Notes* All knowledge to all
* The search for knowledge is sacred
* The circulation of knowledge is sacred
* The act of copying is sacred.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesBut back to my user journey. After the 404 error I took control of the user experience myself. I Googled âDoctor Who S07E01 torrentâ, and I very much doubt Iâll ever attempt to use UltraViolet⢠again.Unfurl
NotesUntil academics get their acts together and start using new modes of publication, we need to recognize that actions like Aaron Swartz's civil disobedience are legitimate. They are attempts to liberate knowledge that rightly belongs to all of us but that has been acquired by academic publishers through tens of thousands of contracts of adhesion and then bottled up and released for exorbitant fees in what functionally amounts to an extortion racket.Unfurl
NotesIt begs the question why every author, filmmaker, and musician isnât up in arms about the New York Public Libraryâs rampant sharing, while thereâs a ton of opposition to the sharing habits of BitTorrent peers who use The Pirate Bay. After all, The Pirate Bayâs community shares significantly less than the New York Public Library: just 1 million items in 2008 (and the collection certainly hasnât grown 5000% since then). The reason that The Pirate Bay is offensive, and the New York Public Library is not, is because of its efficiency.EmbedUnfurl
NotesI just want us all to get along. I want my disparate equipment to talk to each other. I don't want to live in a house where ever component has to be made by the same company otherwise nothing works correctly. I don't want to be stuck using a crappy product because they're the only ones offering service X.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesIt is delicious to watch a young conservative apply conservative principles to demolish oligopolistic claptrap, even if those industries finance the campaigns of the members of Congress who pay his salary. It is sad to watch his bosses -- who never tire of railing against political correctness - place fealty to corporate elites above the spirit of intellectual inquiry. Unfurl
NotesFirst off, my intention is not to fight you on this. You have more cars than I have dollars, and so I know I donât stand a chance legally, and on top of that, I donât really understand how legal stuff works. But the truth is you kind of fucked up my shit and I need to talk to you about it.Unfurl
NotesAccording to documents recently filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the RIAA was asking for damages of about $72 trillion dollars, a figure that the judge in the case said is "absurd." Judge Kimba Wood wrote in a recent decision that, "An award based on the RIAA calculations would amount to 'more money than the entire music industry has made since Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877.'"Unfurl
NotesDespite the widespread availability of pirated releases, The Avengers just scored a record-breaking $200 million opening weekend at the box office. While some are baffled to see that piracy failed to crush the movieâs profits, itâs really not that surprising. Claiming a camcorded copy of a movie seriously impacts box office attendance is the same as arguing that concert bootlegs stop people from seeing artists on stage. Unfurl
Notes âBig Hyâ â his handle among many loyal customers â would almost certainly be cast as Hollywood Enemy No. 1 but for a few details. He is actually Hyman Strachman, a 92-year-old, 5-foot-5 World War II veteran trying to stay busy after the death of his wife. And he has sent every one of his copied DVDs, almost 4,000 boxes of them to date, free to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfurl
Notes âOur authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time,â said president and publisher Tom Doherty. âTheyâre a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.âFeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesPatents are supposed to reward innovation, but in the software industry, they are having the opposite effect. The patent system has become a minefield that punishes innovators who accidentally infringe the patents of others. There are now so many software patents in force that it is practically impossible to avoid infringing them all.Unfurl
NotesSo why give away the bits? Well, traditional book publishers have three big imperatives today: (1) protect print sales for as long as possible (in order to fund a longer-term transition to a workable new business model); (2) help keep physical bookstores in business (for the reasons set out in this article by Julie Bosman); and (3) do anything possible to curb the power of Amazon.com, the publishers' arch-frenemy.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesWhat we value the most is freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of access to information and to culture. We feel that it is thanks to freedom that the Web is what it is, and that it is our duty to protect that freedom. We owe that to next generations, just as much as we owe to protect the environment.Unfurl
NotesIn a statement, Astrolabe said, "Astrolabe's lawsuit against Mr. Olson and Mr. Eggert was based on a flawed understanding of the law. We now recognize that historical facts are no one's property and, accordingly, are withdrawing our Complaint. We deeply regret the disruption that our lawsuit caused for the volunteers who maintain the TZ database, and for Internet users."Unfurl
NotesCertainly we wouldn't want to listen to their other suggestions, which would see us broaden the definition of "fair use" and, horrifically, reduce copyright terms back to merely a lifetime or even less. Not only would such an act deprive our great-great-grandchildren of their birthright, but it would surely choke off creativity to the dark ages of the 18th and 19th centuries, a desperately lean time for art in which we had to make do with mere scribblers such as Wordsworth, Swift, Richardson, Defoe, Austen, Bronte, Hardy, Dickens, and Keats.Unfurl
NotesThe federal government has been paying lip service to the idea that it wants to encourage new businesses and startups in the US. And this is truly important to the economy, as studies have shown that almost all of the net job growth in this country is coming from internet startups. Thankfully some politicians recognize this, but the federal government seems to be going in the other direction. With the JotForm situation unfolding, where the US government shut down an entire website with no notice or explanation, people are beginning to recognize that the US is not safe for internet startups. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesThere's been a lot of interest in the story of the Secret Service completely shutting down JotForm.com through a request to GoDaddy. It appears that the suspension is now ending, though it hasn't fully propagated. What's amazing is that no one in the US government (or at GoDaddy) seems to be willing to explain what happened. When GoDaddy completely shut down JotForm.com with no notice, the folks at JotForm had to inquire as to what the hell happened to their entire website. They were merely told to contact a Secret Service agent. That agent then told JotForm she was too busy to respond to them and would get back to them within a week.
