Archive for March, 2006

I Get To Be The Cowboy Hat

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

Every once in a while, some legislator tries to argue that games are not protected speech because they have no narrative or message. To them, I offer Patriot Act: The Home Version, a parody of Monopoly. The Philly Inquirer reports: Designed by a New Jersey graphic artist and Arab civil-rights advocate, ...

Apple accuses French of “state-sponsored piracy”

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

The lower house of the French parliament just passed a law requiring digital content vendors to share the inner workings of their technological protection measures with rivals. Apple, the main target (with a lock on digital music sales), would have to allow its media player competitors to create media players ...

Dutch court upholds Creative Commons license

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

Adam Curry, the MTV VJ, sued a Dutch gossip magazine for running CC-licensed photos of his daughter. (Apparently including this one.) The judge ruled that, despite the CC license, the rag could be held liable for using the photos without Curry's permission. Specifically, Curry licensed his personal photos on Flickr via ...

Why pay the FCC? Verizon writes the regs

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

This story at CNet makes me want to hurl--not the coverage, but the content. Verizon basically went to the FCC, said "we want to play the business broadband game by different rules," and got what they wanted. Chairman Kevin Martin just sat on their petition and it therefore passed. Like a ...

A Quick Lesson in Information Design

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

Sometimes it is easy to forget just how much control over information graphic designers really get to exercise.

Michael Crighton on “Correlation Patents”

Monday, March 20th, 2006

This is new to me: in an op-ed titled "This Essay Breaks the Law," Michael Crighton states that the Supreme Court will soon be reviewing a case involving some company's claim on a patent on a form of medical treatment. The patent in question can apparently be violated just by ...

copyright comic

Friday, March 17th, 2006

CSPD20Comics - a copyright comic! It is like an interbred marriage between my two dear colleagues here: Jason with his affinity for comics and Bill, the copyright wonk. :)

No Tattling

Tuesday, March 14th, 2006

According to a recent article in the Washington Post, a bill to be proposed in the senate would criminalize any attempts to reveal information on government eavesdropping. An aide to the bill's author insists that reporters would be exempt, but presumably their sources would not.

Avast

Tuesday, March 14th, 2006

Here's an interesting article through Wired about The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent search/tracking site that has successfully defied all attempts to shut it down. Apparently, the pro-piracy site has even inspired a "Pirate Party" making a bid for the Swedish parliament.

Where to see half-naked women: FoxNews

Monday, March 13th, 2006

At least, according to this story at Alternet.