, January 21, 2005 at 03:31 PM

Open Source Radio

“A space for you to help contribute to a forthcoming CBC radio column about the open-source movement.” This is a great example of blog-as-collaboration-tool.

itconversations.com / Thursday, January 20, 2005 at 01:03 AM

Dan Gillmor Interview on IT Conversations

I've been waiting for this one. Dan talks about blogs and his new startup, Grassroots Media, Inc.

theglobeandmail.com / Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 08:16 AM

The Globe and Mail: How copyright could be killing culture

Thanks Globe and Mail!

freedom-to-tinker.com / Friday, January 14, 2005 at 11:37 AM

CBS Tries DRM to Block Criticism of Rathergate Report

You will now need to go to jail to cite a report released by CBS. Yet another unfair and unintended use of the DMCA.

gizmodo.com / Thursday, January 13, 2005 at 06:27 PM

Gizmodo Gates Interview Part Four: Communists and DRM

Gates backpetals on the previous “creative communist” remarks and talks about DRM as a speedbump… caugh strawman caugh

freesoftwaremagazine.com / Thursday, January 13, 2005 at 02:08 PM

Free Software Magazine

This could be really cool.

jailedforasong.com / Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 05:28 AM

Jailed for a Song

“Congress isn’t listening to the public, and we need to be loud if we want to be heard over the Hollywood lobbyists and record label flunkies.”

ipaction.org / Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 05:18 AM

Really Bad News

Senator Hatch to chair a new subcommitte on Intellectual Property.

groklaw.net / Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at 09:37 AM

IBM Gives FOSS Free Access to 500 Patents - Rethinks IP Management

Was this a typo or something?

sauria.com / Monday, January 10, 2005 at 12:44 PM

Commons-based Peer Production

Ted Leung generalizes his involvement w/ free and open source software as being a simple contribution to the societal commons. Interesting viewpoint.

binarybonsai.com / Monday, January 10, 2005 at 01:33 AM

Comic Sans Anti Fucking Piracy

A nice rant against the Movie Picture Association’s recent inclusion of scary anti-piracy propoganda in DVD and cinema reels.

dangillmor.typepad.com / Sunday, January 09, 2005 at 02:14 PM

Truth and Bill Gates

Dan Gillmor comments on Gates' creative communist statements..

wired.com / Sunday, January 09, 2005 at 02:13 PM

We're Creative Commonists, Bill

Wired’s Katie Dean on the recent Creative Communist fiasco.

abclocal.go.com / Sunday, January 09, 2005 at 01:08 AM

Young Prospective Artist Finds Herself in a 'No Sketch' Zone

Second grader is told she’s not allowed to sketch at museum because the works are protected by copyright.

boingboing.net / Thursday, January 06, 2005 at 08:11 AM

Bill Gates: Free Culture advocates = Communists

At least we got a cool flag out of the ordeal..

corante.com / Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 04:52 PM

Shirky on Sanger on Wikipedia Anti-elitism

Classic Shirky retort to Sanger’s plea to pull the reign’s back on wikipedia. Clay reminds him that wikipedia starts with “wiki,” an oft forgotten fact at the present.

query.nytimes.com / Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 02:40 PM

The New York Times : Letter to the Editor : Are Google's New Libraries a Good Thing?

hahah ahahahah ahahah ahahaa! BBbwwwwhhahahahaaa! ha. hhhaaa. huuh…. ohhhhhh..

boingboing.net / Monday, January 03, 2005 at 02:47 AM

Cory sets DRM strawmen ablaze

Some nice arguments from Doctorow on why consumer electronics device reviewers need to include information on DRM restrictions.

boingboing.net / Monday, December 27, 2004 at 02:55 PM

Audiobook of Cory's DRM talk

Buy it: $1. Proceeds go to the EFF.

tor.eff.org / Wednesday, December 22, 2004 at 11:44 PM

An anonymous Internet communication system

One of these freenet clones really needs to get some traction. The EFF is providing funding for these guys.

spreadfirefox.com / Thursday, December 16, 2004 at 10:35 AM

10,000 Firefox enthusiasts make history

My name will be in the NY Times tomorrow

freedom-to-tinker.com / Wednesday, December 15, 2004 at 02:44 PM

TinyP2P

that’s sick. sick! did you notice he even squeezed a CC license in there?

news.com.com / Wednesday, December 15, 2004 at 10:42 AM

The Internet's biggest foe

powell sucks

dilbert.com / Monday, November 29, 2004 at 04:04 AM

Dilbert on Patent Reform (or not)

Love it..

nytimes.com / Saturday, November 20, 2004 at 09:46 PM

Does a Free Download Equal a Lost Sale?

