On Lisa Rein's Radar

New Blog up at onlisareinsradar.com

2002-07-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've switched over to a Movable Type Blog that will be "Lisa Rein Central" from this date forward.

These archives will remain here to provide, well, a source of archives.

Cool Shift Interview With R.U. Sirius

2002-07-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

R.U. SIRIUS UNPLUGGED
--One of the earliest adopters of cyberculture, the co-founder of Mondo 2000 has drifted away from tech-chic. Klint Finley asks him about then and now.

S: To change the subject somewhat, where do we stand on the war on drugs right now? Is it more or less important than it was, say, two years ago?

RU: It’s all sort of integrated into the war on terror, and there’s a lot of complex connections there. It’s amazing that it’s all happening in Afghanistan, which is sort of a nexus for the drug underground and also turns out to be the nexus for Al Quaeda and the place where America wants to build an oil pipeline and the place where we have our troops and bombs. And all those things converge. Narcopolitics, as much as class, is at the center of politics in our time. I don’t think any of that has changed. You also see this integration in Columbia where they’re fighting over drugs and they’re also fighting against leftists and they’re fighting for their oil interests -- it’s still rather the same story. On the positive side of course, Europeans almost uniformly are liberalizing drug laws. I don’t know how things are in Canada... I think Vancouver is pretty liberal.

S: Do you think there’s a potential use for psychedelics in psychotherapy?

RU: Yeah, I’ve always thought it was a useful tool. The great thing about having a guide, rather than doing it on your own or in a party, is that it grants permission to take a pretty walloping, great massive dose and go through changes without having to worry about what kind of incursions might occur during the trip. I think if it could be approved for psychotherapy, that would be a tremendous step in the right direction. There’s basically two schools of thought on ending the drug war. One is the libertarian point of view, which is that it should be legalized because it’s a cognitive liberty, a matter of personal choice. And then there’s the attempt to medicalize the situation... harm reduction and so forth. And while I agree with the libertarian view on that, I think medicalization is more likely to be allowed.

Artificial Blood Not Quite Here Yet

2002-07-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

See the Wired article by Wil McCarthy:
Strange Blood
--Cataclysmic shortages. Tainted supplies. There is a solution: artificial blood..

To truly end blood shortages and the fears that help produce them, hospitals would need a fluid that's laboratory pure, universally compatible with any human blood or tissue type, and indefinitely storable at room temperature. Most important, it would have to perform the function of oxygen delivery, so far the most elusive function to mimic in efforts to create fake blood. Simply adding oxygen-carrying hemoglobin to a substance like saline won't work - the raw hemoglobin molecule turns out to be both short-lived and toxic to the kidneys and liver unless surrounded by the fatty envelope of the red cell. And numerous other creative workarounds - like encapsulating the molecules in tiny globs of fat or chaining them together into polymers - have failed. Oxygen and CO2 can be dissolved directly into droplets of liquid perfluorocarbon, which holds and releases the two gases about as efficiently as hemoglobin does; when oxygenated, this liquid is even breathable - remember the rat in The Abyss ? This approach too, however, produces side effects, from toxicity to allergies to exhaling an ozone-depleting gas.
Only one oxygen-carrying blood substitute has ever been approved by the FDA. That was Fluosol, a perfluorocarbon additive developed in the US and marketed by Japan's Green Cross corporation from 1989 to 1993, during which time it was infused into some 13,000 patients in the US annually. Unfortunately, Fluosol was a frozen, two-part drug that had to be thawed and mixed immediately prior to use, and in large doses it required patients to breathe pure oxygen (potentially toxic) for the weeks it took their natural blood supply to recover. Meanwhile, doctors had to keep pumping the stuff in every 12 hours or the patient would die, bloodless in a cloud of exhaled fluorocarbons. Fluosol was eventually pulled off the market.
That hasn't stopped others from trying. Today around 10 companies are pushing blood substitutes through the FDA approval process.

Elcomsoft Explains The Awful Truth About Adobe's E-Book Encryption. Again.

2002-07-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

From The Shifted Librarian and 24-hour Drive Thru Weblog

Here's the actual email posting from Vladamir Katalov
(http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/281973).

I've created another copy of the email on my own website for safe keeping.

Broadcasters Take A Stand Against CARP!

2002-07-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

Radio stations appeal Internet royalty decision

Radio stations have asked a federal appeals court to rule that they do not have to pay musicians and recording companies when they play music on the Internet because they do not pay royalties for regular, over-the-air broadcasts.

In a motion filed late Monday, a group of radio stations said a federal court in Philadelphia and the U.S. Copyright Office had misinterpreted the law when they said that radio stations had to to pay musicians and recording companies when they "stream" their songs over the Internet.

RIAA Decides To Criminalize Its Best Customers

2002-07-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here's the LawMeme discussion along with a nice synopsis by Lisa M. Bowman for CNET:
File-traders in the crosshairs.

From CNET article:

Jennison thinks the RIAA will target people in their late 20s or early 30s who are making available massive numbers of files that are current and popular. The RIAA may also look for people who could otherwise afford to buy CDs but instead choose to play the free-swapping game, she speculated.

Others suggest that the industry would pursue, as University of Wisconsin's Vaidhyanathan called them, "hacker types," or people who look like they might spell trouble to mainstream Americans. Already, similar tactics have been put in play by the movie industry, which successfully convinced several judges that the operators of hacker publication 2600 aided copyright infringement by providing links to code that could be used to crack copyright protections on DVDs.

The record industry also could lean on law enforcement to do its dirty work for it, said P.J. McNealy, a research director at Gartner. "One of the problems with file-sharing right now is consumers aren't afraid of police knocking in doors and seizing computers," he said. However, criminal copyright charges, which usually must involve monetary losses or an intent to make money, often are hard to prove in cases involving individuals.

Rockin' Chair Planet

2002-07-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

So I know what you're thinking: "Well Lisa, are you going to spend all of your blogging time on shameless self promotion, complaining about the Shrub and whining about the rapid demise of our constitutional freedoms?" (Blah, blah, blah blah-blah blah.)

Well I suppose I could lighten up long enough to watch a nice Shockwave Animation from my friend John Gentry that really helps put it all into perspective:
Rockin' Chair Planet.

Ray-zing Arizona

2002-07-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Tuscon, Arizona -- my first time to the anywhere in the "Southwest." (Not counting Las Vegas -- although one thing that both cities have in common is that I'd last about 10 minutes in the outside heat in July :-)

Anyway, my friend put the car top down on the way back to the airport this morning (4:30 am) -- and I had a chance to see what a totally beautiful place it can be at night! It's pretty in the daytime too, but you can't tell, really, because you're either inside breathing cool air or outside trying to make it to your car, or to a pool or lake or some other kind of water source -- which makes everything OK again untill you get out of the water.

What if you don't have air conditioning or a water source? Wow. I'm pretty sure I'd be dead before long.

I hear you can go outside in the Winter, though.

(Later that morning...)

Of Interest: the Tuscon and LAX airports still don't have wireless networks. Bummer. Get with the program guys.

Sony's New Alienated Bookshelf Stereo CD Ripper System (sans Internet Connectivity or Digital Output)

2002-07-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

Sony has announced a CMT-L7HD bookshelf stereo system that automatically copies the CDs you play on to a hard drive for future plays (you can also RIP them faster than playing speed in a handy "silent mode".) You can also program ahead of time to record your favorite radio programs on to the device's hard drive (not your computer's hard drive) -- just like a Tivo for broadcast radio (not webcasts).

Great idea, great product: once it has a digital output jack and wireless connection.

I certainly hope that this device's lack of a digital output bus and Internet connectivity don't count as copy protection mechanisms. Seems like there could be a big market for third parties to develop peripherals for these puppies. (Or perhaps that's what Sony plans to do itself?)

See the NY Times article by David Pogue:
A Stereo That's Small and Digital

Sony's latest gamble is a case in point: a bookshelf stereo system called the CMT-L7HD. (All right, so Sony ran out of ideas when it came time to name this thing.) Its ingenious mission is to bring the convenience of digital music files to an everyday bookshelf system ˜ without requiring a computer.
Every time you play a CD, the machine automatically copies its tracks onto its built-in 20-gigabyte hard drive. (If time is of the essence, you can also dump an entire CD to the hard drive in 20 minutes using a silent copying mode.) Thereafter, you can play back those songs without having to insert the original CD. The hard drive holds 300 CD's worth of music, turning this handsome unit into a self-contained jukebox...

The unit's ability to save audio onto its hard drive is not limited to CD's, either. It can just as easily store the music on your tapes or even vinyl records, thanks to the analog and digital audio inputs on the back, or even from the built-in radio. (The L7HD stores audio in Sony's own Atrac3 format rather than the more common MP3 format. But since you can copy music only onto the hard drive, never off it, the storage format makes no practical difference.)

Even M-crew, however, doesn't let you copy MP3 files from your PC to the L7HD ˜ no surprise, really, when you consider that Sony is also a record company with a vested interest in stifling the casual trading of MP3 music. (The only way to transfer MP3 files is to play them on your PC, in real time, as the L7HD records them.) But that's O.K. The very act of connecting the L7HD to a PC somehow violates the purity of this stereo's conception as a self-contained, PC-free jukebox.

