LawGeek

2003-12-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

Me Blog Pretty Now

Alright, I've finally committed to making a real effort to blog on a regular basis. So I've invested in both a domain name and a spot on typepad. From here on out, you can catch my musings at lawgeek.net or lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/.

2003-12-20T01:41:00.000-08:00

Timber!

Nice little
Xmas tree graph from Gallup showing the rise and fall of Bush's approval numbers.

2003-12-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

Had A Dream

Cory blogs a great sign in reference to Wendy's recent post about the MLK family suing folks for using King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech without a license.

via Boing Boing

2003-12-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Network Effects of Creative Commoning: Why Silver Will Eventually Be More Valuable Than Gold

So I went to the Anniversary Party for Creative Commons last night. It was a very cool event, with lots of luminaries from the tech/cyberlaw world in attendance. CC debuted its new flash animation, chronicling its achievements over the last year and previewing what's forthcoming. It's a good flick and provides some real inspiration for changing the current copyright defaults from fear-of-infringing to stuck-on-sharing.

Particularly inspiring was their new effort to create a "sampling license" that allows musicians to release music with a default license that says you can sample the song without having to ask permission, even for commercial purposes, as long as you agree to only use some but not all of the song. It's an ingenious way to create a huge library of songs that are truly Ready-To-Sample without any FUD -- a true lawyer-free zone.

The real challenge, of course, will be to have artists agree to release their works under such a license. Many people have scoffed at CC licenses, arguing that successful bands and songwriters will never give up their full rights in a blanket form because of profit loss.

Yet in the arena of sampling, it's not always necessary to choose the most successful artists. Often all you need is a good beat or three note sequence to fill in behind whatever you're working on. Thus, unlike many other forms of creativity, the identity of the underlying work isn't always as important as its availability or utility.

Enter the brilliance of the CC sampling license. Say you're an up-and-coming artist looking for a backbeat track to sample for your new song. You see two options: (1) a massive library of historically copyrighted works (All Rights Reserved) and (2) a much smaller but growing library of CC licensed works (Some Rights Reserved But Always Ok To Sample).

To access the first option, you have to hire a lawyer ($200/hour minimum), research the clearance rights, negotiate with the copyright owner for a license, sign the agreement, pay the license, and then (assuming you remember what the hell you wanted to do with the sample in the first place), lay down the track. Of course, you could ignore all of this and simply take the track and hope you don't get sued. But as Biz Markie found out, that's not a very safe way to make music or do business.

To access the second option, on the other hand, you simply download the track and go -- rip, mix, burn. No lawyers to pay, no license to negotiate, no time wasted. Free music and instant gratification, the perfect combo. Soft clay for the creative hands.

So what does this mean for the future world of sampling?

Option 1 is like a pot of gold with scorpions in it. Option 2 is like a pot of silver. Each individual piece of Pot 1 is better but also more risky and resource-intensive to acquire. You have to be careful and cautious while you negotiate the gold out of the pot without disturbing the nasties that guard it. Each individual piece of Pot 2 is less valuable, but acquisition and use are fast, efficient, and carefree. Which would you choose?

Many of us will still continue to choose gold, despite the risks, if we have the money and the need. But others will choose silver, especially if they are risk-averse or can't afford to pay or wait for licensing rights to clear. As more and more people choose silver over gold, the value of silver increases. This increases the incentives for artists to supply the silver, knowing that an ever-increasing pool of artists will be sampling from their works.

Things becomes even more interesting if one imports an analysis of network effects into the system. The theory of Network Effects says that certain systems will increase in value proportional to the number of people who use the system. For example, the telephone system is not very good if only one or two people have a phone. But when 100 million people have phones, it's extremely valuable. The Internet, email, and other networks function much the same way. Being able to email one person isn't worth much; being able to email all your friends and colleagues is worth a lot.

Sampling, by all accounts, should also work on these principles. Yet, under the current sampling system, just because one person clears rights to a song for sampling doesn't mean anyone else can. Each negotiation is generally separate, thereby requiring transaction costs for time and attorneys, etc, each time someone wants to use the track.

Under the CC licensing system, however, the more songs you have in the library, the more valuable the library becomes. This is because you know that you can use all the songs you like in any way you like as often as you like. Eventually, with enough songs, musicians will come to value the CC sampling library more because as a whole it represents more value than any particular individual song might represent under the traditional copyright licensing scheme. Add advanced metadata fields and search capabilities and these network effects increase exponentially. Eventually, silver becomes more valuable than gold.

2003-12-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

Thou shall not steal mine copyrighted works

Donna picked up a great little hoot positing what Godlike Cease and Desist Letters would look like:

"God Considers Smiting Bible Pirates: 'God said that 'spreading the Gospel' was not a valid defense for distributing copyrighted materials. 'Rev. Jackson has published at least 35% of My word electronically, where anyone with an internet connection can download it. Thrice did I call on him to repent; thrice did he ignore me or refer me to the EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation].''

2003-12-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

More I, Cringely on E-voting

I, Cringely continues to tear e-voting a new one in his weekly column. I don't necessarily agree that the Canadian system is the way to go, but I gotta love his style. Here are my two favorite graphs:

These same people also claim that receipts are bad because printers are unreliable or need to be refilled with paper, which they fear poll workers would be unable to do. We don't seem to have a problem printing ATM receipts or lotto cards, but then maybe the folks down at 7-11 are more technically sophisticated.

I asked the question, “Who decided to leave out this auditing capability?” The ability to audit is actually required by the Help America Vote Act of 2001, which is providing the $3.9 billion needed to buy all those touch screen voting machines. Or at least it appears to be required. Certainly, most of the Congressmen and Senators who voted for the Act thought it was required. But then the language was changed slightly in a conference committee, and for some reason, though the auditing requirement remains, most systems aren't auditable. Huh? The best explanation for this that I have seen so far says that the new machines are "able" to be audited in the same sense that I am "able" to fly a Boeing 747. I am a sentient being with basic motor skills just like all 747 pilots, so I am "able" to fly a 747. So we are "able" to audit these machines. We just don't know how.

2003-12-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

Diebold Wants to Charge Maryland "Out The Yin-Yang" for Paper Receipts

An email leaked from Diebold Election Systems recently has exposed both the greed and arrogance that the company feels toward democratic challenges to its proprietary technology:

The e-mail from "Ken," dated Jan. 3, 2003, discusses a (Baltimore) Sun article about a University of Maryland study of the Diebold system:

"There is an important point that seems to be missed by all these articles: they already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts."

"Ken" later clarifies that he meant "out the yin-yang," adding, "any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive."

2003-12-11T15:21:00.000-08:00

Nevada Gambling Experts Refuse to Bet on Diebold E-voting Machines; Require Paper Verification

The State of Nevada has rejected Diebold voting machines for their elections after the machines failed to pass certification tests performed by the State Gambling Commission's slot machine technicians:

The decision to go with Sequoia machines was based in part on a review by the state Gaming Control Board’s slot machine experts who issued a report saying the Diebold machine that was analyzed “represented a legitimate threat to the integrity of the election process.”

The State also issued a proclamation that all electronic voting machines must produce voter-verifiable paper receipts in order to be acceptable. Yay!

2003-12-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

I, Cringely, on why it makes no sense to skip voter-verifiable paper receipts for e-voting

As many of you know, we at EFF have been pushing for quite some time to require e-voting machines to have voter-verifiable paper receipts. Robert Cringely has written an excellent column on the issue, pointing out the absurd position that Diebold, the leading e-voting machine maker, has taken on the issue:

"Now here's the really interesting part. Forgetting for a moment Diebold's voting machines, let's look at the other equipment they make. Diebold makes a lot of ATM machines. They make machines that sell tickets for trains and subways. They make store checkout scanners, including self-service scanners. They make machines that allow access to buildings for people with magnetic cards. They make machines that use magnetic cards for payment in closed systems like university dining rooms. All of these are machines that involve data input that results in a transaction, just like a voting machine. But unlike a voting machine, every one of these other kinds of Diebold machines -- EVERY ONE -- creates a paper trail and can be audited. Would Citibank have it any other way? Would Home Depot? Would the CIA? Of course not. These machines affect the livelihood of their owners. If they can't be audited they can't be trusted. If they can't be trusted they won't be used.

Now back to those voting machines. If EVERY OTHER kind of machine you make includes an auditable paper trail, wouldn't it seem logical to include such a capability in the voting machines, too? Given that what you are doing is adapting existing technology to a new purpose, wouldn't it be logical to carry over to voting machines this capability that is so important in every other kind of transaction device?

2003-12-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

Steve Jobs on Digital Music

Rolling Stone has a great interview with Steve Jobs about digital music. I was especially impressed in the paragraph below, where I think he nails both the attaction of file-sharing and the problem with calling it "stealing" on the head:

"Our position from the beginning has been that eighty percent of the people stealing music online don't really want to be thieves. But that is such a compelling way to get music. It's instant gratification. You don't have to go to the record store; the music's already digitized, so you don't have to rip the CD. It's so compelling that people are willing to become thieves to do it. But to tell them that they should stop being thieves -- without a legal alternative that offers those same benefits -- rings hollow. We said, 'We don't see how you convince people to stop being thieves unless you can offer them a carrot -- not just a stick.' And the carrot is: We're gonna offer you a better experience . . . and it's only gonna cost you a dollar a song."

2003-12-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Bush Sucks: The Movie

Cute little 30 second movie with a great literal and metaphoric message.

via Lisa Rein's Radar

2003-12-08T17:06:00.000-08:00

Further Response to WIPO: IP Theft Is Terrorism

I've posted a further response to the issue of IP theft and terrorism because some people have commented and emailed about the trademark issue.