Think about that for a second. The US government completely takes down a small business' website and then is too busy to explain why. FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes Activities like this will chill innovation and entrepreneurship in the US. Why locate here or even setup under a .com if the US government might kill your business with no explanation at any moment?FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes It's stories like this that raise significant questions about the prosecution. Even if you believe that Sunde was guilty of what he was charged with, I would think you should be able to admit that the list of things above should not have happened under any circumstance. When you read that... and then realize that the guy leading the prosecution against Megaupload for the US DOJ used to work for the industry as an "anti-piracy" exec -- you see the same pattern happening again and again. People who have too close connections to industry are making decisions on these issues designed to protect their industries, rather than looking at the actual impact on society and the economy. That's a pretty big problem, and shows how "regulatory capture" can sometimes become "judicial capture" as well.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesAh, the bogus takedown. The latest is that apparently the NFL somehow and for some reason took down Chrysler's Clint Eastwood Super Bowl commercial from YouTube. Pretty much every advertiser put up their commercials on YouTube, and it's unclear why or how the NFL might claim any sort of copyright on any of those ads. But, for some time that's exactly what happened, making Chrysler's own website promoting the ad look pretty silly: FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesTake the truck, the boat, the helicopter, that we've sent you. Don't wait for the time machine, because we're never going to invent something that returns you to 1965 when copying was hard and you could treat the customer's convenience with contempt. FeedUnfurl
NotesEarlier today, Megaupload released a pop video featuring mainstream artists who endorse the cyberlocker service. News of the controversial Mega Song even trended on Twitter, but has now been removed from YouTube on copyright grounds by Universal Music. Kim Dotcom says that Megaupload owns everything in the video, and that the label has engaged in dirty tricks in an attempt to sabotage their successful viral campaign.Unfurl
Notes How much has it cost the entertainment industry to convince Rep Lamar Smith to introduce and ram through SOPA, which will cost the American economy billions, which will nuke the games, microprocessor, search, and other high tech companies in his Texas district? A mere $50K a year for 10 years. You know, it's one thing to be a sellout; but to sell out so cheaply -- man, have some self-respect. (via /.) Unfurl
NotesRemix culture is the new Prohibition, with massive media companies as the lone voices calling for temperance. You can criminalize commonplace activities from law-abiding people, but eventually, something has to give.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesBoth software developers and users should demand more. Developers should look for ways to reach their users unimpeded, through still-open platforms, or through pressure on the terms imposed by the closed ones. And users should be ready to try "off-roading" with the platforms that still allow itâhewing to the original spirit of the PC, perhaps amplified by systems that let apps have a trial run on a device without being given the keys to the kingdom. If we allow ourselves to be lulled into satisfaction with walled gardens, we'll miss out on innovations to which the gardeners object, and we'll set ourselves up for censorship of code and content that was previously impossible. We need some angry nerds.Unfurl
NotesA List Apart strongly opposes United States H.R.3261 AKA the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an ill-conceived lobbyist-driven piece of legislation that is technically impossible to enforce, cripplingly burdensome to support, and would, without hyperbole, destroy the internet as we know it.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesAfter a series of one-sided hearings, luxury goods maker Chanel has won recent court orders against hundreds of websites trafficking in counterfeit luxury goods. A federal judge in Nevada has agreed that Chanel can seize the domain names in question and transfer them all to US-based registrar GoDaddy. The judge also ordered "all Internet search engines" and "all social media websites"âexplicitly naming Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Bing, Yahoo, and Googleâto "de-index" the domain names and to remove them from any search results.Unfurl
Notes But, even more to the point, it's getting ridiculous how many people defending SOPA/PIPA are doing so using this logic. They brush off all of the specific concerns, the highlights of problematic language, and they conclude "why are you justifying theft?" Of course, that's ridiculous. Beyond the fact that "theft" and "infringement" are very different (don't get me started), nothing in anyone's complaints about SOPA or PIPA have anything to do with "justifying" infringement. In fact, in the post that was being discussed, we clearly noted that infringement is a problem. We just disagree that PIPA and SOPA are reasonably, or even effective, solutions. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesIt is far past due that the copyright industry is stripped of its nobility benefits, every part of its governmental weekly allowance, and gets kicked out of its comfy chair to get a damn job and learn to compete on a free and honest market.Unfurl
NotesOne of the big surprises this week was that the normally "maximalist" organization, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) -- basically the RIAA of software -- did an abrupt and unexpected turnaround on SOPA. While it had been close to gushing in its initial support, it backed that down quite a bit, noting that the bill would likely have unintended consequences that needed to be dealt with. Behind that shift? Apparently Microsoft. Microsoft, who has been quite aggressive on copyright (and patent) enforcement lately, has always publicly supported these bills, in contrast to nearly all of the rest of the tech industry. However, even it appears to recognize that SOPA goes way too far, and apparently had a little discussion with the BSA about backing down. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesA group that represents a number of major software developers, including Microsoft, Adobe, and CA, has withdrawn its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill, which would require Internet companies and other players in the tech ecosystem to deny services to suspected software pirates and copyright violators. Unfurl