The Boss Implements Effective Copy Protections

2002-07-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

Springsteen Protects His New CD's Online in an Old-Fashioned Way
by Chris Nelson for the NY Times.

Broadband Wi-Fi On the Way

2002-07-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

See the Redherring Story by Mark Mowrey:
Coming soon to your cable box Providers are bringing wireless connectivity to your set-top

Cable providers are upping the ante in the competition for broadband subscribers. By combining cable TV, broadband service, and wireless connectivity in one set-top box, cable companies could soon offer consumers value that DSL firms won't be able to match.

The Shrub Attempts to TIPS the Scales of Justice Back to 1984

2002-07-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

The Shrub is hoping to have 1 in 24 Americans spying on each others' everyday lives in the name of fighting terrorism.

Why should we all become volunteer spies and hand over what little freedoms we have left by cashing in our friends' and neighbors' rights to privacy? What if there's no TIPS program at all? (But what if there is! -- Aha! Fear! The ultimate controller of the masses rears its ugly head yet again.)

This is most likely just an attempt to fragment the public by making us all paranoid of each other. Don't fall for it friends.

If memory serves me correctly, to date, the Bush Administration hasn't been too great about telling us much of anything.

See the story by Ritt Goldstein for The Sydney Morning Herald:
US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies.

The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.
The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity".

Tracking the Origin and Royalty History of Tetris

2002-07-15T03:47:00.000-07:00

You might enjoy this very interesting account of the History of Tetris.

Unintended Consequences of the DMCA Explained

2002-07-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

The EFF has published a great paper that summarizes the Unintended Consequences of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

It is available as a PDF file or as a Googled HTML document.

Since they were enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), codified in section 1201 of the Copyright Act, have not been used as Congress envisioned. Congress meant to stop copyright pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to copyrighted works, and to ban “black box” devices intended for that purpose.
In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy. As a result, the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to three important public policy priorities:
Section 1201 Chills Free Expression and Scientific Research.
Experience with section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats against Princeton Professor Edward Felten’s team of researchers, and prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have chilled the legitimate activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students, programmers, and members of the public.
Section 1201 Jeopardizes Fair Use.
By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for circumvention, section 1201 grants to copyright owners the power to unilaterally eliminate the public’s fair use rights. Already, the music industry has begun deploying “copy-protected CDs” that promise to curtail consumers’ ability to make legitimate, personal copies of music they have purchased.
Section 1201 Impedes Competition and Innovation.
Rather than focusing on pirates, many copyright owners have chosen to use the DMCA to hinder their legitimate competitors. For example, Sony has invoked section 1201 to protect their monopoly on Playstation video game consoles, as well as their “regionalization” system limiting users in one country from playing games legitimately purchased in another.
This document collects a number of reported cases where the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA have been invoked not against pirates, but against consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. It will be updated from time to time as additional cases come to light.

Yeah Baby! Warchalking in the NY Times!

2002-07-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

In the "pinch me, I must be dreaming" department, Glenn Fleishman has written about Warchalking for the NY Times. (Right on Matt!)

Who Killed Net Radio?

2002-07-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

Newsweek's Steven Levy explains how the CARP rates will probably mean the end of independent webcasting:
Labels to Net Radio: Die Now
You’d think the record companies would love Internet tunes—instead they’re trying to kill them.

The record industry, with the help of Congress and the Copyright Office, may indeed make a shakeout inevitable. But I doubt that Jim Atkinson and his fellow independent Webcasters find the prospect of their extinction terribly desirable. Nor do the 77 million Americans who have at one time tuned in to Web radio and perhaps found something not featured on the lobotomized playlists of broadcast radio. If enough of those outraged listeners stream their objections to legislators, maybe Internet radio can be saved.

New Song: James and Marybeth

2002-07-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've written and recorded a new song asking the Librarian of Congress (James H. Billington) and the Register of Copyrights (Marybeth Peters) to reconsider the recent CARP rulings regarding the rates and terms for webcasters (and to also please protect our rights against the detrimental effects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, since it does not contain adequate fair use provisions).

What does this all mean to the average person? Well, the average person will be greatly affected in the long run in terms of what kind of programming options will be made available in the future.

Less overhead in compulsory licensing fees means that more webcasters can afford to operate, and that means more channels and more selection from a larger, more diverse content base. It seems like this is a very important time in our history to have as many different voices being heard as possible.

All that I'm asking is for James and Marybeth to either reopen the CARP process afresh, or postpone it all together for another few years in order to enable webcasting services to flourish (much in the same way that cable television was allowed to develop in the 1980s).

So so sad when I listen to my radio
So sick and tired of what I'm watching on tv
There's so much more that I could see and learn and know about my future
James and Marybeth, can you help bring this to me?

I just want a chance to try it twice
I just want a chance to roll the dice
I just want a chance to get it right
I just want the right to stay and fight

I just want the right to search and find
I just want the right to my piece of mind
I just want the chance to know what's mine
I just want the chance to know

oh how I hope you're listening
because the clock is ticking

James and Marybeth, can you find a place for me?
James and Marybeth, can you help me to be free?

Can Cheney Count On Americans To Forget?

2002-07-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

A CNN Internet Survey shows that American's are sick of Cheney's double talking bullshit and are generally ready to see the guy fry for his criminal activities -- just like you or I would be punished.

The results from the survey come as no surprise, of course, but let's see if these same Americans can remember not to vote for the guy in 2003. Sheesh! We knew all this stuff about him during the presidential campaign three years ago, and lord knows nobody seemed to care then.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that the lawsuit it brought on behalf of Halliburton shareholders against Vice President Dick Cheney, the other involved directors of Halliburton, as well as Halliburton and the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, for alleged fraudulent accounting practices, enjoys overwhelming public support.

Cheney Exposed - One Word Says It All: Halliburton

2002-07-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well I hope Dick Cheney enjoyed being president for a few hours last week during Bush's colonoscopy, because it might be the last he sees of either presidential office after all of the facts surrounding his stint as Chairman and Chief Executive of Halliburton come to light.

Now Cheney's being accused of defrauding shareholders -- something even rich people don't take too kindly to.

The public is also being reminded of Cheney's strong ties to Arthur Andersen, courtesy of a recent emergence of a promotional video where he personally vouches for Andersen Consulting.

Here are some BBC stories with more details:

Anti-corruption group sues Cheney

Cheney accused of corporate fraud

Accounts probe at Cheney firm

David Reed's Comments to the FCC On Open Spectrum

2002-07-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

David Reed has posted his usual brilliant and thoughtful analysis of Open Spectrum in a single comprehensive and wonderfully-footnoted document for the FCC. Thanks!

Comments for FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force on Spectrum Policy.

Now let's hope somebody over there is paying attention. (Michael? Are you listening?)

I argue in this note that the foundation of a sound economic and regulatory approach to managing radio communications in the US and worldwide cannot and should not ignore fundamental advances in the understanding of communications technology that have been developed in the last few decades. Those advances are just beginning to reach the point where they can be fruitfully applied in the marketplace, at a time when the need for a huge increase in communications traffic is beginning to surge.

It will be crucial for the continued growth and leadership of the US economy, and for its security as well, to embrace these new technologies, and follow them where they lead, in spite of the potential negative impact that these technologies may have on traditional telecommunications business models. There is a “new frontier” being opened up by the interaction of digital communications technology, internetworking architectures, and distributed, inexpensive general purpose computing devices. This new frontier cannot be addressed by a model that awards the telecommunications operators exclusive rights (such as “spectrum property rights”) that can be used to “capture” the value yet to be produced by innovators in underlying technologies[1] or applications.

My argument is based on a simple but crucially important technical fact: the useful economic value in a communications system architecture does not inhere in some abstract “ether” that can be allocated by dividing it into disjoint frequency bands and coverage areas.[2] Instead it is created largely by the system design choices – the choice of data switching architecture, information coding scheme, modulation scheme, antenna placement, etc.
The most important observation about the impact of systems architecture on economic value is this: there exist networked architectures whose utility increases with the density of independent terminals (terminals are end-points, such as cellular telephones, TV sets, wireless mobile PDAs, consumer electronic devices in the home, etc.) Network architectures provide tremendous gain in communications efficiency on a systems basis – I call this cooperation gain, because it arises out of cooperative strategies among the various terminals and other elements in a networked system. (It should be emphasized that cooperation gain is not available to non-networked systems at all). Cooperation gain is discussed below...

[1] New technologies such as spread spectrum, smart antennas, ultrawideband radio, and software-defined radios create more capacity that cannot be known accurately until there has been broad practical experience and an industrial learning curve that reduces their costs. The FCC has consistently tried to base regulation on accurate forward looking prediction of the economic value of new technologies and new services, but those predictions have been consistently wrong. That isn’t surprising given that the value is established decades later.

[2] The confusion that led pre-20th century physicists to postulate a “luminiferous ether” which carried radio and light waves has persisted in the economic approaches that attempt to manage communications capacity as if it were an “ether”. Just as Einstein pointed out, counterintuitively to most, that there need be no “ether” in formulating Relativity Theory, recent results in multiuser information theory show that counter to the intuition of spectrum economists, there is no “information capacity” in spectrum independent of the system using it.