2003-12-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

WayBack Machine Catches Bush's Internet Eraser In The Act

Larry Lessig has an excellent post about how the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine caught the Whitehouse trying to re-write its overzealous statements about the Iraq War being over back in May 2003:

On May 1, 2003, the Whitehouse’s Office of the Press Secretary released this press release, announcing “President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.” But then, with airbrush magic, now the same press release has been changed to this, which reports “President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.” No update on the page, no indication of when the change occurred, indeed, no indication that any change occurred at all. Instead, there is robots.txt file disallowing all sorts of activities that might verify the government.

2003-12-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

Breakup Girl's New Novel

My old pal Lynn Harris a.k.a. Breakup Girl just published her first novel, called Miss Media. Lynn has a great sense of humor and a kick-ass writing style, so definitely check it out. I'll post a review as soon as I finish reading my copy.

2003-12-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

eVisa Looks to Get Stamp of Approval from Ninth Circuit

Wendy and I attended the Ninth Circuit argument today in Visa v. JSL Corporation (aka EVISA).[1] The panel was pretty good -- Berzon, Paez, and the new guy Bybee, so we were hopeful that things would go eVisa's way.

The key issue raised by the panel was what the heck to do after Moseley v. Victoria's Secret, where the Supreme Court held that in order to prove dilution, you needed to show actual evidence of dilution, not simply a likelihood of dilution (the latter being similar to the standard for trademark infringement).

The panel didn't seem to have many ideas, and neither did Visa. JSL had one where you compare people's impressions of the famous mark (here VISA) before and after they're exposed to the junior mark (eVisa) to see if they thought less or at least differently about VISA. Still, I think it will be quite a challenge for courts to come up with a good test that can stand the test of time like Sleekcraft and Polaroid have.

Part of the problem is that even though dilution feels a lot like trademark infringement, it's more like the opposite. Trademark infringement is about consumer confusion. If two brands of laundry detergent both call themselves TIDE, we'll never know which is which when we go to the grocery store. However, with Dilution, it's not about confusion, its about distraction. I doubt most people would think that a bicycle store that sells KODAK bicycles is really the film and camera company. But it does force them to make a mental note that KODAK can now mean two different kinds of products instead of simply one famous one. That's blurring; that's dilution. No one is confused.

Because of this difference, the Supreme Court in Moseley was able to identify only one clear case of actual dilution -- where there are identical fanciful marks, e.g., Victoria's Secret (the famous lingerie company) and Victoria's Secret (a cheesy sex novelty shop). These marks don't have any other meaning than as brand names and force consumers to keep two mental spaces in their minds to differentiate between the two vendors. This distraction takes away from the "fame" or distinctiveness of the dominant mark because it "blurs" what the mark can mean to a consumer.

This becomes even more complicated, however when there is a third meaning to the word mark -- an english language meaning. For instance, here, visa means a travel document. Visa also means a credit card company. And eVisa is a website that offers business services for foreign travellers. Both companies draw meaning into their trademarks from the english language word "visa" -- Visa (everywhere you want to be) and eVisa (foreign travel), and as such, it becomes difficult to tell whether eVisa blurs Visa's famous mark or if eVisa is simply drawing on the association from the word visa. In other words, it might well be the word visa which is blurring Visa's famous mark and eVisa is simply associating itself with this "natural" blurring.

Pretty circular stuff, eh? The important point of all this is how much control companies like VISA get to have over things like domain names. If VISA can take away evisa.com from JPL, then they can pretty much take away any domain name with "visa" in it under the same theory. Over time, corporations will suck up most english language domain names as their "property", leaving little left for individual use. Companies are certainly entitled to protect their trademarks from attacks that undermine their strength, but when a company like VISA voluntarily chooses a brand name that already has meaning in our culture, they have to accept the fact that the rest of us still get to use it, even on the Internet.

[1] For those of you unfamiliar with the case, Visa (the credit card company) has sued JSL Corp. for registering evisa.com, claiming that evisa.com "dilutes" their famous "Visa" brand under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act. Evisa fought back, arguing that evisa.com is simply a website offering business services for foreign travelers and that the "visa" part of its name symbolizes access to foreign countries (i.e. the common dictionary definition of visa), not Visa, the credit card company. In other words, VISA shouldn't have a monopoly on all domain names that include the letters V, I, S, and A. The District Court went for VISA, granting an injunction against JSL's use of evisa.com.

2003-12-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

WIPO: IP Theft is Terrorism

WIPO Head Kamil Idris told an Australian news correspondent today that "Piracy is like terrorism today and it exists everywhere and it is a very dangerous phenomenon."

How is it dangerous?

Mr Idris described how he had heard of children dying after using counterfeit baby shampoo and warned of the potentially disastrous consequences of relying on machines that had been made using an illicitly duplicated model.

Excuse me, but those aren't intellectual property/piracy problems. False advertising is a consumer protection issue and a problem that everyone supports eradicating. In fact, if anything, the example of the shampoo demonstrates that the counterfeit shampoo is not copied from the original shampoo formula (which I assume is non-toxic), and therefore, not an IP violation. If IP rights are violated, then exact copies are made that should work just as well as the original. What we have here is a health and safety hazard, not the stealing of someone's ideas or creativity.

However, there have been several documented instances where WIPO's own high protectionist patent and data registration policies are actively hurting patient access to AIDS-related drugs and other essential medicines in the third world, Africa in particular. Here, IP law is determining the difference between life and death for thousands of people; yet WIPO continues to support restricting access to these medicines.

The fact that the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization doesn't understand these differences goes beyond disturbing, and the fact that he uses it to make a big splash in the press is disgusting.

Further Clarifying Thought: The irony of his statement is that a perfect IP violation -- a perfect copy of the shampoo formula -- would provide children with healthy shampoo while an imperfect or non-infringing copy threatens their health. Hardly seems to me to be an argument against perfect copying but rather one for it.

Reponse to Trademark Lawyers I've Offended: Some of you have written or commented that counterfeiting is an IP violation becuase it violates the trademark in the shampoo, which protects the brand name's quality. And you are absolutely correct. I'm not saying that there isn't an IP violation when someone counterfeits shampoo. But is the IP violation what's killing the children? And perhaps more directly, is it piracy that is to blame? Or is it the fact that the shampoo is poisonous? The counterfeiter could just as easily be selling "Bob's Shampoo" and children would die. Therefore, I don't think stricter enforcement of IP rights really addresses the problem; better health and safety inspections would.

2003-12-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

Soylent Dean

Cute poster from the Dean campaign. It's nice to have a sense of humor back in the race.

2003-11-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

Love, Actually, is cheesy

So Tara and I saw Love Actually the other night at the Grand Lake Theater, which we absolutely love. It's still one of the few art house theaters in the Bay Area that hasn't been completely hacked and torn apart to make a Frankensteinian semi-megaplex (although they have remodeled some of the side rooms off the main theater into smaller screening rooms; still, they have kept much of the art deco quality and some even have balconies). Yet I digress.

So, the movie. It was cheesy. That pretty much sums it up. If you like cheese, you'll proabbly like it (or at least the first half of it). If you don't, well, you probably didn't bring the right date. The movie is a traditional rendition of the "six degrees of separation/We're all just a stone's throw away from finding our soulmate" romantic comedy involving eight storylines about lovers in love, lovers in trouble, troublemakers making love, etc. etc. All eight storylines are, of course, tangentially related to each other through one or more characters, making the puzzle of figuring out the exact configuration half the fun.

The beginning of the movie does a decent job of introducing the characters and hinting at those who having promising futures and those who face declining interests. This is also where the strongest writing appears, with many witty lines and some good physical comedy. For example, there are a great couple of scenes between Liam Neeson and the child actor who plays his step-son dealing with the loss of the mother. Tara and I both had quite a few teardrops forming by the end of Act I.

Act II, however, was another story. Having show us the inner emotional world of approx. 18 people, the movie then tries to follow all of them through their various trials and tribulations with madman-like velocity, jumping back and forth from character to character offering only a taste of the emotional subtext that the first part of the movie laid out. Hugh Grant, however, does provide some excellent comic relief throughout. Still, plots quickly become cliche and the acting becomes forced, which pretty much left us anxious to move on to Act III for the resolutions and reunitings.

The resolutions left us with mixed feelings. Some were satisfying and fresh while others were trite or unconvincing and unexplored. One subplot in particular, involving a British bloke who travels to America looking for easy action from American girls, is downright offensive and exploitive, using a couple of supermodels for pure eye candy and completely ruining most of the charm the movie had built up by that point. Still, if you can stand the occasional return of disbelief, there are some hopeful scenes of love buried in the mix.

Grades
Writing: B-
Acting:B+
Directing:B-
Overall Grade: B-

2003-11-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

Hacking Big Mouth Billy Bass
Check out this funny page of Big Mouth Billy Bass Hacks using Linux to reprogam the fish to say any number of funny or awkward phrases. The movie link takes you to a page demonstrating the hack using Simpson's quotes and famous political sayings by Nixon and Clinton.
Of course, no matter how much fun this project is, it will likely draw yet another Chilling DMCA letter from the manufacturer, claiming they somehow "own" your right to take apart and tinker with something you bought at Walmart.

