Mass Revocation
On taking the DRM authorization servers down.
New Gig: Songbird
2,484 miles later, I find myself in San Francisco working, for the first time, on something I really love.
Roxio is Apple's Bitch
Software houses bowing to OS vendors never ceases to amaze me.
Tools for Democracy / Distributed Journalism
On using the web to co-ordinate massive grass-roots efforts quickly.
Knowledge and Power
They have more in common than I thought.
But the world doesn't work that way
I miss Mark Pilgrim.
Is BoingBoing a Legal Honeypot?
BoingBoing as tractor-beam for litigation. Xeni says I'm on crack.
Culture War
Some notes on Dan Hunter’s excellent work on Free Culture.
IP Costs Millions of Information
How protecting “intellectual property” ends up destroying it.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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).
Reasons Not to Use a Creative Commons NonCommercial (-NC) License
Sold! All my stuff will soon be non-NC.
The day the music died
“Apple calls these songs ‘iTunes Plus’, because it sounds so much better than calling everything else ‘iTunes Minus.’”
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.
My Open Wireless Network
Schneier adds a bit to his Wired article last week on running an open wireless network.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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).
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…”
Leo Laporte hates the Zune! (video)
I need to get back into following free culture. The anti-DRM sentiment is unprecedented.
Free software is a weak mode of production | Free Software Magazine
“The success of GNU/Linux and other free software projects is annoying.”
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.”
Senators figure out the Broadcast Flag, curse it as an abomination!
or, “How the iPod destroyed the Broadcast Flag” :)
"Customary Historic Use" to replace "Fair Use"
Big Content would like to outlaw things no one has even thought of yet
Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes
Doc just got upgraded to hero status…
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.”
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.
DRM != SSL
Doctorow on why Open Source DRM makes no sense… In response to Sun’s recent OSS DRM implementation…
Dave Matthews Band encouraging people to crack their DRM
… and encouraging Apple to not DRM their shit on iTunes. Awesome! (via Waxy)
Gallery of DRM-Related Antipixel Buttons and Badges
If you must put badges on your site, make it one of these…
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…
File-Sharing Networks Can Be Held Liable, Court Rules
New York Times covers the MGM vs. Grokster decision
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”
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!
Microsoft releases under Creative Commons ShareAlike
Holy shit Microsoft is copylefting stuff. What’s going on?
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)”
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.”
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…
Register of Copyrights Misunderstands Copyright
Ed Felton digs into the Register of Copyrights. More informative than dig, really…
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.
Prison terms on tap for 'prerelease' pirates
New law puts your ass in jail for 3 years for leaking a pre-release movie.
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.
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.
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…
Stupid (c) laws block me from publishing own work online
Clay Shirky on how he doesn’t have access to his own copyrighted works.
Fred Von Lohmann (EFF) vs. Theodore Olson (RIAA/MPA) on CSPAN
The RIAA/MPA lawyer is a complete tool, yo…
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.
NASA using BitTorrent
Need more stuff like this to keep the RIAA/MPAA lunies from illegalizing our technology…
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…
A Note to the FCC - Call their bluff…
Mark Cuban on why the FCC should tell CBS (and the MPAA) to go screw themselves.
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.”
Broadcast Flag Oral Arguments
This guy is live-blogging the broadcast flag hearings. Looks like the good guys did pretty good in oral arguments.
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.
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?
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!
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dan Gillmor Interview on IT Conversations
I've been waiting for this one. Dan talks about blogs and his new startup, Grassroots Media, Inc.
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 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
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
Cory sets DRM strawmen ablaze
Some nice arguments from Doctorow on why consumer electronics device reviewers need to include information on DRM restrictions.
An anonymous Internet communication system
One of these freenet clones really needs to get some traction. The EFF is providing funding for these guys.
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.
Open Source Licenses Are Not All the Same
Pretty good look at the four mainstream F/OSS license models.
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.
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.
Students Fight Copyright Hoarders
Katie Dean following Free Culture activism on college campuses.. looks promising.
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..
1984
Orwell’s masterpiece in all the beauty of text/plain. Note: this isn’t public domain in the US but is in AU.
One Internet, Many Copyright Laws
New York Times article on copyright law differences across countries and how the internet complicates enforcement.
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.
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: On The Wired Creative Commons CD
Chris Anderson explains creative commons licensing on NPRs Talk of The Nation.
Lexmark Injunction Overturned
Sheeewww. Lexmarks attempt to stifle competition using the DMCA is overturned.
How I Learned to Love Larry
Hilary Rosen (former head of RIAA and usher of DMCA) is promoting Creative Commons… I'm skeptically optimistic.
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.
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).
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.
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!
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.
Patents - An Alternative View
Great wrap up of problems with the current patent system and some seemingly realistic proposals for reform. (groklaw)
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.
HOWTO censor the net with a Hotmail account
Sad. ISPs not performing fact checking on copyright cease-and-desists.
IT Conversations: Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture, Chapter 1
Doug Kaye reads the first chapter of Lessig’s “Free Culture”
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.
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.
Don't Mess With Librarians
I'm convinced that there’s some kind of weird link between hackers and librarians.
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.
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!
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).”
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.”
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”.
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.
free culture
Must watch flash presentation (with audio) of Prof. Lawrence Lessig’s speech on free culture at OSCON 2002.
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.
HDTV, DVD, Hard Drives and the future
Fixed media will die. Another reason copy-limit DRM can’t work.
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
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
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
Boing Boing: Xeni on NPR: INDUCE Act update
Good starting point for Induce act opionions and information.
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
The Induce Act Spells Trouble
“No Matter What You Call It, the Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act Spells Trouble”
Copyright Bill to Kill Tech? [wired.com]
Hatch introduces bill to bring back telegraph, horse and buggie, and hoolahoop.
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