Homer Explains the Benefits of Multi-regional DVDs

2002-07-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

<tangent>Wow. There's a whole generation that is going to be more familar with Homer Simpson than Homer the Bard.</tangent>

See the story by Andrew Orlowski for the London Register:
Fox recommends hacked DVD players for The Simpsons.

Here's the Simpsons UK FAQ excerpt in question:

Q: What does Regional Coding mean? Do I need a Multi-regional player? Homer: "I have no idea whatsoever what regional coding means. But it is essential that you buy a multi-regional player. Do it now. Don't worry, we'll still be waiting here when you get back."

Tracking Eye Movements For Human/Computer Interaction

2002-07-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

Eye tracking devices will soon be helping us to operate and interact with computers and each other.

See the BBC story by Alfred Hermida:
Replace your mouse with your eye.

Community Pho List Gets Intrusive? -- False Alarm.

2002-07-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Jim Griffin, his royal phoness, has assured me that email subscribers are not required to subscribe to the new Pho features to continue receiving the list.

Email from Jim:
Dear Lisa and others:

I did not write the paragraph in question, but I can tell you that the pholist website is an additional offering, not mandatory for phosters.

There will continue to be a pho list, just as there is now, and if you do nothing you will continue to be subscribed to it. I highly recommend the pholist web site -- JP's building it to supplement and enrich the Pho experience, and like any summer shakedown cruise it's likely to have its moments, like these, but stick with it and give it a chance.

The pho list will continue as is and there is no requirement with which I am familiar that requires any current pho list participant to register with the web site. Over time it may well prove a good interface to which we can migrate, but I can't imagine ridding the list of people who choose otherwise. My servers at onehouse.com will continue to operate this list as always, and John's web site as I understand it seeks to offer a more enriching community experience, which I support wholeheartedly.

Jim

I'm totally bummed. My favorite mailing list now has a terms of agreement and wants me to login and accept a bunch of cookies just to continue participating on the email list. Why does everything simple and useful have to get complicated and intrusive once it gets popular. It just doesn't seem fair. (John Parres, pho list admin, clarified a few points later: "Some of you are going to have fun with the legal page. I bet I can predict who you will be. Nothing is set in stone. The language has yet to be 'pholosophised.' I am not a lawyer. If some of the eagles want to help tighten/clarify things I will be most appreciative for the assistance. Please know that Jim and I have the utmost respect for your privacy and are making best efforts to ensure that this always remains true.")

To learn more about the new Pholist features, check out a text file of E-mail sent out to phosters this morning.

Excerpt from above email that started all of this (that Griffin refers to above.):
No one is required to list any information on the site, however, everyone is required to activate their account as a condition of remaining on the Pho list. Yes, the site utilizes cookies so this function must be enabled in your browser for the site to work for you. Please don't complain, that's just the way it is.

My Blog Is One Year Old!

2002-07-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the Radar!

(You may now go back to your normally scheduled activities.)

Partisan Gridlock All Over Again

2002-07-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

Looks like it's the same old story on Capitol Hill this year: nobody wants the other side to get credit for doing anything before this fall's elections. The answer: do nothing at all.

Sure this might stop a lot of the stupid legislation we've been watching getting thrown around this year from being passed anytime soon, but it's going to stop anything useful from being done either. Bummer.

Read Declan McCullagh's piece for CNET (he left Wired News!) that explains the situation and also provides a nice breakdown of the various dopey tech bills and the one piece of legislation that is most likely to pass -- Homeland Security:
Much ado about nothing.

Mozilla Coverage in CNN

2002-07-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

Wow this is great to see Mozilla covered on CNN. Good luck guys!

(Be sure to view this article in Mozilla so you can turn off the pop-up ads!)

Antarctic melting even faster than previously thought

2002-07-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

See the story by Alex Kirby for the BBC:
Antarctic ice fringe 'melting faster'.

More On Clear Channel

2002-07-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

I found a gold mine of articles by Eric Boehlert for Salon about Clear Channel's Radio Monopoly:
Radio's big bully.

Highlights include: background on how Clear Channel and how it managed to quietly take over radio (the company owns nearly 1,200 radio stations and effectively controls the rock radio market and also owns SFX Entertainment, the nation's dominant concert-venue owner and touring promoter), the corporation's evolution under the aegis of Randy Michaels, the "new payola" (the complex arrangements under which the world's major record companies pay for virtually every rock song broadcast on commercial radio) and links to the Clear Channel Web site so you can locate the affiliates nearest you (there are probably a ton of them right in your town!).

Foxy Spider

2002-07-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

Is it me? Or is this the cutest spider that ever lived smiling for the camera?

'Spider-man' unearths rare species.

Is Clear Channel's PD Perceptual Rigged?

2002-07-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

Clear Channel is being accused of promoting an artist it was only supposed to be tracking in an effort to reward trial users of its new PD Perceptual Service.

This story makes it seem like the "little guy" got a break this time around for a change. Weird.

The title is especially ironic -- everyone knows that Clear Channel sells hit singles. The point is that they actually gave away some airplay without charging (allegedly in an attempt to promote another of their other services) -- and now the company is being interrogated for it.

Could it be possible that Clear Channel reps might have happened to mention that Eagle-eye Cherry was one of the few acts that was trying out its new PD Perceptual Service, and that, when it came time for the Music Director to pick a token no-name act to add to the playlist, Eagle-eye Cherry came to mind? Could Eagle-eye Cherry just be a nice guy that everyone likes to promote, perhaps? Or is Eagle-eye Cherry so bad that his getting so much airplay immediately calls the ethics of the entire Clear Channel organization into question?

See the Salon story by Eric Boehlert:
Is Clear Channel selling hit singles?.

Seth Godin Tells It Like It Is

2002-07-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Fast Company Contributing Editor Seth Godin has written a Memo to Media Monopolists that might actually help save them from themselves if they can pay attention long enough to follow its thoughtful and simple advice. He's just trying to help you out, man. Check out:
Memo to: Media Monopolists.

Why can't Nike charge $500 for sneakers? Because there are easy substitutes. In almost every industry, consumers have countless choices. And unless a product is truly unique, they can take their money elsewhere.
The media business has always been different. At its heart, the media business is actually about the prospect of being a monopolist -- and about getting paid a lot more than your products cost to make. A few years ago, if a couch potato ( God love 'em ) wanted to watch TV, there were only three channels he could choose from. If a moviegoer wanted to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there was only the William Goldman version, and she had to buy a ticket to see it.
The point is this: The media business was built on scarcity. Scarcity of spectrum. Scarcity of hits. Scarcity caused by copyright and limited shelf space. Consumers hate scarcity. But you and I know that monopolists love scarcity. When consumers have fewer choices, a monopoly thrives.
Scarcity made it easy to get fat and happy. But almost overnight, the scarcity on which you built your media monopolies started to disappear. All of a sudden, there are about a billion channels available on the Web. There's a movie theater in any home with a DVD player. Amazon.com has infinite shelf space, so retail market power is now a myth. It's hard to charge take-it-or-leave-it prices when the consumer can just leave it...

...Here's the problem: You monopolists appear to believe that you have a right to business as usual. You believe that if the rules of the marketplace change, it's not fair. You believe that you somehow deserve the private planes, the great parties, and the obscene profits. You also seem to think that if your monopoly were to go away, so would all of the good ideas.

The truth is, the supply is in terrific shape, thanks. In fact, there's never been more to choose from. The only thing that would go away would be your profits. Ouch...

...Senator Fritz Hollings, warrior on your behalf, feels your pain. He views the technology companies and their customers as not much more than thieves. Apple makes money from the iPod -- on the backs of the artists who aren't getting compensated every time we listen. Steve Jobs must be torn. On one hand, he makes iPods. On the other, he makes Monsters, Inc.
Think about that for a second. Steve Jobs has two jobs, and one of them could bankrupt the other ( if your rhetoric is to be believed ). He's not dumb. He gets it...

...One last thing: I'm not saying that I want the markets to be the way they are. I'm not saying that pirating is right. But I am saying that it exists and that it's going to become more widespread. So here are your basic choices: You can whine, lobby, sue, and then cripple your product so that it can't be copied. Or, maybe, just maybe, you can stop thinking like a monopolist long enough to find new business models, new markets, and new strategic plans.
You're not going out of business tomorrow. The structures that you have built and perfected are going to stick around for a long time. But it's not going to get better, more profitable, or more fun. It's only going to get worse.
Bill Gates has a backup plan, guys. What's yours?

The Infeasibility of Time Travel: One More Time!

2002-07-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

In honor of the Dreamworks rendition of The Time Machine opening this month, Popular Science has taken an updated look at the feasibility (or lack thereof) of Time Travel.

Viewers Unite: It's Time To Renegotiate Our Contracts

2002-07-05T01:04:00.000-07:00

Henry Jenkins takes a deeper look for the MIT Technology Review into the implications of viewers' "contracts" with programmers to watch advertising as part of the deal:
Treating Viewers As Criminals.