Via Boing Boing

2003-11-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

FatWallet Sues Best Buy and Target over DMCA Notice
Following up on the hot new trend started by us at EFF, FatWallet has filed for a Declaratory Judgment against Best Buy and Target to stop them from sending nasty Cease and Desist Letters complaining about publishing Thanksgiving Day Sale prices a few days early and subpoenaing them for the identity of the person who posted them.
This is not the first time this has happened to FatWallet. Last year, around Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart sent similar notices complaining about its sale prices being listed on the site before they were officially released. The problem with this theory (and use of the DMCA to enforce it) is that factual information, such as the price of a new DVD player, is not protectable by copyright law. Copyright law only protects works of creative authors and artists, like musicians or book writers. If I advertise that I am selling my car for $5,000, that's not something "creative" but rather a fact -- the car now costs $5,000. That's not to say that Best Buy might not be able to bring a law suit against someone who stole the pricing information by claiming its a trade secret or misappropriation of "hot news" under the NBA v. Motorola case, but trying to cram their lawsuit into copyright law is an abuse of that law and just encourages others to try to do the same. (See our recent battles with Diebold).
Link to FatWallet's Complaint
Link to FatWallet Press Release

2003-11-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

Posner Raises Good Questions Re: Copyright Misuse
Judge Posner et al just issued a very interesting opinion in Assessment v. WIREdata on how far copyright owners can go with licenses to protect data or knowledge that isn't copyrightable.
Update:
Here are some interesting quotes from the opinion:
"This is a case about the attempt of a copyright owner to use copyright law to block access to data that not only are neither copyrightable nor copyrighted, but were not created or obtained by the copyright owner.... It would be appalling if such an attempt could succeed."
"To try by contract or otherwise to prevent the municipalities from revealing their own data, especially when, as we have seen, the complete data are unavailable anywhere else, might constitute copyright misuse."
"The argument for applying copyright misuse ... is that for a copyright owner to use an infringement suit to obtain property protection, here in data, that copyright law clearly does not confer, hoping to force a settlement or even achieve an outright victory over an opponent that may lack the resources or the legal sophistication to resist effectively, is an abuse of process."
Not exactly the most eloquent language, but a strong stance against abuse of copyrights. Hopefully, we will see more activity in courts against those who use copyright law as a weapon against lawful alternatives or competitors instead of simply as a means of protecting their actual rights.

2003-11-25T11:42:00.000-08:00

Awesome Cat In The Hat Review
Great review of CITH, slamming it Seussian style.

2003-11-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

Fundraising Money Map
A very cool Money Map that shows which parts of the country are giving to each presidential candidate.

2003-11-20T11:34:00.000-08:00

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?
Excellently designed flash quiz where you try to guess between geek and killers. Who knew obsession had such subtle flavors?

via Boing Boing

2003-11-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

Smart Librarians, Smart Choices
Great archive of gov-doc librarians from UofMinn and their favorite books/documents. Gotta love people who love their jobs!

via Boing Boing

2003-11-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

Cutest Cell Phone Ever.

2003-11-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

Let Them Sing It For You
Pretty excellent little java app that sings lyrics for you from sampled words out of pop songs.

via Boing Boing

2003-11-16T01:49:00.000-08:00

TV Quality Explained
Great article explaining the difference between high quality television signals and screens. I'm not much of a videophile, so I haven't been paying all that much attention to the HDTV push, but I've always been a little skeptical of how "revolutionary" it is. This article confirms that notion while still hyping some of the more recent revolutions in viewing quality.

2003-11-15T12:43:00.000-08:00

Cool 3D Map of the London Tube System
I'm a sucking for 3D CG renderings, even since the days of Wally Bee. Here's a nifty one of the London Underground.
via Boing Boing

2003-11-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

Rockin' Art Album Galley
Pretty cool gallery of theoretical rock album covers by modern artists.
On an IP note, it's unclear from the site whether or not they got permission to use names and likenesses for the project. One hopes that even if they didn't, most of the artists would recognize the fandom nature of the effort and the importance of free expression in the art world -- not to mention that all the proceeds go to charity.

via Boing Boing

2003-11-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

Making Of A Brick: Lego Manufacturing Demo
Great pixel/flash piece on how Legos are made. Near perfect interface too!
via Boing Boing

2003-11-12T00:51:00.000-08:00

Matrix Revolutions Sux
So I saw Matrix Revolutions tonight. And man, did it suck. I mean, it really stank. Unlike loads of other sci-fi geeks, I actually thought M:Reloaded had some decent parts (e.g. skip past the worthless Rave/Zion sequence and all the mechanical love scenes between Neo and Trinity). But the third and final installment of the triology had me looking at my watch within half an hour of the opening credits. Here's why: Little to No Ass-Kicking
In the first Matrix movie, there was mundo ass-kicking. In fact, the movie starts out with Trininty kicking serious cop-ass. Then you get Morpheus kicking Neo-ass in the gym simulation and then much ass-kicking when they try to rescue Morpheus, including the final showdown with Agent Smith. More than simple, beautiful fight scenes, ass-kicking is a central theme to any underdog vs. the Man movie: the good guys are better than the bad guys but just outnumbered, outgunned, outspent, etc, etc.
In the second movie, you had less ass-kicking. Oh sure, there were a few good scenes (Neo vs. Frechman's henchmen, Neo vs. the Smiths, Morpheus vs. the Agent on top of the truck) but they were few and far between, surrounded by lots of robotic dialogue and didactic plot explanations. Plus, the ass-kicking didn't really satisfy any dramatic tension. In the first film, all the fight were necessary because there was a goal to achieve: saving Morpheus, getting back to the ship, becoming the One. In the second movie, all the major fight scenes were dramatically flat. Neo fights Smith because he wants to but can (and does) leave whenever he wants. Morpheus fights the agent on top of the trailer while they wait for something interesting to happen, i.e. Neo to save them. Neo's fight with the henchmen is simply a delay tactic so that Morpheus and Trinity can get away with the Key Master. The best battles in any movie or book are the ones which put everything on the line and are climatic moments in each Act. Matrix II pretty much eliminated that whole component, which was intrinsically present in each fight scene in Matrix I.
Matrix III didn't even have any real ass-kicking to speak of. There are a few token moments for Trinity to show off her patented freeze-time moves and there is a small scene where the Oracle's guardian teams up with Morpheus and Trinity to take on the Frenchman (again -- gee, couldn't you recycle some other plot device?). But other than that and the final scene of the movie, which I'll talk about in a second, it's almost all standing around, running away, and looking scared.
WARNING: SPOILERS
Now the Zion battle scene was cool -- don't get me wrong. But it was only cool visually. And even then, it was so complex visually that it was often hard to comprehend all the different elements juxtaposed onto the screen at the same time. All that aside, there was still no ass-kicking. The humans basically get their butt kicked for 40-some-odd minutes only to have some last minute heroic by Jada Pinkett Smith (one of the few actors who actually earned her pay in the flick). The scene with Smith flying her ship toward Zion at kamakazi velocity is partcularly telling because it shows Morpheus at his most impotent moment in the movie -- clumsy and questioning and unsure of himself. Gone is the confident, ass-kicking Morpheus that Lawrence Fishburn made so cool in Matrix I. He is replaced by a limp overweigh fish who simply takes up screen space.
Now, the final scene. Neo fights the enhanced Agent Smith. This was a pretty cool scene. And definitely had ass-kicking potential. In fact, Neo gets in some pretty good licks. It's a showdown scene again, with everything on the line. And then it falls flat. Neo is defeated and simply surrenders, somehow destroying Smith in the process and ending the movie. That's it. No dramatic come-from-behind victory. No ingenius human resourcefulness to outsmart the machines. Just some weird techno-hocus pocus and boom, we're on to sunny sunrises and happily ever afters. Soooo disappointing!
I'll give the Wachowski brothers credit for a few things: they know how to create an incredible world of technology and illusion and how to visually film action sequences. But they failed at almost everything else. Even the homages/allusions to Star Wars and Superman were obtrusive and too similar in all the wrong ways.
To sum it all up, I'm glad the trilogy is over. Hopefully Larry and Andy W. can now move on and try to make another original movie, hopefully with some more original ideas and some dramatic tension. But as for me, I'll stick with the One True Matrix and try to forget there ever was a Two or Three.

2003-11-11T12:07:00.000-08:00

Mmmm... Meatrix
Two flash links to enjoy: The End of the World (not totally work safe) (Thanks John!) and The Meatrix.

2003-11-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

We're back...
14 Hours over the northern Pacific and we're back home in our happy new home. It's a little odd to live in an actual house after a month of hotel rooms, but we're getting used to it :-) Still recovering from jet lag and getting used to the cold weather, though. More details on the trip forthcoming, but it was overall amazing. Many pictures to post too, so watch for that in the coming days.

2003-10-28T21:30:00.000-08:00

Another QuickBlog: In Saigon for a few days
We hit Saigon the other day to an onslaught of rain. But that passed quickly and actually cooled things off quite a bit. After playing a little bit of musical chairs with our hotel (they put us on the "fourth floor", which actually turned out to be the sixth floor -- with no elevator), we settled in and have enjoyed scouting out the city. The War Remnants museum was particularly powerful, featuring the largest collection of photographs from the "Unjust American War" as they call it here. (Vietnam has had so many wars on its soil in the last 100 years, you have to work to keep track of them all).
The food here has also been exceptional, both Vietnamese as well as French. Commerce and creativity are both alive and well here in communist Vietnam, that's for sure, both in Saigon and North.
The other amazing site we checked out was the Cu Chi tunnels -- 250 km of underground tunnels that the VC used to terrorize and attack American troops during the war. The tunnels are architectural masterpieces, with all kind of ingenious security devices as well as engineering for water, air, food, light, etc.
That's all I have time for now; we're off tomorrow to Siem Reap in Cambodia for a few days before we start to get ready for our journey back to the States.

