Readings and Ramifications
2002-07-07 / Summer’s lethargy has brought no relief to your weary
Tape-beatles, although the results may not always be immediately visible — it’s just too
soon to talk about certain projects that we’re working on.
John Heck’s recent
temporary departure to the United States has left Lloyd Dunn in Prague, to ‘hold down the
fort’, as they say (and water the plants and care for the cat). Your intrepid
Ralph Johnson will be casting his lot on moving
two-thirds of the way across a continent to start a degree program in Ann Arbor; the city will be
greatly enhanced by the arrival of this new intelligence.
In the meantime here are some readings.
(Updated as information comes to us.)
07-07
<ip> Janis Ian, singer-songwriter of some note, and with some
experience with the major record labels in her 35-year career, has written an article called
‘The Internet Debacle — An Alternative
View’. I hereby recommend it to you.
<news> Michael Jackson, another singer-songwriter of some note, has come out against the recording
industry, too, saying they ‘cheat … (especially) black artists’. It sounds mostly like
he’s angry that his latest record isn’t selling well, but at the same time, do I detect a crack
forming in the wall tacit support of most recording artists for their labels?
It’s at Salon.
<ip> Off the beaten path a bit is a blog that features an interesting first-look
technical overview of
Microsoft’s recent ‘Palladium’ data security initiative, which not incidentally has its own
ramifications concerning intellectual property issues.
<ip> The same page also gives Jack Valenti ‘Google juice’ by
linking to his 1982 testimony before Congress concerning
the threat VCRs posed to the movie industry. (We all know how that turned out.) In any case, we might
consider it part of the ‘required reading’ of IP issues.
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07-31
<site> Deuce of Clubs has a site update,
a case in point about the dangers of
deep linking.
<ip> “Open Content’s only excuse
for existing is to ‘facilitate the prolific creation of freely available, high-quality,
well-maintained Content.’”
Read more.
07-28
<sound> The
results are in
from Group Listening Tests carried out to
evaluate and report on the technical and subjective qualities of various sound compression
technologies, including Mp3pro, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, and AAC (MPEG-4).
<ip> Brad has a music project called
Brad Sucks. It takes the
open source bull by the horns and applies it to music.
<ip> Salon posts a lengthy piece about file swapping, and
sums up
the current state of the issue.
07-29
<ip> NYT reports on the culture industry’s
increasing success in
bringing Congress over to their side of the IP debate. Citizens beware, soon
you may be unable to do simple things on your new computer that you currently can easily accomplish.
<ip> Sen. Joseph Biden
obviously thinks that copyright
violation is theft.
<www> Stanford U is conducting ‘web credibility research’.
They have thoughtfully posted a set of guidelines to make your site
more ‘credible’. I suppose
that means the lawless wild west web days are over.
<sound> A new technology uses ultrasonics to direct sound
to a specific place, much like a spotlight, leaving nearby areas silent. It’s called the
HyperSonic Sound System.
<news> I think Dan Perkins (a.k.a.
Tom Tomorrow) is a genius.
07-19
<ip> The Register has an interesting report from a ‘public’
workshop held by the US Commerce Department to discuss digital rights management (DRM) techniques by which copyright
owners can protect their properties. The panel was studded with industry heavyweights and a few groups ostensibly representing
the public, but you can
read for yourself
how public comment was minimized, marginalized, and generally speaking,
scrupulously avoided.
07-16
<ideas> McKenzie Wark, noted thinker and essayist, has sent along a quick
‘love yr work’ as well as a mention that his
A Hacker Manifesto
has now reached version 4.0.
<ip> Related to our right to freedom of speech, argues Princeton
Professor Edward Felton, is our
freedom to tinker
(from economist.com).
07-09
<ip> Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) wants to introduce a
bill that would codify fair use. The features of the bill are
neatly outlined
in an article appearing at atnewyork.com.
<ip> In attempting to turn it into a black-or-white issue, the site
I am gonna copy requests your
yes-or-no vote to the following proposition: ‘everything that can be copied must be
free. no copyright, no intellectual property’. Although we (editorially) don’t advocate this
simplistic line of reasoning, we do point out the site as further evidence that our ideas are on
everyone’s lips.
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