The Times reports studies on how much real harm freely downloadable music is causing the record industry. The numbers don’t surprise me: free sharing has a neglible effect on immediate sales but also creates more demand for music in general.

onlamp.com / Saturday, November 20, 2004 at 09:37 PM

Open Source Licenses Are Not All the Same

Pretty good look at the four mainstream F/OSS license models.

nyunews.com / Thursday, November 18, 2004 at 12:41 AM

Mozilla's Firefox key to Free Culture

Firefox as “gateway drug” to Free Culture for the masses.

economist.com / Monday, November 15, 2004 at 10:58 PM

Monopolies of the mind

The Economist calling for patent reform. Thank you!

positronrecords.com / Monday, November 15, 2004 at 02:19 PM

Positron! Records

Small label that supports and encourages Creative Commons licensing for their artists. You can purchase some of their bands music from the iTunes Music Store.

scrawford.blogware.com / Sunday, November 14, 2004 at 01:47 PM

Does the White House know?

Some info on a recent FCC filing on the broadcast flag. This is going to start heating up as the July 2005 date gets closer.

wired.com / Wednesday, November 10, 2004 at 11:57 PM

Students Fight Copyright Hoarders

Katie Dean following Free Culture activism on college campuses.. looks promising.

free-conversant.com / Wednesday, November 10, 2004 at 10:38 PM

Holy shit! this guy got the MPAA propoganda posters pulled from Tuttle Mall!

They were in the food court area. Massive 8 ft. posters! I took my camera with me this weekend to try to get a snap but they were gone..

gutenberg.net.au / Monday, November 08, 2004 at 02:39 AM

1984

Orwell’s masterpiece in all the beauty of text/plain. Note: this isn’t public domain in the US but is in AU.

nytimes.com / Monday, November 08, 2004 at 02:35 AM

One Internet, Many Copyright Laws

New York Times article on copyright law differences across countries and how the internet complicates enforcement.

boingboing.net / Saturday, November 06, 2004 at 05:43 AM

Save Canada's Internet from WIPO

Doctorow on how the DMCA notice-and-takedown clause is becoming a tool for censoring the web in the US and how Canada is pondering importing it.

freep.com / Thursday, November 04, 2004 at 03:36 PM

Ashcroft likely to leave post

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

boingboing.net / Saturday, October 30, 2004 at 12:16 PM

Apple to iPod owners: "Eat shit and die"

Cory seems a bit upset with Apple, and rightfully so.

newsforge.com / Friday, October 29, 2004 at 07:17 AM

Why the term 'intellectual property' is a seductive mirage

Stallman..

wired.com / Thursday, October 28, 2004 at 05:10 AM

Lexmark Loss Good for Consumers

Katie Dean with more on the Lexmark DMCA smack-down. EFF and others are hopeful this will send a message that DMCA abuse won’t be tolerated by the courts and slow the recent cease-and-desist tyrany.

npr.org / Thursday, October 28, 2004 at 02:45 AM

NPR: On The Wired Creative Commons CD

Chris Anderson explains creative commons licensing on NPRs Talk of The Nation.

wired.com / Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at 08:36 AM

Lexmark Injunction Overturned

Sheeewww. Lexmarks attempt to stifle competition using the DMCA is overturned.

guardian.co.uk / Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 11:03 PM

Simon Waldman on Wikipedia's success

The Guardian with some history and props for wikipedia..

wired.com / Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 10:34 PM

How I Learned to Love Larry

Hilary Rosen (former head of RIAA and usher of DMCA) is promoting Creative Commons… I'm skeptically optimistic.

house.gov / Monday, October 25, 2004 at 11:39 PM

Digital Media Consumers Rights Act (DMCRA)

Proposed amendments to the DMCA for limiting anti-circumvention, reaffirming the betamax standard, and ensuring proper labelling of copy-protected media.

paulgraham.com / Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at 10:12 AM

Good Bad Attitude

Paul Graham on why hackers have “shitty attitudes” when it comes to topics of IP and removal of natural liberties. (Feynman’s safe cracking gets a mention, btw).

boingboing.net / Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 08:17 AM

Doctorow's Edinburgh talk video .torrent

Video for the “Web 2.0 == AOL 1.0? How the Sinister Forces of Darkness are Conspiring in Smoke Filled Rools to Make the Web Illegal, and You're Not Invited” talk.

lessig.org / Thursday, October 14, 2004 at 04:32 PM

The good of McCain

Sen. McCain delivers a letter to the president questioning HR 4077 (THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION ACT). Looks like Public Knowledge and Consumers Union have McCain’s ear. Great to hear!

lessig.org / Wednesday, October 13, 2004 at 11:55 AM

Ashcroft: "I don't think we have a public domain attitude."