2003-10-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

QuickBlog: Hoi An, Vietnam center of reverse engineering
found a moment during our trip to do a quick blog post. The trip has been fantastic. Hanoi was surprisingly open and accessible, with great restaurants, shopping, and cultural sites. We also took a three-day kayaking trip on Halong Bay, which was spectacular and then rode the night train (an experience not far from drinking the wine) up to Sapa, in the mountains near the Chinese Border.
We then ventured down to Hue, the old imperial capital; swung over to Danang/China Beach for a few days and are currently in Hoi An, a somewhat sleepy little town along the coast and roughly in the middle of the country.
There are many wonderful things about Hoi An, which I plan to write about later, but one of the most striking is their ability to reverse engineer. You see, one of the most common commercial activities in Hoi An is tailoring. Only 99% of the tailoring is essentially copying styles and clothes out of Western catalogues. You literally walk into a shop and look through a stack of them (J Crew, Nordstrom, DKNY, etc, etc) and pick out something you like. The seamstress then shows you numerous rolls of available fabric -- anything from Thai silk to cotton to synthetic blends. Then they take your measurements and 24 hours later, you have the product for half to a third the price you would pay in the West.
Of course, none of this is new to anyone who has travelled in the East (I have not, so it was a bit of an introduction to me). But what was perhaps the most striking part to me was the techniques used. Study, analysis, measurement, development, application, and testing. All of the same skills that one needs to construct compatible computer programs or otherwise unearth and replicate fundamental components of human knowledge and technology. Of course, none of the clothesmaking here in Hoi An is digital, so they don't have to worry about things like the DMCA Anti-circumvention rules, but they probably would have some tricky copyright issues to deal with, if Vietnam seemed to care about such things.
Anyway, we're off to see some Cham Dynasty ruins tomorrow at My Son and then down to Saigon for a few days. After that, we're hoping to do some riverboating in the Meiking Delta and then perhaps even a small detour into Cambodia to check out the Ankhor Wat ruins. The trip has gone by rather fast but it's been a wonderful step away from work and life-as-usual. If we get more time in Saigon, I'll try to post more details about our days and probably a few more random musings.

2003-10-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Aaron Swartz On Poison Dart Guns
Aaron has a great post raising some good questions and scenarios for why tranquilizer dart guns make much more sense for society to sell than real guns. No doubt readers will write in about the fact that real guns will always be available on the black market and then cops will be at a disadvantage. I just hope that they also acknowledge the real statistical percentages where that happens vs. other preventable gun violence.

2003-10-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

Parting Shot: Cost of War
As we take off, check out the Cost of War for Iraq. Then compare it to what we could be accomplishing in the areas of pre-school, kids health, public education, college scholarships, and public housing if we were to spend the money in those areas instead.

2003-10-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Headin' out of the Country
Tara is finally back from her cross-country trip to visit her folks and so ends our three months apart. It's been pretty hard on me. You know what they say about men suffering more during separations than women? It's totally true, at least from my perspective. I suppose I should have written more about it here but EFF and the new house and everything have been taking up so much of my energy and psychic time! In any case, all is well again. We leave on Sunday for Ha noi, Vietnam via Hong Kong. Our good friends Chip & Tracy loaned us their supremo-mondo backpacks (they took them around the world for six months recently) and Dad just tracked down a Vietnam simcard for the GSM, so we're pretty much set. Doubt I'll blog much from the trip, but who knows. If not, check back mid-November for new news.

2003-09-27T01:41:00.000-07:00
Funny RIAA Parody Song
A pretty funny RIAA parody song. Not that I would ever endorse such hostile actions.

2003-09-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

OCLC sues Hotel over Dewey Decimal system
The Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit organization that I've used numerous times in the past to locate library holdings, is suing a New York-based hotel for infringing its "Dewey Decimal" trademark.

The hotel is described as: "Each floor is dedicated to one of 10 Dewey categories. The 60 rooms are named for specific topics, such as room 700.003 for performing arts, with appropriate books inside."

What a ridiculous suit. The Dewey Decimal System was created in 1873, which means as far as copyright law is concerned, even if its "original" enough to have copyright, it's most likely in the public domain (depends on when Mr. Dewey died). OCLC is, of course, bringing a trademark claim because of this problem, but it will be interesting to see how they get around the Dastar problem, where trademark cannot be used to protect copyrighted works that have fallen into the public domain. Not to mention the fact that Dewey Decimal is almost certainly generic -- I mean really, who thinks of it as a product associated with a particular vendor, let alone a "product" in the first place?

Update: Jenny over at The Shifted Librarian points out that OCLC claims that it tried to resolve its dispute with The Library Hotel for over two years via letter and that all they really wanted was attribution. If this is the case, then I'm much more sympathetic to their claim (although I'm still not sure they have a valid mark in the DDC). On the other hand, they've asked for damages that are 3x the Hotel's profits this year. Doesn't seem like that's in line with their earlier position.

2003-09-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

Finally, A DMCA Plaintiff loses...

A little late in the posting, but a few weeks ago Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer denied Chamberlain's motion for summary judgment on its DMCA claim against Skylink. Chamberlain makes garage door openers; Skylink made a kind of "universal remote" for garage door openers, so if you lost your original, you could buy their cheaper replacement rather than forking over extra $$ for the official Chamberlain replacement.

There's a lot to say about this decision, including the number of questions that it didn't answer, but I'll have to deal with that later. Right now, I have quite a few RIAA fires to put out. In the meantime, check out these links:
IP Justice
EFF

2003-08-25T23:36:00.000-07:00
Arnold can't handle the Facts, Figures

The Big A finally admitted he has no plan for California's budgetary woes. In fact, he admits that he doesn't even care what possible solutions look like:

"'The public doesn't care about facts and figures,' Schwarzenegger told a gathering of several hundred reporters after the inaugural meeting of his 'Economic Recovery Council', a group of 19 business leaders headed by Warren Buffett and George Shultz.

'They've heard figures for the past five years,' the bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-candidate said. 'What the people want to know is if you're tough enough to clean house.' "

Yeah, I mean, really.. who cares about FACTS or FIGURES. Cause money grows on trees and I'm sure the California economy will simply magically get back on track... reality has been our problem all along; once we get a governor who has more experience with science fiction and fantasy, we'll be able to pull ourselves out of the deficit and have blue skies over Mars once again... Or is it a dream?

2003-08-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

More Me In The Media

Lisa Rein has archived my recent appearance on KTVU's Bay Area People talking about file-sharing and the RIAA crackdown..

2003-08-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Grand Theft America
An excellent little flash presentation about the way in which Katherine Harris manipulated Florida's vote in the 2000 election by eliminating thousands of eligible voters simply because their names and birthdates were similar to those of convicted felons. Hard to believe, but sadly, true.

2003-08-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

File-sharing Fine Art? Phhlleeeazzzee

Apparently, the RIAA and MPAA is trying to recruit the fine art folks to battle onlne "piracy". I find it ironic that they are recruiting these folks, since fine art is an excellent example of where digital compressed files pail sharply in comparison to the actual original art work. Fortunately, the fine art industry isn't trying to watermark or prevent copying. In the end, it will probably end up helping their goodwill with customers and selling more pieces of actual art

2003-08-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

RIAA loses nationwide subpoena battle

As some of you undoubtedly know, the RIAA has been attempting to subpoena the identities of P2P file-sharers nationwide through a single courthouse in Washington D.C. In response, MIT and Boston College both challenged a set of RIAA subpoenas delivered to them as violations of Due Process and fairness under the Federal Court Rules. The Court just ruled: RIAA loses.

2003-07-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Me On KQED's Forum

I was on KQED's forum this morning (calling in from St. Louis, where I'm defending a deposition tomorrow). The topic was Online Music Piracy. Check here to listen, as long as they keep the link up (.rm, btw).

Being on the radio was an interesting experience. I've done media before, but never in a debate/call-in talk show format. I think my points were well-taken, but I'm not sure that I was able to place my comments exactly where I wanted them. There were four guests, so airtime was scarce, but I think the others were a bit better at adapting their themes to fit the questions of the host. For example, the RIAA guy and the Berman guy both basically answered every question with "it's stealing/it's theft/it's like shoplifting" which is, of course, their refrain. Our refrain is "look -- we can solve this problem if we just make file sharing legal and pay artists." But because the questions ranged from "Is file sharing legal" to "What about Apple's iTunes music store?" it was hard to both formulate an answer AND establish the theme on the fly. I suppose over time it will become easier.

Update: Lisa Rein has archived the KQED show in .aiff and .mp3 formats, so feel free to check it out here as well.

Further Update: Lisa has officially blogged the KQED show.

2003-07-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

Top 11 Signs your ISP has given you up to the RIAA as a dangerous KaZaA user

link
11. All the files in your favorite MP3 play list are now "Lars Ulrich sings 'Feelings'"
10. Your KaZaA rating changes to "Defendant"
9. Eminem insults your mother in his next single
8. Recording Industry Association of America president Hillary Rosen sends you e-mail messages with embedded .wav files of heavy breathing
7. All the spam in your inbox is from Motion Picture Association CEO Jack Valenti
6. You get a bill retroactively charging you 99 cents per downloaded track. Total bill: $29,700
5. A Tommy Mottola screen saver suddenly pops up on your computer
4. Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer picket your home with signs that read, "Piracy don't pay my bills"
3. You receive a request from someone using outdated hacker wannabe slang claiming a friend said you could "hook me up" with the latest Snoop Dogg album
2. You suddenly have numerous songs from someone named Avril Lavigne
1. CD-shaped crop circles appear in your backyard

2003-07-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Whitehouse.gov: Photos of Bush reviewing State of Union word-for-word

Check out this photo. It will be interesting to see if it stays up on the site in the coming weeks and months.