...I stumbled across the recent comments of Turner Broadcasting System CEO Jaimie Kellner, who asserted that television viewers who skipped commercials using their digital video recorders were guilty of "stealing" broadcast content. Kellner told an industry trade press reporter that "Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots." He conceded that there may be a historic loophole allowing us to take short breaks to go to the bathroom but otherwise, we are expected to be at our post, doing our duties, watching every commercial, and presumably, though he never said it, buying every product.
Kellner's intemperate rhetoric is, alas, characteristic of the ways that the media industry increasingly thinks about, talks about, and addresses its consumers in the post-Napster era. Napster may—and I stress, may—have been legitimately labeled piracy, but now all forms of consumerism are being criminalized with ever-decreasing degrees of credibility. Once going to the bathroom or grabbing a snack on a commercial break gets treated as a form of theft, the media conglomerates are going to be hard pressed to get consumer compliance with their expectations, making it impossible to draw legitimate lines about what is and is not appropriate use of media content.
Name-calling is the last resort of once powerful institutions that are finding themselves losing control in the face of rapid media change. Never mind that the same media giants are often the manufactures of the new media technologies we are using to skip their commercials or that some of the advertisements they want us to watch are marketing us features which allow us to skip advertisements. Never mind that we now have many more media options and we need the networks frankly far less than the networks need us.
I don't know about you but I want to renegotiate my contract! There has been a significant increase in the number of commercials per hour since I first started watching network programming. Consequently, my workload has doubled or tripled, while my compensation—the programming—has gone down in quantity, if not in quality. One wonders whether it isn't time for television viewers to form a union, demand that people like Kellner sit down at the negotiating table, and cut a better deal with us, if they continue to expect viewer loyalty. And given research linking extensive television viewing with obesity, perhaps we might have some way of holding the networks accountable for their workplace safety violations as well, before some of us start to spontaneously explode.

Fun With Mozilla "Groups"

2002-07-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

Have you downloaded Mozilla yet? Do yourself a favor and give it a try today!

One of the features I love about Mozilla 1.0 is the tabbed windows. You can also create "groups" of bookmarks, so you can open all your working windows easily everytime you relaunch the application.

Here's an example groups file to get you started if you'd like to try this out.

After replacing the site names and urls in the example file, select "Manage Bookmarks" from the "Bookmarks" menu bar up top. Once in the Bookmark window, select "Tools" and then "Import" to have your groups added to the Bookmark menus.

You also might want to engage the "View" - "Show/Hide" "Sidebar" feature, so that you can look at your bookmark groups and open and close the little expanding windows.

George Michael Speaks Out

2002-07-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

This time around, George Michael is making a statement about hypocrisy in government instead of corruption in the music industry. (You know, that stuff everyone laughed at him for whining about years ago that every artist-type person in the industry now finds themselves currently obsessed with...)

See the Times of India story by Rashmee Z. Ahmed:
George Michael song satirizes Bush, Blair.

Tivo + CSPAN = Heaven

2002-07-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

I just discovered an excellent new use for my Tivo - recording CSPAN clips! (No running around to stick in a video tape - hoping I'm not taping over anything else, etc.)

Why Media Consolidation Hurts The Public

2002-06-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to find the words to express exactly why I feel that media consolidation is such a bad thing.

Then I found this elegant Businessweek Online commentary by Catherine Yang, Tom Lowry and Ronald Gover that explains it pretty well:
Commentary: Media Mergers: The Danger Remains
Despite 100 channels and the Web, softer ownership rules will put the major outlets in Big Media's hands .

Meanwhile, media consolidation is well under way, even without massive deregulation: In 2001, 311 deals valued at $113 billion were announced, the highest amount for any industry. Scale is the name of the game. Already, the big three networks are aligned with conglomerates led by Disney, Viacom, and General Electric.
The AOL Time Warner (AOL ) merger only raised the stakes for bigness. If the FCC's rules evaporate altogether, "we would be trading some greater profitability...in return for undercutting the very pillars of separate media ownership that our democracy is built on," says Gene Kimmelman, co-director of Consumers Union.
It's up to regulators to decide whether more consolidation will hurt the range of viewpoints available to the public. But they need to tread carefully. Once gone, an independent press and media won't be easily recreated.

The Public Has Spoken -- Does Anyone Care?

2002-06-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

The public at large would prefer to have a large number of diverse stations over huge conglomerates that play the same crap over and over again.

The survey, conducted by the Future of Music Coalition, is part of a larger research study on the effects of radio consolidation on musicians and the public that is being conducted in partnership with the Media Access Project and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Consolidation of radio station ownership is not popular. Eight of ten favor congressional action to protect or expand the number of independently owned local stations By a better than ten to one ratio - 76 percent to 7 percent - radio listeners believe that DJs should be given more air time for songs they think will be of interest to their audiences rather than be required to mostly play songs of artists backed by recording companies.
If it can be substantiated that radio stations are paid to give air time preference to the music artists supported by record companies, the public approves by a 68 to 24 percent ratio for Congress to consider passing laws to ensure that all artists have a more reasonable chance of having their songs heard.
Half of the respondents - 52 percent - say radio would be more appealing to them if it offered more new music, less repetition and more music of local bands and artists.
By a ratio of six to one, radio listeners prefer a long, rather than a short, playlist that provides them a greater variety of songs and less repetition during the week Seventy-five percent would like to see low power FM stations (LPFM) expanded in their communities, especially if they offer (a) the music of local bands and artists, (b) talk shows on issues of local interest, and on local issues and (c) health, science or fitness programming. Additionally, 74 percent favor legislation to expand the number of LPFM stations in the United States.
The public opinion research firm Behavior Research Center conducted the survey from May 13-20, 2002 via 500 in-depth telephone interviews on a random sample of adults throughout the United States.

Control vs. Freedom

2002-06-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Rowe has written a great commentary for the Christian Science Monitor:
Tollbooths of the mind.

Share money and you have less; share an idea and you still have it, and more. Jefferson practiced what he preached, in this respect at least. As the nation's first commissioner of patents, Jefferson did not grant these monopolies easily or eagerly. He accepted the need for copyrights and patents, but strictly limited in extent and time.
The aim always was to enrich the public domain – the commons of the mind – not to line the pockets of a privileged class of monopolists of ideas. Jefferson actually refused to patent his many inventions, because he believed invention to be the property of humankind.
This vision prevailed in America for two centuries, more or less. The result was more enterprise, research, and invention than the world had ever seen. The nation had its share of patent hounds, Thomas Edison not least of them. But in the realm of science, the Jeffersonian ethos prevailed. Jonas Salk, who discovered the first polio vaccine, once was asked who would own the new drug. "There is no patent," Salk replied. "Could you patent the sun?"
Today, that question would not be rhetorical. Fences and tollgates are rising rapidly on Jefferson's commons of the mind. Copyright and patent monopolies have gone far beyond what he and other Founders intended. Corporations now are claiming ownership of everything under the sun, if not the sun itself: body parts, business practices, the genetic code. They even are claiming ownership of the English language. McDonald's has asserted trademark claims to 131 common words and phrases, such as "Always Fun" and "Made For You."

The Economist On Wireless

2002-06-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

The Economist has a new article on "emerging wireless" technologies (smart antennas, mesh networks, ad hoc architectures, and ultra-wideband transmission):
Watch this airspace.

The Skinny On The Spider Goat

2002-06-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Although I just heard about the Spider Goat story yesterday for the first time, it turns out that Forbes had written a full story on it over a year ago. ABC News also covered the story in detail a while back.

(And here's the poop straight from the source at Nexia Biotech.)

Here's the Forbes story by Christopher Helman:
Charlotte's Goat.

Nexia is tackling a materials-science conundrum that has stumped even DuPont for 20 years: how to synthesize spider silk. Milking the spiders themselves is out of the question—they're cannibals. "Put a bunch of them together and soon you end up with one big, fat, happy spider. It's like trying to farm tigers," says Turner.
By injecting the orb weaver gene into the father of Mille and Muscade, Nexia bred she-goats whose mammary glands are able to produce the complex proteins that make up spider silk. Their milk looks and tastes like the real thing, but once its proteins are filtered and purified into a fine white powder, they can be spun into tough thread.

Here's the ABC.com story:
Here Comes Spider-Goat?: Genetically Altered Goats May Lead to Strong Silk-like Threads.

Ounce for ounce, spider silk is five times stronger than steel and about three times tougher than man-made fibers such as Kevlar. And that makes the material ideal for all sorts of interesting uses — from better, lighter bulletproof vests to safer suspension bridges.
But "harvesting" spider silk hasn't been easy. Unlike silkworms, spiders aren't easy to domesticate. "Spiders are territorial carnivores, they eat each other if placed in contact of in close proximity," says Jeffrey Turner, president and CEO of Nexia Biotechnoloies, Inc. "It's like trying to farm tigers."
Now, researchers at the Quebec-based Nexia along with scientists at the U.S. Army's Soldier Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM) in Natick, Mass., say they may have figured a way out of the sticky situation.

CARP Update

2002-06-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a summary of the Librarian's determination and the full text of the regulations adopted by the Librarian (http://www.copyright.gov/carp/webcasting_rates_final.html).

To subscribe to the U.S. Copyright Offices Newsletter, fill out the form at:
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/newsnet/subchange.html.