Lessig on recent Ashcroft remarks.

tbray.org / Wednesday, October 13, 2004 at 01:25 AM

Patent Theory

Tim Bray with an objective look at something that’s hard to talk about without using the words “bullshit” or “fukt” or “broken”. We need more people like Tim. I tend to just bitch.

groklaw.net / Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 09:47 PM

Patents - An Alternative View

Great wrap up of problems with the current patent system and some seemingly realistic proposals for reform. (groklaw)

boingboing.net / Monday, October 11, 2004 at 08:34 AM

Doctorow speaking tomorrow night in Edinburgh

Maybe we'll get another transcript.

npr.org / Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 09:17 PM

NPR : Free Speech Landmark for Colleges

Remembering the college free speech movement of the sixties. Some clips from Mario Savio’s speeches at Berkeley and how they spread through the country.

boingboing.net / Saturday, October 09, 2004 at 10:35 PM

HOWTO censor the net with a Hotmail account

Sad. ISPs not performing fact checking on copyright cease-and-desists.

wired.com / Thursday, October 07, 2004 at 03:08 PM

Senate Shelves Induce Review

First major blow to Induce Act :)

hyperreal.org / Wednesday, October 06, 2004 at 06:48 PM

F*ck Big Media: Rolling Your Own Network

just.. wow.

wired.com / Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at 10:01 AM

New Induce Act Alarms Foes

New draft of Induce Act looks like old version of Induce Act.

wired.com / Monday, September 27, 2004 at 09:38 PM

Rural Kids Print, Bind and Read

so cool..

nytimes.com / Monday, September 27, 2004 at 07:57 AM

The New York Times - Does the Patent System Need an Overhaul?

we need more press like this..

slashdot.org / Thursday, September 23, 2004 at 12:56 PM

Wikipedia Hits Million-Entry Mark

itconversations.com / Wednesday, September 22, 2004 at 10:57 AM

IT Conversations: Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture, Chapter 1

Doug Kaye reads the first chapter of Lessig’s “Free Culture”

uspto.gov / Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 02:44 AM

US Patent Office: Information on Disclosure Document Program

A Disclosure Document is official documentation of an art or work and can be used as a prior-art claim if you get sued for patent infingment. These are muuch cheaper than patents but last only two years.

newsforge.com / Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 02:38 AM

How to fight software patents - singly and together

Stallman on fighting patents and patent reform.

slashdot.org / Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 02:15 AM

Slashdot on Origins and Misuse of the Word Piracy.

The article is “SVP : More Video Anti-Copying Technology” but the comments on “piracy” are hilarious.

wired.com / Thursday, September 16, 2004 at 01:02 AM

Don't Mess With Librarians

I'm convinced that there’s some kind of weird link between hackers and librarians.

wired.com / Sunday, September 12, 2004 at 11:18 AM

Copyright Proposal Induces Worry

Katie Dean with an update on the Induce Act non-sense. Short version: dickhead copyright officials help dickhead senators reword Induce Act.

tbray.org / Sunday, September 12, 2004 at 11:07 AM

The DRM Debacle

Tim Bray on DRM and its consequences. I'd love to see more of the popular bloggers jumping in and educating people on this. You have the medium!

savebetamax.org / Wednesday, September 08, 2004 at 02:41 PM

Save Betamax - National Call-In Day September 14

“We're organizing a call-in day to Congress on September 14 to oppose new legislation that would undermine the Betamax decision (INDUCE Act).”

gnu.org / Wednesday, September 08, 2004 at 09:06 AM

The Right to Read - Richard Stallman

“Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong—something that only pirates would do.”

oknarb.web-log.nl / Wednesday, September 08, 2004 at 09:02 AM

Richard Stallman, you light-hearted optimist you

There are a few arguments that almost all politicians are sensitive to: “For the children”, “For the poor starving artist”, “For the public good”, “For the almost extinguished animal/plant”.