2003-07-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

Invasion of the Duckies

The Mirror reports that thousands of rubber duckies will start invading American shores this fall. The invasion comes after an 11-year journey from China, where the duckies were tossed overboard and then subsequently channels around the Pacific via ocean currents.

Quick, go to Orange Alert!

2003-07-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Mac "Switch" Parody Ads

Some funny ads playing off Apple's Switch campaign. The Amish one and Jesus ones are particularly funny.

2003-07-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Spectacular Attacks

A cool but creepy flash cartoon.

2003-07-10T23:17:00.000-07:00

One month at EFF

So i've been at EFF for about a month, give or take a few days. It's been an amazing experience. The people are truly fantastic and the work is thrilling and important. Some days I wake up and wonder if this is just a summer gig and I'll have to go back to law firm life at some point. Perhaps I will, but not for a while.

The kind of work we're doing is also different than I'm used to. Often times we'll be working on traditional legal work -- briefs, discovery, memos, analysis, etc. But other times we'll simply be sitting around discussing new developments and debating what positions we all should take on whatever the latest issue is. Or we'll be brainstorming what legal remedies someone might have in a given situation where they're being exploited or unfairly censored. It's in those moments that I feel the most unusual -- as if I'm somehow not doing my job and should be back to being "productive." Amazing what a switch it's been from a culture where that feeling is the norm to one where it is the aberation.

2003-06-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

My first Amicus Brief for EFF

I've written and filed my first amicus brief for EFF. For the non-lawyers among you, an amicus brief is a "friend of the court" brief that helps a court understand the important issues in a case outside of the actual conflict between the two sides who are suing each other. In this case, the motion picture studios and the director's guild are suing two sets of companies, one that edits out offensive scenes from DVDs and the other that provides technology that allows you to mute and/or fast forward through offensive scenes. While I personally don't like censoring movies, I think everyone has the right to view movies in the privacy of their own homes in any way they want. That includes using software to skip over the nasty parts.

Here is EFF's general site for the case.

Here is the brief.

2003-06-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

Another Good Lessig Quote:
"The RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America. It is not the Recording Industry and Artists Association of America. It says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle."

2003-06-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

The Stagnation of the Public Domain

A very cool graphic from Cabinet Magazine showing exactly how Copyright Extensions are choking off the public domain.

2003-06-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Martha Stewart Cellbunk Design Contest

Ahh yes, concrete proof of the positive effect that the Internet and Photoshop have had on Free Speech

2003-06-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

Digital Animation of the SARS Virus

Cool Quicktime Anime of the SARS CoronaVirus. Nasty stuff.

2003-06-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Anti-Rape Shock Jacket Available for Women

Speaking of non-lethal weaponry, MIT and Advance Research Apparel have just come out with a No-Contact Jacket for women. The jacket contains an electrical network that can be activated by women if they feel threatened or find themselves walking through a dangerous area. If an attacker grabs them -- BAM! -- 80,000 volts. Unlike other self-defense devices (e.g. pepper spray, mace, sharp knives, keys), this one can't be taken away from the user and used against them. it will be interesting to see if things like this catch on.

2003-06-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

Non-Lethal Police Weaponry

So this is another big rant-arena for me. Why do police use guns that kill people? I've never understood this. There seems to me only two justifications: (1) Self-defense and (2) To subdue particularly tough criminals, e.g. drug-crazed assailants.

Yet from what I've read, 99% of police captures do not require use of lethal force. Rather, many are achieved through communication and negotiation; others through non-lethal force. There is no reason for cops to use guns, especially when guns can kill folks.

For example, incredible advances have been made in the use of tasers, tranquilizers, and other non-lethal weaponry. Many of these devices can be used to subdue criminals and protect officers. Even if the criminals have guns of their own (which only a small percentage actually do), patrol officers do not need to return the fire with guns of their own if their goal is to subdue (as opposed to the criminal intent to kill).

Reducing the need for cops to carry guns will not only save citizen lives but could also save officer lives, since apprehension situations will likely de-escalate.

2003-05-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Movin' On Up...

I'm in the process of moving back to the Bay Area and starting at EFF, so that's the reason for no postings recently. I'll try to resume next week depending on how steep the EFF learning curve is...

2003-05-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Media Consolidation Gobbles Up Independent Thought/Programming

2003-05-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

Bush's Resume

Objective: To be the worst president in U.S. History

Here's a funny post of W's accompishments to date as president:

* Attacked and took over two countries.
* Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
* Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
* Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
* Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
* First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
* First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
* First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
* Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.
* In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
* Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
* Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
* Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
* Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
* Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.
* Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

2003-05-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

US Forces OK Target Practice on Iraqi Looters

Bob Herbert has a great column on the recent controversy re: shooting Iraqi looters. Here's a clip:

Now, in the dawn of the 21st century, when this nation above all others is supposed to be a model of progress and fairness and justice and due process, the U.S. military was to be given the high sign to start shooting Iraqis like dogs in the street.

Question: Did Bush and his Warhawks fail to anticipate looting and now must resort to assasination as a solution? Or did they plan such tactics from the beginning and just forget to include them in their press conferences on how we planned to free the Iraqi people from tyranny?

2003-05-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

DVD Review: Annie Get Your Gun

So I never really watched many musicals growing up. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that no one from my family has ever particularly enjoyed them. Sure, we would go see CATS or Phantom every once in a while, but there we were never the Singing' Dancin' Schultzs by any means. The result is that I've missed out on most of the famous Hollywood msuicals like Guys And Dolls, Oliver!, Annie, etc.

Annie Get Your Gun is cheesy; there is no doubt about that. It's a classic love story of mismatched girl (Annie) and boy (Frank), he of fame and pride, she of common roots and good heart. Still, because of their excpetional talents (shooting and signing), they end up working together and falling in love. Pride and competition intercede to force an Act 3 where Annie and Frank square off personally and professionally to determine who will wear the holsters in their relationship. Perfect plots for community theater and schoolroom musicals.

Plotwise, however, the movie never lives up to its potential as far as becoming a true fairy tale. In the end, Annie must suppress her insurmountable talents in order to assuage the bruised ego of her lover/partner/competitor sureshot Frank. While I realize Annie is from a past generation of movie making (1950), it's interesting to note the contrast between a canonical film like this and the new breed of fairy tale equality emerging in films like Shrek and The Matrix. Hopefully, this will continue to be the trend.

Cheese aside, there are two very funny and endearing scenes in the movie that really make it exceptional. The first, is Betty Hutton's rendition of "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" which is both catchy and funny, quaint and entertaining. And who can't like a number where the backup singers are four kids aged 5 - 12.

The second is Frank and Annie's duet "Anything You Can Do". Hutton (Annie) and Howard Keel (Frank) lack chemistry during most of the movie, but during this song, they soar together through the various tit-for-tat challenges called out in the lyrics as if they were running a decathalon against each other for First Prize. The song builds and builds and leaves you wanting the competition to continue rather than end.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the DVD, however, are the outtakes. See, if turns out that Judy Garland was originally cast as "Annie" but had to drop out of the protection "for bad health." I think we all know what they meant now. Anyway, MGM archived some of the her scenes before she was replaced by commedian Betty Hutton in the final production. On the DVD, they include clips of Garland doing versions of "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" and "I'm an Indian Too" Both are less than spectacular and clearly show Garland battling the DTs and/or other withdrawl symptoms. An interesting peek into the life of one of Hollywood's most famous and troubled talents.

2003-05-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

P2P Systems Offer Useful Market Research

ABC News reports that radio station program managers are looking to a new source for what today's teens want to hear: P2P networks like KaZaA, Morpheus, and Grokster.

Turns out that nowhere else on the face of the planet can offer more current realtime insights into popularity and demand for certain groups and certain songs. Funny how putting consumers directly in touch with artists and music can do that.

And check out this part of the story:

In the weeks before rapper 50 Cent's new album Get Rich Or Die Tryin' hit stores, Big Champagne saw his songs were queried and swapped like crazy, prompting Interscope Records to release the album five days sooner....The album is now a huge hit.

"We have a demand curve that precedes the introduction of new content," Garland said.

...snip...

"When you really boil it down to what's hot on the downloads," Demery said, "it's the same stuff people are buying, the same stuff people are requesting, the same stuff the radio stations are playing."

So let's see. 5 days before its release, 50 Cent's songs were being "swapped like crazy" yet now the album is a huge hit and selling like hotcakes. And what people are downloading is the same stuff people are buying.

But wait? Didn't Jack Valenti and the RIAA tell us that no one can compete with free? Who are these folks who keep buying CDs instead of downloading the songs for free? Why won't they help Jack prove that swapping is evil? They should be arrested, damn it. Oh right ... if Jack had his way, they would be.

2003-05-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Music Swappers Are Also Shoppers

Web traffic tracker Neilsen/NetRatings reports that Internet users who consistently download music are more likely to buy music, both online and retail, than average internet users.

But wait? What about the MPAA/RIAA battlecry that they can't compete with free?

2003-05-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

Popup Ads Patented

MSNBC reports that a porn site owner has patented the method of using popup ads to prevent web site viewers from exiting the site. How annoying.

Part of me would want to invalidate this patent. On the other hand, if he sues people and it is upheld, most companies will likely stop using them rather than pay licensing fees. Could be a nice example of patents used for social good.

2003-05-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Obligatory post re: RIAA-college Student Settlement

So John has challenged me to comment on the fact that all four students sued by the RIAA have settled their cases. Here are my comments:

First, none of the students admitted any liability.

Second, they each agreed to pay between $12,000 and $17,000 over the course of the next few years or so to the RIAA.