The Register's recommendation and the Librarian's order will be available to the public next week.
**********************************************************
* CALENDAR *
July 1: Expected effective date of Copyright Office fee changes (67 FR 38003)

July 1: Beginning of 60-day period when, in the absence of a license agreement, a party with a significant interest in establishing reasonable terms and rates for certain statutory licenses may file a petition to initiate a rate setting proceeding (67 FR 4472)
October 7: Initiation date should arbitration proceedings be necessary in adjustment of rates and terms for noncommercial educational broadcasting compulsory license

Writers With Drinks Rocks

2002-06-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

I met a bunch of cool comics, poets and writers last weekend at Charles Ander's Writers With Drinks spoken word variety show at San Francisco's Cafe Du Nord.

Heather Gold gave an awesome and spontaneous stand-up performance with lots of uncomfortable political material I don't even feel comfortable repeating in print :-)

Analee Newitz had some insightful thoughts on the rather fundamental differences between stem cell cloning and human cloning.

I also bought books by performers Daphne Gottlieb (Why Things Burn) and Lynn Breedlove (Godspeed).

Textploitation.com and SMS

2002-06-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

Ran into a cool site, Textploitation (while looking for http://www.techsploitation.com).Textploitation has some kind of government money for an SMS project. Those interested in such things might want to check it out.

Letter From James Newton About the Decision on Beastie Boys Sampling of His Tunes

2002-06-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here's an article for more backround about this situation, of which I just heard of today for the first time, and am not claiming to know anything about.

Nevertheless, I found the letter below (that was forwarded to me on a mailing list) pretty interesting:

To whom it may concern,
It seems like a real "Weird Nightmare" to be writing you this email. For the last two years I have been involved in a suit because the Beastie Boys sampled a part of my composition "Choir" and did not contact me for permission. They did not change in any way what they sampled from "Choir". It begins with the sampled six and a half seconds and loops in the song over forty times. "Pass the Mic'" has appeared in CD, MP3, LP, and DVD formats.
The law clearly states that to use someone else's music one must contact and receive permission from both the record company and the copyright owner. "Choir" was registered with the copyright office and ASCAP in 1978. My publishing company JANEW MUSIC controls 100% of the rights. Nevertheless the Beastie Boys only contacted and received permission from ECM Records and ignored me.
The case went up for summary judgement one month ago and Judge Nora Manella of US Federal Court ruled against me!!!!!!!!!!! She stated as a fact of law that my music was unoriginal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The liner notes of Axum begins with a quote from the New York Times that "James Newton is the most accomplished and original flutist now playing Jazz".The year that Axum was released (1982) was also the first year that I won the Down Beat International Critics Poll as the best jazz flutist. The judge must feel that her opinion is more significant than all of the experts in the field.
The six and a half second sample consists of three sung notes C,Db ,C and a held flute harmonic C2, as a result of the combination of voice, harmonic and a balanced distribution of each a series of shifting multiphonics are created. She ignored the multiphonics because they weren't written on the score and said that there are just three notes in the score which aren't protectable. If you go to the Beastie Boy's DVD of the piece "Pass the Mic" to signify the song their is only my flute sample and a drum beat . There is a spectrograph that moves wildly when my multiphonics are played. If there was only one pitch the movement would be minimal. She also consistently used European paradigms to judge my music. An aria from Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" and Cole Porter's "Night and Day" were examples of what is protectable. "Choir" is about four black women singing in a church in rural Arkansas. This work is a modern approach to a spiritual. As you well know, one would be hard-pressed to find multiphonic fingerings in most jazz scores, even when multiphonics are used!!!! If I'm writing for a classical ensemble I'll write out the multiphonic fingerings because of how notation is used in that culture of music.
Spirituals come out of the oral tradition, and if they are notated they're in the most simplest form which is the way that I wrote out "Choir" On the same LP one can find "The Neser" which is influenced by Ravel and is a 8-minute work for flute quartet where everything is written out except a short alto flute cadenza. I certainly didn't become dumb when I dealt with my own culture in "Choir." The urgency of this letter is that after unjustly winning the case the Beastie Boys have filed a motion with the court for me to pay their legal fees of $492,000 after they stole my music. I have already spent a considerable amount of money for a creative musician and college professor. This would, of course, send me into bankrupcy, and I stand a chance of losing my home and all that I have worked for through the years. If you can spread the press release around to your colleagues in the European press, it will help the cause greatly. The more newspapers, magazines and journals that this is placed in will help. Please inform us of any press that appears so that we can use it in our legal endeavors. Also any of you that are heads of organizations or lawyers please contact my lawyer, Alan Korn (aakorn@igc.org), and he can give you the information of where to send Amicus letters.
This decision is a dangerous one that would affect jazz composers and other composers that choose to write in other ways. I have had plenty of training to write all of my scores in the most eurocentric Boulezian fashion but why should I be forced to to please a Judge who has very limited musical knowledge, certainly little of the Afro-American musical tradition. The strain on this trial and subsequent rulings have been immense. It has curtailed much of my artistic output because of the seriousness of this situation. For many years I have tried to give much as an artist and educator to the world community. This is a time when I have to now ask for your help. I have never sued anyone in all of my years on the planet up to this point. I am fighting for my rights and the abilty to express myself in my own and any other cultural perspective that I choose as an artist. Please spread this around as much as possible.
Yours in music and freedom,
James Newton

Backlogged Bad Puns Over Dinner

2002-06-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

During our celebratory Creative Commons dinner a few weeks back, Cory and Aaron were arguing about the randomness of numbers that come after the first billion numbers after the decimal in pi (3.14nextbillionnumbershere...then what dammit?) (Specifically, they were arguing about whether the distribution of digits in a non-repeating number is also Gaussian -- the answer is no, because of distributions such as 1001110011001010 -- Aaron won :-)

At one point, Matthew Haughey commented: "Oh my god, they're arguing over pi over dessert."

One Small Step Closer To Teleportation? Maybe?

2002-06-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

I still don't really understand it completely, but something pretty cool happened over in Australia with regard to the hypothetical possibility of being able to someday transport matter instantaneously.

See the New Scientist article by :
Quantum Teleportation Technique Improved.

Great CARP Factsheet on Future of Music Coalition Website

2002-06-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

I just came a cross an unusually understandable CARP Fact Sheet over on the Future of Music Coalition website.

Hey Kids, It's Fun to Spy on Your Friends with Spy Ear

2002-06-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

I am speechless. Just watch the cartoon.

The bad news is: this isn't a joke. It's a real product. (And it looks damn affordable.)

Salon won't fix a glaring error in one of its premium features

2002-06-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

Marc Perkel was interviewed by Jennifer Liberto and asked if he knew about Media Whores Online, to which he explained he didn't. She then proceeded to print an article saying the project got started with some funding from him -- and now Salon won't amend it or pull the piece.

Here is the exact language in question:

As best can be determined, Media Whores Online originated in Tulsa, Okla., in 1996 when a self-proclaimed "ADD Catholic with an IQ of 64" began an irreverent left-leaning e-mail listserv called RL-LNW, short for "Rush Limba -- Lying Nazi Whore." Shy yet passionate, its low-profile editor, Terry Coppage, took on right-wing agendas with cutting and often crude humor. He received some financial help from Marc Perkel, an eccentric computer programmer who ran against incumbent John Ashcroft in the 2000 Missouri Republican Senate primary, garnering 10 percent of the vote with almost no campaigning. Soon Coppage began publishing his commentaries on a Web site called Bartcop, and adopted the moniker "Bart."

Since the HTML version of the article in question cannot be accessed by the public at large, I've also created a plain text version for everyone's convenience.

Here's the actual Letter To Salon from Marc Perkel, but he also explained some of the details to me in an email:

I talked to her as she researched the article. She came across as if she were doing a pro-media whores article and asked questions relating to how sites like mediawhoresonline.com were a reaction to the failures of traditional news media.
In our discussion she asked who was behind the site and I made it clear that I had no idea - which is true. We talked about Bartcop.com - a site that I am behind and founded - with a guy in Tulsa OK in 1996 and I talked about why I was doing that.
I do think Bartcop did coin the term "Media Whore" so there was enough of a connection for this writer to deliberately confuse the facts. I think that mediawhoresonline was a bartcop inspired publication as are many sites on the web.
As best I can tell - this all started with people on CNN crossfire started arguing about who is behind MWO and made it out to be some sort of mystery or secret. This reporter who wrote the Salon piece did it from the perspective of smearing the left and to out the secret author of MWO. Having failed to get the facts as to who MWO is - she decided to out me and Terry as MWO.
Bartcop has dedicated an issue to her with links to many other sites that reacted to Salon's story and Salon's refusal to pull the story after Salon realized it was a false piece.

Two More Days Till CARP Decision

2002-06-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a Christian Science Monitor piece by James Turner on the countdown to James H. Billington's pending decision on the CARP webcasting rates:
Why Internet radio may fade.

The Librarian of Congress is usually not considered a magnet for controversy.

But on June 20th, the eyes of Internet broadcasters and music industry insiders will focus on James H. Billington as he decides what royalties Internet radio stations will pay to record labels.

Depending on how the rates are set, some insiders believe the announcement could put some Web broadcasters out of business.
The issue of Internet-radio royalties was first raised when Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998. This law, intended to strengthen the copyright protections of digital media such as software and CDs, also required the recording industry to negotiate with Internet broadcasters to determine how much artists should be paid when their music is played on an Internet radio station.
The sides failed to reach an agreement, so Congress directed Mr. Billington to form a panel to set the rates.