corante.com / Wednesday, September 01, 2004 at 04:09 PM

Wikipedia Reputation and the Wemedia Project

Nice summary of the recent wave of crap swirling around wikipedia. No one can quite believe an open and free culture can produce quality factual content.

randomfoo.net / Monday, August 30, 2004 at 02:25 AM

free culture

Must watch flash presentation (with audio) of Prof. Lawrence Lessig’s speech on free culture at OSCON 2002.

wired.com / Wednesday, August 25, 2004 at 11:06 PM

Copyright Bill Needs Big Changes

Note: Follow and support Katie Dean (wired reporter). She has consistently and reputably covered every significant technological rights issue since 1999.

unit.bjork.com / Wednesday, August 25, 2004 at 10:33 PM

Waving a pirate flag

Björk supports file sharing.

techdirt.com / Wednesday, August 25, 2004 at 10:26 PM

Misunderstanding Wikipedia

blogmaverick.com / Wednesday, August 25, 2004 at 10:18 PM

HDTV, DVD, Hard Drives and the future

Fixed media will die. Another reason copy-limit DRM can’t work.

gnu.org / Sunday, August 22, 2004 at 04:37 PM

Why Software Should Not Have Owners

Richard Stallman – GNU Project – Free Software Foundation (FSF)

techdirt.com / Friday, August 20, 2004 at 03:52 PM

Appeals Court Rules For Grokster

“…the question is, does the statutory monopoly that Congress has given you reach out to that something new. And that’s a very debatable question. You don’t solve it by calling it ‘theft.’ You have to show why this court should extend a statutory monopol

wired.com / Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 09:46 PM

P2P Services in the Clear

Get your share on!

versiontwo.org / Tuesday, August 17, 2004 at 08:52 AM

Don't Copy That Floppy

“Two kids committing the carnal sin of copying a game onto a floppy disk..”

tbray.org / Friday, August 06, 2004 at 06:46 AM

Patents and Linux [ongoing]

Tim Bray on all the recent news about linux’s 283 patent infingements.

dylan.tweney.com / Sunday, August 01, 2004 at 06:01 AM

Transcript of interview with Cory Doctorow

More Doctorow: “I mean, books are printed on substrate that is so fragile that it burns when it comes into contact with oxygen. We actually use that substrate to wipe our asses with. This is not robust, archival material. This is the very definition of ep

psyclops.com / Sunday, August 01, 2004 at 05:37 AM

Shizzolated Microsoft Research DRM talk, and shit.

Can’t beat it wit' a stick.

nuclearelephant.com / Sunday, August 01, 2004 at 05:30 AM

Nuclear Elephant: File Sharing Experiment

eff.org / Friday, July 30, 2004 at 01:45 PM

EFF's Letter to United States Senators on Induce Act

“I write today to express the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)’s opposition to S. 2560, a measure premised on the misguided notion that the dilemmas currently facing the music industry can be solved by holding the threat of more lawsuits and more unce

writ.news.findlaw.com / Wednesday, July 28, 2004 at 02:53 PM

Chander: Verizon's Solution In The Napster Debate

FindLaw’s Writ:

boingboing.net / Wednesday, July 28, 2004 at 01:50 PM

Boing Boing: Xeni on NPR: INDUCE Act update

Good starting point for Induce act opionions and information.

npr.org / Wednesday, July 28, 2004 at 12:56 PM

NPR : Proposed 'Induce Act' Could Outlaw iPods

Day to Day: technology reporter Xeni Jardin talks about a new U.S. Senate bill, the so-called “Induce Act,” that could outlaw devices such as iPod portable music players and other technologies that critics say “intentionally induce” copyright infringement

streamingmedia.com / Monday, July 26, 2004 at 04:57 PM

The Induce Act Spells Trouble

“No Matter What You Call It, the Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act Spells Trouble”

washingtonmonthly.com / Friday, July 23, 2004 at 02:18 PM

"My Beef With Big Media" by Ted Turner

wow.

wired.com / Friday, July 23, 2004 at 02:31 AM

Copyright Bill to Kill Tech? [wired.com]

Hatch introduces bill to bring back telegraph, horse and buggie, and hoolahoop.

thomas.loc.gov / Friday, July 23, 2004 at 02:25 AM

Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004 (Introduced in Senate)

Add to beat up when seen in street list: Mr. Hatch, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Frist, Mr. Dashle, Mr. Graham, Mrs. Boxer

patandkat.com / Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 11:25 AM

Cory Doctorow: Microsoft Research DRM talk