Third, the payments are predicated on their own individual file sharing, not the search engine systems they were running on campus computers.

Conclusion:I think the RIAA is the loser here. First off, in the PR world, they would have benefited much more in their Scare Campaign if they had either gotten an official legal judgment against the students or at least gotten the students to admit what they did was wrong If the massive RIAA can't even get an 18 year old college student to admit infringing their copyrights, they'll have a really hard time corraling the other 40 million P2P users into doing so.

Second, none of the cases seems to have settled based on liability for the search engines the students were running but rather on their own liability for possessing traded songs. In other words, the RIAA didn't want to push these suits and face another Morpherus/Grokster decision against them. I think it is no coincidence that a settlement happened after the Morpheus decision was announced.

Finally, even though $12,000-$17,000 is a lot of money for a college student, I'm guessing it barely pays the attorneys fees for the RIAA. Thus, once again, none of this money will actually go to the artists who wrote or performed the songs allegedly infringed. Until the RIAA actually shows that the artists are earning more money, I think they will have a hard time morally justifying their digital assault on the youth of america.

p.s. Happy John? :)

2003-05-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Warren Buffett: Bush Tax Cut Hurts Working America; Only Helps Rich Folks Like Me

You know you're in trouble when the Second Richest man in the World thinks your Tax Cut plan is unfair and gives him too much money.

Reuters reports that Warren Buffett has come out against the Bush Tax Cut plan as unfair:

Asked about President Bush's plan to eliminate the tax on companies' dividends, Buffett said it would unfairly benefit rich people like himself, at the expense of ordinary workers.

"He (Bush) is not changing the amount the American public sends the government," Buffett said, "just changing who does it." The only way to cut taxes is to cut government spending, Buffett added.

2003-04-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

US Gov't on Justificaiton for Iraq: We weren't lying; we were emphasizing

ABC News reports that senior sources inside the White House are not admitting that despite all the rhetoric from the White House, WMD were not the primary reason for the war. Instead, officials say, we went to war with Iraq and put American lives on the line so that the US could "flex its muscle to show it would fight terrorism". In other words, we wanted to show that we could beat up any country that tried to mess with us on the global playground and Iraq just happened to the little nerdy kid with glasses. Gee, thanks for being honest with us George.

Of course, Europeans thought the solution was to get a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Gee, what a radical idea.

2003-04-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

US Army Officer: Hard To Tell Difference Between Iraq and a Grenade?

Reuters reports that U.S. troops have fired on a crowd of Iraqi protestors. If you believe the Iraqis, they've killed 13 and wounded 75. The purpose of the protest? To ask the troops to leave an Iraqi school that was being used as a U.S. Army barrack so that the children in Falluja could start taking classes again.

Even if you don't believe the Iraqis, however, I find the U.S. Army's version of the story almost as troubling. First, the commanding officer in charge said that it started when between 100 and 200 chanting people approached his men. Then two men in the crowd opened fire from behind the crowd on a motorcycle. Then "some people" in the crowd also fired. So according to the U.S. Army account, a handful of gunmen fired on the US Troops and the US response was to fire on the entire crowd of 200 people, even though 95% of them were innocent and unarmed and engaging in conduct that in this country would be protected by the First Amendment.

But it gets better. Another US officer at the scene said that the US Troops fired because they were confused by the crowd firing shots into the air. So what do they do? They fire into the crowd, killing people, just in case it was a threat to their safety.

But here is the best part: According to the same US officer, a Lieutenant Colonel:

"There were a lot of people who were armed and who were throwing rocks. How is a U.S. soldier to tell the difference between a rock and a grenade?"

Gee, because they don't explode? Don't we train our troops to know the difference between a rock and a grenade? And even if we don't know right away, does that give us permission to fire at will into a crowd of mostly innocent people? Why not just retreat from the gun fire or isolate the individual gunmen?

Gripe gripe gripe. I know, I'm full of gripes today. But still, imagine if this scenario had happened in America.. say in San Francisco. Some wacked out protestor pulls out a gun and starts firing at the SF police. Do the SF police pull out machine guns, kill 13 people, and wound 75 people? I don't think so. If we want Iraq to become a democracy, we need to start treating them with the respect that citizens of such a system deserve. If we don't respect their rights, how do we expect to earn their trust?

2003-04-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

EFF Bound

So it's official. I'm headed to EFF to become one of their staff IP attorneys, starting in June. It's a pretty exciting opportunity, especiallly in light of the recent Grokster ruling. Hopefully, I'll get to work on the appeal defense as well as the various DMCA cases around the country. I'm primarily going to be a litigator, but I suspect there will also be opportunties to help participate in the legislative process and other public policy and quasi-public policy activities.

At the same time that we're excited about this opportunity, it is a bit bittersweet. I've really enjoyed working at Fish & Richardson and have found several of the lawyers here to be among the small subset that are smart, funny, hard working, and yet still humane. I'm really hoping that I'll get to work as co-counsel with them on future EFF cases.

That's all for now. Tara and I are going out tonight for sushi to celebrate! If you want to know more, email away...

2003-04-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

Central District Trial Court Rules In Favor of File Swappers Grokster & Streamcast

Judge Steven Wilson of the C.D. Cal. has just issued a summary judgment order in favor of the file swapping companies and against the Movie and Music companies.

Bottom line: Distributing software that can be used to infringe copyrights isn't illegal. Unless you can actively control your user base, you aren't responsible for their actions.

2003-04-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Every Unhappy Family Has Its Own Bilinear Influence Function

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a great article on the scientific study of couples who argue and what characteristics predict stable and long-lasting relationships. Here's an interesting snip:

Dave: "We got to keep the communication lines open, we got to try to figure out how we can work on it. Some bills we got we can't pay off."

Angie: "The bills aren't the issue."

Dave: "Usually it's how can I try to please you and how you"

Angie: "No, I can please myself. I get happiness from my job, I get happiness from work, I get happiness from you, but I feel stifled ..."

In the last 24 years, Mr. Gottman and his colleagues have recorded thousands of such conversations, using careful techniques to measure and notate the participants' emotions each step of the way. After Angie and Dave's talk, Mr. Gottman says, his assistants reviewed a videotape, scoring each sentence and facial expression on such measures as disgust (-3), affection (+4), whining (-1), and contempt (-4). (Angie's grimace as she said "The bills aren't the issue" was scored as contempt.)

2003-04-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

What a great name for a protest group...

The Anti-Harsh Intellectual Property Rights Law Action Alliance is protesting new IP laws in Taiwan that would allow the government to prosecute copying CDs for friends, purchasing books from abroad for friends, or saving factual information from the Internet on one's computer, even if no complaint or lawsuit is filed.

No doubt these laws are a result of pressure from the U.S. Trade Representative.

2003-04-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

Smoking Gun Posts CNN's Template for Cheney Obit

Opps! CNN accidentially posted its pre-fabbed obits for Dick Cheney and other famous world leaders. And they say only the winners get to write history.

2003-04-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Ethics of Tipping: Why Record Companies Would Have Still Made Money Under Napster

Russell Roberts has an interesting essay in the Library of Economics and Liberty about the economics of Napster. In it, he argues that Napster would have helped improve innovation, quality, and competition in the online music market without driving the RIAA out of business. He argues two points:

First, he notes that people do not always choose something that is free over something that costs money. As an example, he points to tipping in restaurants. None of us are required to tip our servers. In fact, we could go through life only paying exactly what the bill is. Why do we tip? Social norms. Society has come to expect that we will pay more than we owe in these situations even though we could "steal" our service at every meal. Moreover, tipping has increased over the years with the cost of living, now averaging around 20% of the bill. Hardly the trend the RIAA analysis would leave you to expect.

Second, Roberts makes an interesting argument that allowing "theft" of music (which I do not agree is what Napster allowed, fyi) would actually improve the market for digital downloading instead of killing it. He points out that when car stereos were being stolen by theives at will in the 1980s and 1990s, police tried to enforce theft laws but were unable to keep up with the number of thefts because theives had become so efficient. So in response, car stereo makers were forced to innovate. First, they designed pull-out stereos. Then pull-off face plates. Then eventually, stereos that stopped working if they were removed without a proper electronic key. Today, Roberts argues, car stereo theft is almost non-existant in cars with these new technologies. If Napster and other file-sharing systems were allowed to continue, the RIAA would be forced to innovate and compete in the market with new products that successfully and efficiently distributed their content.

2003-04-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Movie Review: Bend It Like Beckham

Friday night was date night. We went to Sammy's Woodfire Pizza and then off to the Landmark for a flick. We chose Bend It Like Beckham which I had read some nice reviews on.

Plot: Bend it is a dual-tracked story about a British Indian girl Jess (short for Jessminder) struggling for independence in her pro-tradition family while at the same time striving for acceptance and success with an all-girls football team (i.e. soccer for you yanks). The plot picks up with Jess in final year of high school. She's an excellent "footballer" with the guys in the park but has never played for an organized team. While playing one day, a woman named "Jules" spots her showing off her skills and asks her to join the local all girls team, the Hounslow Harriers. Of course this would all be fine and good except that according to Jess' family: (a) Indian girls don't play organized soccer, (b) Indian girls don't show off their legs in shorts, and (c) Indian girls who do "boy" things don't find husbands. Culture clash, teen angst, and love triangles ensue.