Henley Rags On Courtney

2002-06-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

From the "and you smell bad too" department, we have Don Henley mincing no words whatsoever regarding his opinion of Ms. Love.

Check out the Vancouver Sun story by Kerry Gold:
Eagles still test the limits .

As for Courtney Love, who's also waging battle with the recording industry for the same reasons, Henley is quick to separate himself from the loud-mouthed grunge rocker turned Hollywood actor.

"She's not a part of our group, nor do we want her to be, because she's a pain in the ass, and she's a loose cannon. She's her own worst enemy."

But Henley's not finished.
"She's an asshole, okay? I can't say it any plainer than that. She is a huge asshole. She's bright but she's wasting it, because she's so interested in being a personality that that is all she can think about.

"God knows we have enough image problems to overcome as it is. Artists are known for being flakey, and mindless and self absorbed... and Courtney doesn't help us in that arena."

Mozilla's lack of default Formatting for XML docs Still Sucks

2002-06-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

Well I just found the first thing out that sucks about Mozilla 1.0: it still has no default CSS or XSLT stylesheet when none is specified so you can view and parse, view and debug XML fragments easily.

It just means that Internet Explorer is stilll my XML Development browser of choice, for now.

There's supposed to be some way to configure client side stylesheets, so I'll try to go find that feature...I guess (shrug).

Distributed Chess, Anyone? Non-commercial Distributed Computing Platform, Anyone?

2002-06-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

The ChessBrain Project (which "seeks to create a massive chess playing computer by utilizing the idle processing power of networked machines") and the The Distributed Chess Project ("Creating Chess Playing Artificial Neural Networks with Distributed Evolutionary Algorithms") are working towards creating non-commercial distributed computing platforms.

Dixie Chicks and Sony Kiss and Make Up

2002-06-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

All's well that ends well, I suppose. The Dixie Chicks were basically demanding more cash and it looks like they got it. Good for them.

See the L.A. Times article by Chuck Philips:
Dixie Chicks, Sony End Feud With a New Deal.

Rebecca Blood's Blogging Book Out Soon!

2002-06-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

I ran into Bloggess Rebecca Blood at the Mozilla party Wednesday night.

I'm really looking forward to reading her new book:
The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog.

New Great Features In Mozilla 1.0

2002-06-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

After going to last week's Mozilla party, I figured I'd download it and give it a try.

A friend pointed some cool features out to me (See linked graphics below for instructions on configuring these):

You can select which search engine is used within the address bar.
You can configure it to turn off images (ads) from a particular server.
You can configure it to not respect JavaScript pop-up ad windows.

A Touching Moment At the Inappropriate Technologies Conference

2002-06-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

Sounds like last week's MUTE/N2K Festival of Inappropriate Technology was a real blast!

Luckily, I was able to relive some of the magic first-hand, as Cory Doctorow sang along with a lovely MIDI rendition of "Warez Dood" (sung to the tune of "Hey Jude") and explained to me, with a tear in his eye, how the crowd had all stood up and sang together at the end.

Britney Steals Two For One

2002-06-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

The funniest thing about this Billboard article is that the team accusing her of stealing a single song is claiming she created two different songs from it (on the same album even!)

Two musicians have filed a lawsuit against Britney Spears, claiming that a couple of songs on her multiplatinum second Jive album, "Oops! ... I Did It Again," were based on a tune they wrote. Philadelphia songwriters Michael Cottrill and Lawrence Wnukowski claim in the lawsuit that they authored, recorded, and copyrighted a song called "What You See Is What You Get" in late 1999 and submitted it to one of Spears' representatives for consideration on a future album.

Kung Fu Grippe Reviews Monsturd

2002-06-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah so my little part and theme song for Monsturd went over pretty well over the weekend. Merlin Mann wrote up a nice review.

I think half the thrill on Friday night was having so many friends in the audience laughing at every little thing. But it was a different kind of thrill on Sunday afternoon hearing complete strangers laugh at all the same jokes -- in just the right places. Many of them stayed after just to laugh at the credits and the theme song.

My buddies Rick Popko and Dan West really pulled this one off!

I'll have my own little Monsturd web site up soon, with stills from my scenes and stuff. Stay tuned.

Monsturd Premiere at the Victoria Theatre Tonight!

2002-06-07T08:42:00.000-07:00

Come see me in my acting debut!

Monsturd premiere's tonight at 8pm at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. I play the wife of the first victim and sing the Theme Song:
Number Two: The Ballad of the Monsturd.

So far it's gotten some great reviews! Here's one from SF Examiner.

The Buck Stops With Craig Newmark: "Hollywood, Enough Is Enough"

2002-06-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

Check out:
http://www.craigslist.org/craig.vs.hollywood.html.

Craig Newmark, a ReplayTV user (aided by the EFF) is suing Turner Broadcasting (among others) and seeking a declarative judgement asserting his right to space- and time-shift TV programming -- and to skip commercials while doing it -- using a PVR.

Right on dude! You big sweetie! Stand up for our right to watch shows later and go to the bathroom during commercials! (Has it really come to this?)

Craig vs Hollywood
Thursday, June 6, 2002

Hey, folks, you know that craigslist has a strong commitment to political issues that affect the online community, like privacy and free speech. We figure we should focus on what we know something about, and otherwise, provide you a platform for whatever you want to discuss.
The major Hollywood companies could be embracing new technologies, serving their customers better and making more money, for themselves, and for artists. A lot of people in Hollywood know this.
However, a lot of folks in entertainment seem to be panicking, taking bad advice and trying to get anti-consumer laws passed, to restrict personal freedoms, like what you do when you buy something like a CD or DVD, or record a TV program.
To help everyone out, Craig is suing Hollywood, with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is a major pioneer in the fight for online rights.
To oversimplify, the Hollywood lawyers are telling us that when we view TV, skipping commercials is a copyright violation... and it gets worse from there.
Craig and others are telling them that this ain't okay.
Craig is not representing craigslist in this regard, but we figure you should know about this.

(For that matter, he can even help people figure out good ways to prevent actual piracy, which could help out artists and the named companies.)

The idea is that Hollywood and also the tech industry are really well-represented, but no one stands up for ordinary citizens and consumers. (No one really stands up for the artists, and the industry is encouraging piracy by its current actions, but that's another fight.)
Hey, whenever you can, please help us out: support our legal challenge in whatever way you can, stay informed, and tell people in your company and even Congress that you're concerned about this. I'd appreciate it if you were to join EFF or any group concerned with your online rights.
More info is available on the EFF site here.

thanks!

Craig

Dee Dee Ramone is Dead

2002-06-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

This saddens me greatly.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dee Dee Ramone
dead at 50
LOS ANGELES, June 6 ˜ Dee Dee Ramone, a founding member of the pioneer punk band the Ramones, was found dead of a possible drug overdose in his Hollywood home, the coroner‚s office said Thursday. He was 50.
RAMONE, whose real name was Douglas Glenn Colvin, was found dead on the couch by his wife when she returned home at 8:25 p.m. Wednesday, said Craig Harvey, operations chief for the coroner‚s office. Paramedics were called and he was declared dead at 8:40 p.m. „The investigator noted drug paraphernalia, including a single syringe on the kitchen counter, and we are handing it as a possible accidental overdose, Harvey said. An autopsy was planned later Thursday.
The death comes 11 weeks after the band was celebrated with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Lead singer Joey Ramone died in April of last year of lymphoma, a form of cancer. He was 49.

Checking In With My Little Friends

2002-06-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Captured by the Paparazzi while visiting an old friend on the Harvard campus during my trip to Cambridge last week.

Al Sharpton and Johnny Cochran Are Calling for What from Who?

2002-06-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

In what at first appeared to be an annoucement straight out of left field, it turns out that Al Sharpton and artists rights have a lot more in common than first meets the eye, via Sharpton's National Action Network.

Check out this little ditty from Billboard (registration required so I have cut and pasted it from an email sent to me):
Sharpton To Call For Changes In Music Biz.

Sharpton To Call For Changes In Music Biz
Billboard Bulletin:
June 05, 2002,
Cochran, Sharpton To Call For Changes In Music Biz
Seeking to end what they call the "subservient way" major record labels treat recording artists, lawyer Johnnie Cochran and the Rev. Al Sharpton will today hold a news conference in L.A. in which they plan to propose "radical changes" for the music industry.
Operating as the legal arm of Sharpton's New York-based National Action Network civil-rights organization, Cochran is seeking meetings with the majors to "try and get a sense how [artist] relationships and contracts are evolved," according to a spokesperson. Changes they plan to propose include a system that would emulate the free-agency market that exists in professional sports; presumably this would give artists greater opportunities to shop their services to the highest bidder.
The RIAA did not return calls for comment. -- Erik Gruenwedel, L.A.

Hot CDs Explicitly Advertised!

2002-06-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hey kids! Now you'll be able to recognize which CDs are the hottest (you know the ones -- the ones your parents wouldn't want you to have) because they will be clearly labeled!

Cool parents will be able to demonstrate their flexibility by purchasing such discs, in large numbers, for their insecure teenagers, while big businesses can rest assured that they will be better insulated from (those nasty) occasional suicides.

See the Wall St. Journal piece by Yochi J. Dreazen:
BMG Records goes out on a limb with detailed parental warnings -- Explicit content to be noted on albums, advertising.

