Archive for December, 2007

WTO to Antigua: Violate $21m of US Copyrights

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

To help Antigua recover part of the vast sums lost due to the US blocking online gambling, the World Trade Organization is allowing the Carribean nation to make unauthorized copies of $21 million worth of US goods. The decision is surprising, but it will be hard to enforce. US trade representatives ...

Mad Robot Confronts Bill Clinton: Apologize to Sista Souljah

Friday, December 21st, 2007

Kembrew McLeod, dressed as a robot named Mr. Ifobca, confronted Bill Clinton and demanded he apologize for his deliberate racial smear against Sista Souljah. Read more about Mr. Ifobca's adventures here.

Troubleshooting Post (Ignore Me)

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Trying to make links render.Can I really use the link button? OMG, I think it works.One more time: push my luck(y button)?  

Copyright Alliance Pretends to Help Professors

Monday, December 10th, 2007

At a symposium today, a relatively new group called the Copyright Alliance is offering to help professors get a sense of which movies they can show in class without getting in trouble for copyright infringement. The only problem with the idea is that, as long as the copy is obtained legally ...

Wired: Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CDs Coffin

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

From the same Wired commentator who recently celebrated the slow death of music DRM, Eliot Van Buskirk now considers the impact of the vinyl resurgence on CDs. The argument is almost certainly overstated, and he makes no good causal connection between the still-sparse (albeit growing) amount of vinyl and turntable sales, ...

Funny Slideshow Critiques DMCA, Shrinkwrap Licenses

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

Lok just emailed me Wellington Grey's hilarious DMCA slideshow. It's positively hi-larious.

Best Blog Post Ever: Why Google’s Serious About Spectrum

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

Many folks have wondered how serious Google is about winning a slice of the 700 MHz spectrum in the upcoming auction. Harold Feld answers this for us in the best blog post ever. Specifically, they're bent on destroying the current business model of the mobile industry and preserving the last vestiges ...

Retraction: Net Neutrality Probably Stops Comcast

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

In my last report on this story, I put little thought into a minilink to an article by CNet's Anne Broache, which frets that proposed net neutrality bills probably would not prevent Comcast's ongoing peer-to-peer blockade. I no longer agree; I think even the weaker of the two bills on ...

Google’s Spectrum Bid: Kicking the Telecoms

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

CNet describes Google's announcement that it will bid on 700 MHz spectrum as "Google versus the telecoms."

Would Net Neutrality Stop Comcast’s BitTorrent Blockade?

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

According to CNet's Anne Broache, the answer is: probably not. The current legislative proposals allow network management, and Comcast could probably use this exemption to justify its decision to degrade BT traffic. It would only hit a wall if it was also offering another paid peer-to-peer service that always worked perfectly.