While somewhat standard for a teen Coming-Of-Age movie, the plot really works for this film. The writing is fresh and the pacing is excellent. Just as you've digested one crisis resolution, another black cloud conveniently appears on the horizon. The final crisis/climax between love and obligation to family and the rugged pursuit of individual dreams is believable, palpable, and heart-felt. Much of this is due to excellent screenwriting by Gurinder Chadra, in particular her ability to convey laughter, anger, exuberation, and sadness between many different characters: family members, teammates, neighbors, lovers, etc. By the end of the movie you not only have a greater appreciation for Jess as a woman and an athlete, but also as a daughter. It's also worth noting that this is one of those multi-issue films -- you know, the kind that bring up almost every social issue to date, e.g. aids, domestic violence, race relations, gay/lesbian issues, etc. However, unlike other films that simply pack each issue on top of the next, Bend It actually does a masterful job of integrating the issues into key plot points to bring greater cohesion and synthesis to the film rather than distraction.

Acting: We were also very impressed with the acting in the film. Jess is played brilliantly by Parminder Nagra, who has an exceptional range of emotion and physical talent for a young actor. She was equally convincing in both her emotional as well as her action scenes. The rest of the cast does a wonderful job as well, but special hats off to Anupam Kher, who plays Jess' dad. His role is often subdued in this movie about girls becoming women, but he plays his key scenes with a kind of reserved warmth and strength that provides exactly the kind of background character development rich films about family growth require.

Downsides:The only downsides to this film are the football scenes. Chadra shows some nice touches in filming them, such as using time-lapse techniques to imply power and quickness, but ultimately unless you already play the game, it's hard to get a feeling for the thrill of the key moments Jess and her teammates live and die by. Still, by the time you get there, you've already bought into the ride and the football scenes become more icing on the cake than anything.

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of five).

p.s. if you go see it, make sure you stay until the end. The outtakes during the credits are not to be missed!

2003-04-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

Anti-American Protests Intensify in Iraq

AP seyz some 20,000 "liberated" Iraqis gathered yesterday in Bagdad to protest US occupation. The U.S. Military was so shocked and awed, apparently, that they actually tried to physically keep the international media from reporting the story.

p.s. A month since the war started. A week since it ended. Number of Weapons of Mass Destruction Confirmed in Iraq: Zero.

2003-04-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

The Seeds We Have Sown

Yahoo News reports that India is considering invading Pakistan under the same preemptive strike theory that the U.S. used to invade Iraq becuase Pakistan harbors terrorist camps.

Are we prepared for this?

2003-04-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Third Circuit Judges Force Third Grader To Run Away With The Circus

Well, not exactly, but I like the idea. Yesterday, the Third Circuit held in a split decision (2-1) that a third grader who got 30 of her classmates to join her petition against going to the circus because it "hurt[s] animals" can still be forced to go on a class field trip to the circus in spite of any First Amendment rights she may have not to go.

I personally don't know that this is a First Amendment issue, but I thought this quote from the concuring opinion (via How Appealing's write up) was particularly offensive and condescending in its dismissal of the potential for third graders to understand issues of animal rights and express their own opinions on the matter:

I think that it is unlikely that the third grade children here could have had knowledge of how a circus treats its animals. After all, I have no such knowledge myself. Yet Amanda induced more than 30 of them to sign a petition that they did not want to go to the circus because it "hurt[s] animals." Of course, I recognize that even adults will sign petitions without understanding the issues involved and in doing so likely will be protected constitutionally, as will be the persons circulating the petitions. But the status of adults differs from that of children at school as in general public officers and agencies have no obligation to protect adults from their own conduct or the importuning by other persons. On the other hand, students are in the temporary custody of the school authorities who must protect them during the period of the custody. See Bd. of Educ. of Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 92 v. Earls, 122 S.Ct. 2559, 2565 (2002). Moreover, an eight- or nine-year old child might not be able to resist the peer pressure to sign a petition and thus might do so even if the petition advocates a position with which he or she does not agree. In any event, a child of such age should not be confronted with having to make the choice to sign or not sign.

Perhaps Senior Circuit Judge Morton I. Greenberg (the author) does not have children or grandchildren that age. But last Christmas, Tara and I spent a week with her nieces -- who are in first grade and kindergarten -- and they both already had a strong sense of how animals should or should not be treated. I think it's a shame that Judge Greenberg underestimates the moral potential of kids to care about these issues.

2003-04-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

Doubleclick Exec Becomes Homeland Security Privacy Czar

The Washington Post reports that Tom Ridge has chosen Nuala O'Connor Kelly to "the privacy post" of the department, which is responsible for vetting proposals and programs the involve collecting and using U.S. citizens' personal information.

This is an interesting pick. Kelly has some street cred from groups like CDT because she helped dig Doubleclick out of the FTC investigation mess it dug itself into a few years ago after it started privately and secretly linking ad banner click-throughs with personal data. Kelly has the chance to mend some of the rift between the Intelligence and Privacy/Civil Liberties communities caused by the USA Patriot Act and the TIA-Poindexter fiascos. Of course, she'd better bring her tightrope walking shoes with her.

2003-04-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Comments, Questions, Suggestions...

I've added a "Comments" feature. Flame on!

2003-04-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

The spoils of war...

Reuters carries a story about the internal reaction to looting in post-war Iraq, both from Iraqis and American soliders:

"Is this your liberation?" one frustrated shopkeeper screamed at the crew of a U.S. tank as a gang of youths helped themselves to everything in his small hardware store and carted booty off in the wheelbarrows that had also been on sale.
"Hell, it ain't my job to stop them," drawled one young marine, lighting a cigarette as he looked on. "Goddamn Iraqis will steal anything if you let them. Look at them."

2003-04-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

EFF breaks down new Super-DMCA bills

Fred at EFF has posted a great analysis of the MPAA's new "Super" DMCA legislation that they are trying to cram down the throat of state legislatures. As usual, it takes control of new technologies out of the hands of consumers and the marketplace and puts them into Hollywood's deep pockets.

2003-04-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Ethics of Anticipating Evil

"I see that a man I know to be a ruffian is pursuing a young girl. I have a gun in my hand -- I kill the ruffian and save the girl. But the death or the wounding of the ruffian has positively taken place, while what would have happened if this had not been I cannot know. And what an immense mass of evil must result, and indeed does result, from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen. Ninety-nine per cent of evil of the world is founded on this reasoning -- from the Inquisition to dynamite bombs."

- Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You

2003-04-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Coalition of the Willfully Infringing?

Blogcritics.org has posted a rumor that Hilary Rosen, former RIAA tyrant, has been chosen to draft the intellectual property laws for the new regime in Iraq.

In essence, my worst nightmare.

2003-04-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

Wargames

The Official DOD website has released the Iraqi Most Wanted Playing Cards that are being handed out to Iraqi citizens to help hunt from Saddam and his compatriots.

Not that the DOD would even reduce a hunt-to-kill mission down to the level of a parlor game.

2003-04-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

Students to RIAA: We're At The Library, Not the Flea Market

USA Today runs an article on student reaction to the RIAA's recent decision to sue students directly for downloading music.

While some students are taking down sites, others are fighting back for what they consider fair use, not theft:

But students on the UCLA campus said this week that they weren't cowed by the threat of legal action. "I'm not scared," says UCLA history major Ean Plotkin, 21, who says he still downloads regularly. "The record labels will never be able to stop downloading. It's too widespread."
In fact, he says, he doesn't see it as theft. "This is exactly like going to the library. Do I have to pay to check out a book? I'm just listening to the song, not selling it."

2003-04-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Copy-protected CDs Incompatible with Modern Radio Stations

The Age has an interesting article about how copy-protected CDs are incompatible with radio stations that use database-driven hard drives to organize thier playlists. Most modern radio stations load songs from CDs onto their hard drives, organize them using advanced database technology, and then have their computers play the songs over the air. This significantly reduces the pain of having to swap CDs, the potential for optical errors on the tracks, and other administrative hassles.

The music industry's recent efforts to copy-protect their CDs, however, have crippled this entire procedure because the stations can no longer load the songs onto their computers. They are forced to once again return to the arcane practice of loading CD into a player and then hitting the "play" button for each song.

Just one more example of how the entertainment industry is willing to roll back any technological advance in the pursuit of mythical security for their content.
Who are the other losers? The artists who allowed their music to be put into those CDs. According to the article, those artists will get virtually no airtime because radio stations who only have computer-based playlists simply ignore artists with incompatible CDs.

2003-04-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a good economist lightblub joke to brighten your day...

Q: How many Chicago School economists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None. If the light bulb needed changing the market would have already done it.

2003-04-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong Tourism Dep't: Opps

Dan Gillmor posted this pre-SARS ad from the Hong Kong Tourism Dep't:

2003-04-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

At Last, Too Late, The Perfect Eldred Soundbite

Larry Lessig has given a nice interview in the Library of Economics and Liberty Journal.

Here, he says in one paragraph exactly why the Court got the Eldred decision wrong:

Lessig: There's an argument that what Congress is doing is respecting the Constitution. And then there's the historical practice which led the Court to do what it did. The argument is, Well, as long as each extension is itself a limited term, then you still have a limited term. That's an argument which ordinary people laugh at. It's the sort of thing your child says when you say, take one cookie and the child takes five. The child says, I did take one. Five times. But it's a technical way of saying Congress is complying with the Constitution. And what the Supreme Court said was that because Congress had done this in the past, that had established a practice of deference to Congress's decisions in the past.

2003-04-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Open Letter from MTU Prez to RIAA: You Never Call, You Never Write...

An interesting letter from the president of MTU, one of the universities where the RIAA sued a student for running an on-campus search engine.

The letter contains a mixture of language. On the one hand, he berates the RIAA for not notifying MTU before suing so that it could follow its own disciplinary procedures and also, interestingly, not returning MTU's phone calls about help enforcing copyrights on campus.

On the other hand, he still offers help to the RIAA in taking action against the student.