Acting voluntarily, BMG plans to place new advisory stickers on certain albums, specifying whether they have violent content, sexual content, strong language or some combination of the three, officials say. BMG plans to include the more-detailed warnings in advertising, including television, radio, print and online ads for the albums concerned...
...BMG officials say they are sensitive to concerns that warning stickers, or ratings, could crimp artistic expression by making it easy for retailers and consumers to shun music they deem offensive. "There is definitely a need to balance the preservation of free artistic expression with the need and desire to address consumers' concerns that the labels didn't tell them enough information," says LaVerne Evans, BMG's senior vice president and general counsel. "We feel that these new labels do that."
Of course, parental warnings often have a way of helping sales, by turning an album into forbidden fruit and making teens want to hear it. And many albums and CDs that have been edited to remove explicit content, and are labeled accordingly, haven't sold well.

There's Nothing Fashionable About War

2002-06-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

I just saw Garbage on the Tonight Show. Shirley Manson sure is cool, but her choice of commando attire reminded me why I put my camouflage pants in the bottom of my closet last September.

New Song Up On Music Site

2002-06-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Just added Poltergeist to my online collection.

This song is also written by myself and Ron Taylor and recorded at Vagrant Records by Erik-4A with Evan Foster on lead guitar.

Seeding Good Feelings Towards Genetically-altered Food

2002-06-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Some agricultural biotechnology interests (Monsanto and Syngenta) have found a new humanitarian ways of dodging the real concerns surrounding the use of biogenetically-altered plants in food crops.

See:
Cultivating a New Image: Firms Give Away Data, Patent Rights on Crops,
by Justin Gillis for the Washington Post.

But the long-term environmental impact of the crops remains a serious question. Many scientists wonder whether foreign genes inserted into crops can spread to the wild relatives of those plants, doing some kind of unforeseen environmental damage.
In fact, several incidents have suggested that the ag bio companies, whatever their intentions, won't be able to control where their altered genes wind up. Agricultural biotechnology's biggest debacle to date occurred when an altered crop called Starlink corn, approved only for use as animal food, turned up in the human food supply, forcing widespread recalls of taco shells and other products.
That mess forced all the biotechnology companies to pledge never to put a crop on the market for animal use only, because it would be certain to wind up in the human food supply. For similar reasons, many American farmers are worried about Monsanto's efforts to commercialize a genetically engineered wheat. The farmers, though they may support biotechnology in principle, are afraid the altered wheat will taint the entire American crop in the eyes of foreign buyers.

Bitzi's Privileged Listings

2002-06-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Bitzi has used my "Shake All Over" tune as an example of its Privileged Listings service.

In Cambridge for a Creative Commons Meeting

2002-06-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

I'm in Cambridge, MA for a Creative Commons meeting. What a cool little town.

Unfortunately, I'm not having the same kind of luck that both Cory Doctorow and Aaron Swartz were able to have with finding wireless networks while putzing around in Harvard Square.

A few months ago, Cory was able to reach three different wireless networks from his hotel window. Just last Thursday night, Aaron (who was also in town for our meeting) went war walking and was able to quickly locate a network.

I spent a good half hour searching around Harvard Square for a network, to no avail.

It was still fun walking around Harvard Square and the Harvard Campus. There are a ton of musicians and lots of smiling people. It made me wish I had brought my guitar.

Will Iron Deposits Save Our Oceans or Finish Them Off?

2002-06-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hal Plotkin has written an informative piece for SF Gate about a controversial new technique for seeding plankton growth in our oceans.

See:
Ocean Rescue Planktos Foundation hopes to reduce global warming by fertilizing the seas.

A group of scientists say it may be possible to simultaneously reduce global warming and increase dwindling supplies of fish around the world by adding relatively tiny amounts of powdered iron to the ocean.
Although the concept is controversial, several demonstration experiments have already been conducted, including by the Half Moon Bay-based Planktos Foundation, which hopes to eventually turn the cultivation of plankton forests at sea into an environmental-restoration business similar to reforestation on land.
The proposal has sparked considerable debate within the scientific and environmental communities, in part, because some energy and oil companies see it as a possible way to offset atmospheric pollution caused by their products. If it works, its backers say, the idea could help save humanity from the twin dangers of dying oceans and an overheated planet. On the other hand, others see it as an unworkable scheme that would interfere with nature, one that could lead to consequences even more dire than those it seeks to address.

EFF's Comments on the BPDG's recommendations and supposed "open process"

2002-05-30T18:59:00.000-07:00

The EFF has submitted comments on the BPDG's recommendations (as manipulated by its co-chairs, apparently).

You can get the EFF's comments as a text, PDF or Word document, ~~but the BPDG recommendation is not available to for public view~~ and you can check out the drafts for yourself.

The BPDG "process" has been rife with acrimony, arbitrariness and confusion, to an extent that cannot be fully ascribed to mere haste. EFF believes that the failings of the BPDG process stem directly from BPDG's efforts to cloak a inter-industry horse-trading exercise in the trappings of a public undertaking, with nominal participation from all "affected industries." In reality, the representatives were hand-picked by the conveners of the BPDG to minimize any dissent, as is evidenced by the high degree of similarity between the original proposal brought to the group by its conveners and the final report that the co-chairs unilaterally present herein as the group's findings.
Throughout the process, the absence of any formal charter or process afforded the co-chairs the opportunity to manipulate the rules of the group to suit their true purpose while maintaining its illusory openness, as when the scope of the group's discussions was summarily expanded to encompass all unauthorized redistribution of feature films, as opposed to unauthorized redistribution over the Internet.

RSS Feed Up and Running!

2002-05-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

Blogger Pro has finally implemented its RSS service!

My RSS feed can now be located at:
http://lisarein.blogspot.com/rss/lisarein.xml.

Have you emailed me recently?

2002-05-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

My mail has been out of commission for going on two days now. It's been intermittent, so I haven't been able to determine for sure that this was happening until today.

Email me at lisarein@fastmail.fm until further notice.

Please resend! I think I might have lost the last few days worth of mail...

Audiogalaxy Complaint

2002-05-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a copy of the complaint against Audiogalaxy (PDF file)
(http://www.riaa.com/pdf/Audiogalaxy_Filed_Complaint.pdf).

Audiogalaxy getting sued...

2002-05-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Damn.

Audiogalaxy in RIAA crosshairs, by John Borland for CNET.

Payola Exposed?

2002-05-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

The truth about Payola is rearing its ugly head yet again.

Is it me, or does it seem like this happens every couple of years?

Geez fellas, the whole music industry is being put under a microscope right now, but in the end it will probably be just another false alarm. This is no time to start squealing on your friends (or ex-friends).

See the L.A. Times article by Chuck Philips:
Congress Members Urge Investigation of Radio Payola.

David Reed and friends group blog

2002-05-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

I just found SATN.org, a blog David Reed describes as: "...a place where I, Bob Frankston, and Dan Bricklin have decided to put a joint weblog and pointers to a collection of current essays. Think of it as a stream of consciousness site - and an experiment in exploiting the group forming properties of the Blogging world." (Thanks, Josh)

Boss Martians 7" Available

2002-05-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

The Boss Martians have a 7" out too...

Me Yappin' About Creative Commons

2002-05-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this yap by stating that this is when I yap on this blog about Creative Commons it is me yapping as an artist and a technologist "at-large" and not necessarily in my official capacity as Technical Architect for Creative Commons. (Though most likely if I were to get official about it, the information I am conveying would not change. It might, however, be a lot more official-sounding.)

That said, my answer to a Slashdot reader seemed like it might be of interest to interested parties :-)

...the point I made was that if a commercial entity wished to use a work (in this case I was talking about one of my own songs) for say, a movie soundtrack, after I had released it under an "Attribution" (required) "Non-commercial" Custom License, that commercial entity would still have to contact me directly for such use (to presumably pay me money for such use, as such use would constitute infringement of its terms of use otherwise).
So I never said that our licenses would be used for commercial deals -- but I still apologize for my not being clearer with my example as it has apparently caused some confusion for my audience.
And I do see these licenses as having great potential to promote artists in commercial ways, yes. Artists that have a bevy of songs might want to release one or two under one of our licenses to get tunes out into the artistic community before a concert tour, for instance, or to sell t-shirts or the other kinds of "commercial" shwag, after the music itself has been "given" away.
I would also just like to clarify that we are absolutely *not* trying to water down the notion of what constitutes "public domain", and that's why the two "forks" of the conceptual prototype I demonstrated at E-tech (for our contributor licensing application) are very clearly split off in the beginning: you are creating a Public Domain Dedication *or* a Creative Commons Custom License that allows you to impose terms more restrictive than the Public Domain but less restrictive of copyright.
So the idea is to provide licenses that enable artists to either donate to the public domain outright (currently there is NO easy way for them to do so -- you literally have to pay money to figure out how to give you work away...) OR to donate their works in the "spirit" of the public domain (using a CC custom license) without giving the rights away to that movie studio who wants to use the song on a soundtrack. (which would be the case with a public domain track).
That said, I still think the public domain option could have commercially-powerful uses.
For instance, a movie studio may decide to use independent, popular, public domain works on a soundtrack that is *sold* -- what a way for the studio to save money, sure, but also what a way for a no name (like me) to even have a chance of being considered for such a soundtrack.
It goes both ways. My advice to everyone is this: If you are AT ALL WORRIED about the implications of putting your work into the public domain: don't do it -- use one of our Custom Licenses instead.
Wait until you've had a chance to understand fully both the legal implications and potential benefits of putting your work into the public domain, and can do so with complete confidence.

