I usually do a best-of playlist for SXSW but this year I’ve not found the monster download of all the tracks. However, as second-best, NPR has seleted their top 100 tracks (that’s 10% of the festival) and put them online as streaming continuous-play radio.
Or, “how to ensure your customers can’t use your product and become ‘criminals'”. Great illustration of why “technical measures” are ridiculous and counter-productive.
The huge problem with the Digital Economy Bill – and one which I can’t help thinking is part of its design – is that it’s easy for attempts to fix it to be just as bad as the poison they are trying to fix, unless the fixes are very well thought through indeed. This is a case in point, where the opposition politicians are proposing amendments that sell our rights down the river too.
§ The last of the series of songs by Dave Carroll after his lousy experience flying United is finally out. I think song one was by far the best (song two lacked zing), but this one is pretty good:
I’d like to be able to say it’s hyperbolic, but unfortunately the trip I took over the weekend once again poured fuel on the fire (one friend I was travelling with had luggage lost by them on 2 of the last 3 flights) so sadly I think Carroll still has a point. Song one is just coming up to 8 million views on YouTube so I think United has a problem and the rest of us have a marketing case study.
The finest possible visual aid for why we can't rely on automatic means to "filter" content. Lessig, as the world's leading authority on "fair use", is assumed guilty until he declares – and perhaps proves – himself innocent.
I'm not a huge fan of 7Digital after some early customer experience of them, but the pressure on them to lean up their act on formats and DRM will be welcome. Does the world really need yet another music store though?
This looks very do-able and it's the perfect solution for a group of people gathered to discuss a document together and all running different platforms and software tools.
The details for Document Freedom Day 2010 have been announced – it’s on March 31st and there will be events all over the world. This should be a year of celebration as well as campaigning, as we have made enormous strides in promoting liberty.
Usage of ODF is more common than ever, and new Microsoft Office users now get the opportunity to select it as the default format. We still need to campaign and remain vigilant, however. The network effects that drive people to ignore their freedoms are as strong as ever, and institutional biases against tools like OpenOffice.org remain.
True open standards are the key to deployer liberty. ‘Libre’ implementations of open standards – evolved in the open with every willing voice respected – are already at the heart of the new digital society and Document Freedom Day is to be welcomed as a celebration of the liberties we all need for our networked future.
Some very serious stuff in here, including insight into the degree to which European Commission bureaucrats are selling out European citizens rights. It’s a big document and I expect the analysis over the next week to reveal some matters of the greatest concern.
More analysis of the UK’s Digital Economy Bill reveals even more badness. The Bill will effectively eliminate photographers copyrights to photographs without formal registration, and give anyone the right to block photography in public places in the UK. The fact this bill is characterised by the government as “no problem” is outrageous. Both measures can be made to sound citizen-friendly but actually open out enormous loopholes that will reduce citizen rights dramatically.
Answer: yes, it is. That software you are using – like Final Cut Pro – does NOT include a license to distribute your end product and you need to separately pay fees to MPEG LA for anything you make with it. Very bad, very greedy.
§ A recent blog posting at The Guardian about the US “Special 301” rules has generated deep concern around the global open source community. It points (via a blog posting by Edinburgh University law lecturer Andres Guadamuz) to this year’s recommendations from the controversially-named International Intellectual Property Alliance, which describes itself as “a private sector coalition… of trade associations representing U.S. copyright-based industries” – namely
“the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)”.
As well as representing a group of organisations with dreadful reputations for disregarding citizen liberty and victimising customers, the organisation’s activities involve engagement with WIPO, activity over TRIPS and ACTA and this “Special 301” review. That is certainly enough to make each of their statements subject to scrutiny. IIPA provides a vehicle that allows companies who are members of its member organisations – that’s a double-opaque arrangement – to exercise influence without accountability and with deniability. Continue reading →
At a recent debate in the House of Lords on the Digital Economy Bill, a number of amendments designed to ensure citizen rights (as opposed to most terms of the DEB that limit citizen rights in defence on corporate rights) were rejected by the UK government on the basis they would upset the delicate balance of UK law.
Yet here we see the very same Bill seriously disrupting the delicate balance of rights voters already enjoy. You’ll no longer be able to offer your guests easy wifi access, ruining evolving and desirable modes of work and interaction in order to shore up the 20th century monopolies of Lord Mandelson’s media friends.
I’ve not heard nearly enough from the opposition parties on this stuff, making me fear they will just do more of the same – not a surprise, it’s advance preparation for ACTA ratification. It’s election time; we need to make sure the politicians know we care about this stuff.
Useful summary from Michael Geist – worth asking your representatives why your government hates transparency if you’re in one of the countries opposing it.
Peter Tribble documents some of the comments made by Oracle’s representative in theOpenSolaris annual meeting. Net: Oracle intends to keep going with OpenSolaris.
While this is all good, it is not sufficient as ACTA will address far more than just “graduated response”. This looks to me like a co-ordinated action by the Commissioners in response to obvious concern, to try to prevent the Parliament forcing their hand in the negotiations. It’s still important to get MEPs to sign the opposition text.
This is an excellent and on-target discussion on the ridiculous case where a lobbying organisation acting on behalf of BSA, RIAA, MPAA and others is able to direct the US government to discriminate against governments choosing to prefer open source software.
All views expressed on this blog are those of Simon Phipps and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other entity, including current and former employers and clients. See my full disclosure of interests.
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