Curious to see if this chills the RIAA's cooptation of Universities as copyright cops...

2003-04-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

Vertigo: Then and Now

Vertigo...Then and Now has pictures of how San Francisco looked in the 1958 Hitchcock classic vs. now in 2003. Very interesting. The main difference I noticed was that parking is clearly much worse now :).

2003-04-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Not so fast, RIAA

Initially, I thought that the RIAA had picked their targets well in singling out the four students they sued. Perhaps not.

Joesph Barillari, one of Ed Felten's CS students at Princeton, has done an analysis of the RIAA's complaint against Dan Peng, Princeton Class of 2005. Turns out that Peng's system "Wake" is basically just a search engine. It searches out guest accesible files on Princeton's system and indexes them. Visitors to the site simply type in the name of files they are looking for and Wake will tell them if they're accessible on Princeton's network. If they click on the file listing at Wake, Wake points their web browser to the file location.

Sounds familiar? Yeah, try www.google.com. Googe searches out publicly accessible files (including web pages), indexes them, and then allows users to search for them and link to them. Same exact thing. It's also essentially the same as the Start --> Find... command in the Windows Operating system.

The actual file sharing is performed by part of the Windows operating system called SMB which allows network file transfers when users of the network both run Windows (which includes 95% of all computer users).

So... Unless the RIAA plans to sue Google and Microsoft for contributorily copyright infringement, there's no reason the Princeton student should be any more liable than they are. Of course the RIAA knows better than to pick on huge multi-million or billion dollar companies. They'd rather pray on debt-ridden college students.

p.s. Direct infringement may be a different story. The complaint alleges Peng personally shared music files with the entire Princeton campus. That is likely not a fair use.

2003-04-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

Yahoo posts Top 20 Search terms

Yahoo has done a fine job revamping its Search tool and interface. (Disclosure: A friend of mine is one of the UI architects) One of the cooler feature is the Yahoo! Buzz Index which tracks not only the most popular search terms, but also how many weeks they've been on the chart and recent moves up and down -- kind of like the Billboard charts. A quick, fun insight into popular 'net culture.

2003-04-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

RIAA sues four college students for establishing file swapping networks and trading songs

For the first time, the RIAA has sued individual college students for file swapping songs and setting up indexed networks to locate MP3 files.

Findlaw has made the court filings (called a "Complaint") available:

complaint vs. Jesse Jordan [RPI student]

complaint vs. Joseph Nievelt [Michigan Tech student]

complaint vs. Daniel Peng [Princeton student]

complaint vs. Aaron Sherman [RPI student]

Direct and contributory infringement are claimed in all four cases.

LawGeek

Me Blog Pretty Now

Alright, I've finally committed to making a real effort to blog on a regular basis. So I've invested in both a domain name and a spot on typepad. From here on out, you can catch my musings at lawgeek.net or lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/.

Timber!

Nice little Xmas tree graph from Gallup showing the rise and fall of Bush's approval numbers.

Had A Dream

Cory blogs a great sign in reference to Wendy's recent post about the MLK family suing folks for using King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech without a license.

The Network Effects of Creative Commoning: Why Silver Will Eventually Be More Valuable Than Gold

The real challenge, of course, will be to have artists agree to release their works under such a license. Many people have scoffed at CC licenses, arguing that successful bands and songwriters will never give up their full rights in a blanket form because of profit loss.

To access the second option, on the other hand, you simply download the track and go -- rip, mix, burn. No lawyers to pay, no license to negotiate, no time wasted. Free music and instant gratification, the perfect combo. Soft clay for the creative hands.

So what does this mean for the future world of sampling?

Thou shall not steal mine copyrighted works

Donna picked up a great little hoot positing what Godlike Cease and Desist Letters would look like:

More I, Cringely on E-voting

I, Cringely continues to tear e-voting a new one in his weekly column. I don't necessarily agree that the Canadian system is the way to go, but I gotta love his style. Here are my two favorite graphs:

Diebold Wants to Charge Maryland "Out The Yin-Yang" for Paper Receipts

An email leaked from Diebold Election Systems recently has exposed both the greed and arrogance that the company feels toward democratic challenges to its proprietary technology:

The e-mail from "Ken," dated Jan. 3, 2003, discusses a (Baltimore) Sun article about a University of Maryland study of the Diebold system:

"Ken" later clarifies that he meant "out the yin-yang," adding, "any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive."

Nevada Gambling Experts Refuse to Bet on Diebold E-voting Machines; Require Paper Verification

The State of Nevada has rejected Diebold voting machines for their elections after the machines failed to pass certification tests performed by the State Gambling Commission's slot machine technicians:

The decision to go with Sequoia machines was based in part on a review by the state Gaming Control Board’s slot machine experts who issued a report saying the Diebold machine that was analyzed “represented a legitimate threat to the integrity of the election process.”

The State also issued a proclamation that all electronic voting machines must produce voter-verifiable paper receipts in order to be acceptable. Yay!

I, Cringely, on why it makes no sense to skip voter-verifiable paper receipts for e-voting

Steve Jobs on Digital Music

Rolling Stone has a great interview with Steve Jobs about digital music. I was especially impressed in the paragraph below, where I think he nails both the attaction of file-sharing and the problem with calling it "stealing" on the head:

Bush Sucks: The Movie

Cute little 30 second movie with a great literal and metaphoric message.

via Lisa Rein's Radar

Further Response to WIPO: IP Theft Is Terrorism

I've posted a further response to the issue of IP theft and terrorism because some people have commented and emailed about the trademark issue.

WayBack Machine Catches Bush's Internet Eraser In The Act

Larry Lessig has an excellent post about how the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine caught the Whitehouse trying to re-write its overzealous statements about the Iraq War being over back in May 2003:

Breakup Girl's New Novel

My old pal Lynn Harris a.k.a. Breakup Girl just published her first novel, called Miss Media. Lynn has a great sense of humor and a kick-ass writing style, so definitely check it out. I'll post a review as soon as I finish reading my copy.

eVisa Looks to Get Stamp of Approval from Ninth Circuit

Wendy and I attended the Ninth Circuit argument today in Visa v. JSL Corporation (aka EVISA).[1] The panel was pretty good -- Berzon, Paez, and the new guy Bybee, so we were hopeful that things would go eVisa's way.

WIPO: IP Theft is Terrorism

WIPO Head Kamil Idris told an Australian news correspondent today that "Piracy is like terrorism today and it exists everywhere and it is a very dangerous phenomenon."

How is it dangerous?

Mr Idris described how he had heard of children dying after using counterfeit baby shampoo and warned of the potentially disastrous consequences of relying on machines that had been made using an illicitly duplicated model.

The fact that the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization doesn't understand these differences goes beyond disturbing, and the fact that he uses it to make a big splash in the press is disgusting.

Soylent Dean

Cute poster from the Dean campaign. It's nice to have a sense of humor back in the race.

Love, Actually, is cheesy

GradesWriting: B-Acting:B+Directing:B-Overall Grade: B-

Hacking Big Mouth Billy Bass

Check out this funny page of Big Mouth Billy Bass Hacks using Linux to reprogam the fish to say any number of funny or awkward phrases. The movie link takes you to a page demonstrating the hack using Simpson's quotes and famous political sayings by Nixon and Clinton.

Of course, no matter how much fun this project is, it will likely draw yet another Chilling DMCA letter from the manufacturer, claiming they somehow "own" your right to take apart and tinker with something you bought at Walmart.

FatWallet Sues Best Buy and Target over DMCA Notice

Link to FatWallet's Complaint

Link to FatWallet Press Release

Posner Raises Good Questions Re: Copyright Misuse

Judge Posner et al just issued a very interesting opinion in Assessment v. WIREdata on how far copyright owners can go with licenses to protect data or knowledge that isn't copyrightable.

Not exactly the most eloquent language, but a strong stance against abuse of copyrights. Hopefully, we will see more activity in courts against those who use copyright law as a weapon against lawful alternatives or competitors instead of simply as a means of protecting their actual rights.

Awesome Cat In The Hat Review

Great review of CITH, slamming it Seussian style.

Fundraising Money Map

A very cool Money Map that shows which parts of the country are giving to each presidential candidate.

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

Excellently designed flash quiz where you try to guess between geek and killers. Who knew obsession had such subtle flavors?

Smart Librarians, Smart Choices

Great archive of gov-doc librarians from UofMinn and their favorite books/documents. Gotta love people who love their jobs!

Cutest Cell Phone Ever.

Let Them Sing It For You

Pretty excellent little java app that sings lyrics for you from sampled words out of pop songs.

TV Quality Explained

Cool 3D Map of the London Tube System

I'm a sucking for 3D CG renderings, even since the days of Wally Bee. Here's a nifty one of the London Underground.

Rockin' Art Album Galley

Pretty cool gallery of theoretical rock album covers by modern artists.

Making Of A Brick: Lego Manufacturing Demo

Great pixel/flash piece on how Legos are made. Near perfect interface too!

via Boing Boing

Matrix Revolutions Sux

WARNING: SPOILERS

To sum it all up, I'm glad the trilogy is over. Hopefully Larry and Andy W. can now move on and try to make another original movie, hopefully with some more original ideas and some dramatic tension. But as for me, I'll stick with the One True Matrix and try to forget there ever was a Two or Three.

Mmmm... Meatrix

Two flash links to enjoy: The End of the World (not totally work safe) (Thanks John!) and The Meatrix.

We're back...

Nice little
Xmas tree graph from Gallup showing the rise and fall of Bush's approval numbers.

Grades
Writing: B-
Acting:B+
Directing:B-
Overall Grade: B-