The point is to give artists a choice to contribute to (and reap the benefits of) a world-wide connected artistic community, if they're into it.

Thanks,

Lisa Rein
Technical Architect
Creative Commons
lisa@creativecommons.org

Check out the Boss Martians U.S. Tour

2002-05-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Evan Foster of The Boss Martians plays guitar and bass on a bunch of my Vagrant Records sessions (including Shake All Over).

Evan and the rest of the Boss Martians are currently on a U.S. Tour. Check them out if you're over on the East Cost this month and early June:

* MAY 23 (THUR) - Toledo, OH @ The Bottle Rocket w / Chopzilla
* MAY 24 (FRI) - Philadelphia, PA @ w/ TOILET BOYS @ The North Star Bar
* MAY 25 (SAT) - Providence, RI @ Jakes Bar & Grille
* MAY 27 (MON) - NY, NY @ Mercury Lounge w / The Irreversible Slacks / Candid Daydream
* MAY 28 (TUE) - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East (Upstairs) w/ Bottom / Men of Porn / Binge
* MAY 29 (WED) - Washington DC @ The Black Cat w / Ruff Bucket (ex-members of Black Market Baby)
* MAY 30 (THUR) - Charlotte, NC @ Fat City Deli w / The Cherry Valence
* MAY 31 (FRI) - Atlanta, GA @ Echo Lounge w / Quintron & The Subsonics
* JUNE 1 (SAT) - New Orleans, LA @ El Matador
* JUNE 3 (MON) - Houston, TX @ Rudyards British Pub
* JUNE 4 (TUE) - San Antonio, TX @ Tacoland w / Where the Action Is
* JUNE 5 (WED) - Austin, TX @ EMO'S w / The Sir Finks
* JUNE 6 (THUR) - Dallas, TX @ The Trees w / Bob Schneider
* JUNE 7 (FRI) - Oklahoma City, OK @ The Green Door

See My Acting Debut June 7th!

2002-05-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

I have a small part in Monsturd, a horror-satire about a giant evil toxic turd that wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting town!

I'm the wife of the first hapless victim!

I also sing the theme song: Number Two! (I'll be posting an MP3 of it here any day now...)

I'll be at the Monsturd Premiere June 7th at 8pm at the Victoria Theatre, 16th and Mission, San Francisco.

MONSTURD opens Friday, June 7 at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street, San Francisco (at Mission across from the 16th street BART station). Show times are: Friday, June 7 at 8 p.m., Saturday, June 8 at 8 and 10 p.m., and Sunday, June 9 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $6.

Craig's List Party Will Rock Tonight

2002-05-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

See you all there at the Craig's List Afterdark Party going on tonight at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco.

CARP Rejected By Librarian of Congress

2002-05-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

The Librarian of Congress and Register of Copyrights aren't buying into the CARP Panel determinations. Check out my O'Reilly Weblog on the subject.

A little bit country...

2002-05-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

Joey De Villa loans me his hat long enough to take a picture.

Adding Eldred Logos to All of My Sites...

2002-05-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

I picked this one: .

And this one:

Eldred v. Ashcroft Website Launched

2002-05-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

Matthew Haughey worked with Lawrence Lessig on the design of the neat new website for the Eldred v. Ashcroft case that was just launched today.

Go Team!

Plan Top Down, Work Bottom Up

2002-05-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

I think those words ring loudest in my head from last week's E-Tech conference -- probably because they were said by half of the speakers there.

Let's hope I can remember them as I build the Creative Commons' infrastructure :-)

E Development Platform Gets My Vote

2002-05-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

For "turning the most heads" at the Etech conference last week.

Osbourne (Sharon not Ozzie) vs. Ted Nugent

2002-05-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

In the "ask me if I care" department, Sharon Osbourne didn't bother mincing words in a NY Post catfight between Nugent and Osbourne started by the tabloid itself, obviously so they could report on it.

What is it they say: if you don't like the news, go out and make (up) some of your own?

Sonic Blue Won't Be Forced to Spy On Customers After All

2002-05-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

"A judge on Wednesday granted digital video recorder company Sonicblue a stay in its request to reverse an order that would force it to monitor the viewing habits of its customers."

See the CNET story by Richard Shim:
Sonicblue granted stay in "spying" order .

Creative Commons at Etech 2002

2002-05-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

My talk went great today at Etech. It's so incredible to talk to everyone and find out just how much of an incredible demand there is for easy-to-use non-commercial licenses!

The website is up now, so go check it out:
http://www.creativecommons.org.

Ha! No pun intended

2002-05-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

By that remark about Napster below!

Napster: RIP

2002-05-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

I suppose we all knew it would happen eventually.

See the Wired News article by Brad King:
Last Rites For Napster.

Post-commons Shindig at Etech

2002-05-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

People keep asking me who "Lulu Press" is, since they are throwing our Creative Commons a little announcement afterparty this Thursday at ETech 2002.

Turns out that LuLu Press is owned by Bob Young (of RedHat Fame) -- here's an article that explains more.

New Software Can Name That Tune (in three notes)

2002-05-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

If you can manage to hum a few notes of a song you heard briefly into the telephone, this new student-based software will find your song for you.

Read about it in an article Joanna Corman for the LA Times:
College seniors fine-tune music search
Computer program designed in a for-credit course identifies songs by just a few notes.

This is how it works. You sing a few notes of a song into a microphone or the phone. The software converts the notes into a wave and then extracts the notes and their duration. A database has snippets of 500 melodies. The computer calculates the pitch and rhythm and then compares that data to songs already stored. The top 10 closest matches pop up. Only the "main theme" or melody of the song is stored because it is most recognizable, said Yelinek, the team leader and a computer science major. The program accounts for various versions of the song, including those in different keys. Songs can be hummed, whistled, sung or played.
"You might harmonize it differently. You might have a club mix, but still it's recognized," said Huang, a computer science and music major.
The students' project was part of a program that dates back to the early 1960s. It allows companies, government agencies and nonprofits to approach Harvey Mudd students with problems to solve. Companies give the students, mostly seniors, upward of $30,000 for their research. There have been about 1,000 clinics since the program's inception and it covers computer science, engineering, physics and math. The software, which Seet said should be available later this year, has several uses, including copyright protection. It can be used for karaoke, which Seet called a "huge market."

The Future of Digital Television Ends This Friday

2002-05-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

Cory Doctorow has written an editorial for tha SJ Mercury News that provides the best explanation I've seen so far at what the hell is going on with this BPDG thing:
Hollywood wants a stranglehold on your digital technology.

The people who fought tooth and nail to keep VCRs off the market will have a veto over all new digital television devices, including digital television devices that interface with personal computers. The next generation of home entertainment systems will include only features that don't inspire Hollywood's dread of infringing uses, no matter what the consequences for you, the owner of the device. With today's VCR, you can record an episode of "The Simpsons'' and bring it over to a friend's house to watch. This "feature'' won't be included on the digital VCRs and DVD recorders of tomorrow until and unless Hollywood executives decide you deserve it -- until they decide that the technical means of allowing neighbor-to-neighbor sharing of video won't open the gate to the Internet piracy bogyman.

Creative Commons in the NY Times!

2002-05-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Amy Harmon has written a little ditty about the Creative Commons for the NY Times!

A New Direction for Intellectual Property

Perceiving an overly zealous culture of copyright protection, a group of law and technology scholars are setting up Creative Commons, a nonprofit company that will develop ways for artists, writers and others to easily designate their work as freely shareable.
Creative Commons, which is to be officially announced this week at a technology conference in Santa Clara, Calif., has nearly a million dollars in start-up money. The firm's founders argue that the expansion of legal protection for intellectual property, like a 1998 law extending the term of copyright by 20 years, could inhibit creativity and innovation. But the main focus of Creative Commons will be on clearly identifying the material that is meant to be shared. The idea is that making it easier to place material in the public domain will in itself encourage more people to do so.
The firm's first project is to design a set of licenses stating the terms under which a given work can be copied and used by others. Musicians who want to build an audience, for instance, might permit people to copy songs for noncommercial use. Graphic designers might allow unlimited copying of certain work as long as it is credited.
The goal is to make such licenses machine-readable, so that anyone could go to an Internet search engine and seek images or a genre of music, for example, that could be copied without legal entanglements.
"It's a way to mark the spaces people are allowed to walk on," said Lawrence Lessig, a leading intellectual property expert who will take a partial leave from Stanford Law School for the next three years to serve as the chairman of Creative Commons.
Inspired in part by the free-software movement, which has attracted thousands of computer programmers to contribute their work to the public domain, Creative Commons ultimately plans to create a "conservancy" for donations of valuable intellectual property whose owners might opt for a tax break rather than selling it into private hands.
The firm's board of directors includes James Boyle, an intellectual property professor at Duke Law School; Hal Abelson, a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Eric Saltzman, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.

Prior Art on Recent Swinging Patent!

2002-05-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

Looks like there's prior art on the infamous swinging patent that turned out to have been taken out by a seven year-old.