NotesDuring the last year Netflix managed to outgrow BitTorrent in terms of the amount of US Internet traffic it generates. A promising finding for Hollywood as it shows that thereâs an overwhelming interest for the legal movie streaming service. At TorrentFreak we wondered what might happen if all US BitTorrent users made the switch to Netflix, and the results of this exploration are quite intriguing.Unfurl
Notes Among the publishers include giants like Electronic Arts, Capcom USA, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Sega, THQ, Square Enix, Take Two, and Ubisoft. Major developing studios have also declared where they stand with the proposed law that enables the government to blacklist websites and stifle freedom of speech. These studios include 38 Studios, Nival, and Gears of War developer Epic Games. A full list of ESA members can be found at the organization's website here.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesSan Francisco, California: The US State Department is once again undermining its own Internet Freedom Initiative - this time by giving the green light to a copyright bill that will adversely affect online free speech around the world.FeedUnfurl
NotesPhone books list all sorts of businesses, a small percentage of which engage in illegal activity. Yet I could never call Pac Bell and demand, "Hey, my house got robbed a few weeks back, and when I went into this pawn shop, they had my television set. Remove them or you're liable!"FeedUnfurl
NotesBut a major online backlash has evolved, with everyone from lawmakers to Web-freedom advocates to some of technology's biggest players calling it a greedy and dangerous overreach that could have a chilling effect on free speech and innovation.Unfurl
NotesI recognize that all of the posts today have been about SOPA and the House Judiciary Committee hearings on SOPA. Some of you liked this. Some of you did not. We've never done anything like that before, focusing just on one issue for the entire day, but it is a big issue, one that I feel strongly about, one that I think impacts all of you... and one that there was a lot going on about.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesThis morning, EFFâs staff and concerned netizens across the country tuned into the live webcast of the House Judiciary Committeeâs hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261). At least we tried to. Unfortunately, we were confronted with an incredibly poor webcast stream for much of the hearing. We find it ironic and deeply concerning that Congress is unable to successfully stream video of an event this important to all Internet users, even as they are debating a dangerous plan to change the Internet in fundamental ways and deputize Internet intermediaries to act like content police.Unfurl
NotesThe House Judiciary Committee today held an important hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act with a hugely stacked deck of witnessesâGoogle's lawyer was the only one of the six to object to the bill in a meaningful way. And it wasn't hard to see why. This wasn't a hearing designed to elicit complex thoughts about complex issues of free speech, censorship, and online piracy; despite the objections of the ACLU, dozens of foreign civil rights groups, tech giants like Google and eBay, the Consumer Electronics Association, China scholar Rebecca MacKinnon, hundreds of law professors and lawyers, the hearing was designed to shove the legislation forward and to brand companies who object as siding with "the pirates."Unfurl
NotesWe already know that today's SOPA hearings for the House Judiciary Committee are totally stacked in favor of the bill. But with the hearings getting underway, we wanted to dive in and look at what's about to be said. Most of the testimony leaked out yesterday, allowing us to spend some time going through it -- it's all embedded below. However, here's a taste of what's going to be said... with some additional commentary (of course). FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes In reality though, most of the large tech companies that exist today were once very small and very fragile. If SOPA was in place, those companies would have never grown up, since the two guys in a garage would have required four lawyers to survive. Dropbox is a perfect example. Created by some college students, the company provides shared online storage space for a fee. Under SOPA, the company would have been cut off from its revenues as soon as a single accusation was made that it was hosting copyrighted material. As a small company this could have been crippling. Today though, I know that Dropbox is one of the most popular tools in the movie industry, since it allows easy sharing of new daily shots, music cues, draft movie posters and more. The innovative tech companies of the future will be extinguished before they have a chance to even get out the door. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesDodd, a Connecticut Democrat who served three decades in the Senate, is looking for a win in his new role as head of the MPAA, which grew powerful in Washington under the 38-year leadership of Jack Valenti, a onetime aide to Lyndon Johnson. The groupâs members include Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Viacom Inc. (VIA/B)âs Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp. (6758), News Corp. (NWSA), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)âs NBC Universal and Time Warner Inc. (TWX)âs Warner Bros. Unfurl
NotesThe bill is, by nearly any sane measure, overreaching and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says that the bill targets Mozilla specifically for refusing to comply with Homeland Security's ICE unit.Unfurl
NotesIn this new bill, Hollywood has expanded its censorship ambitions. No longer content to just blacklist entries in the Domain Name System, this version targets software developers and distributors as well. It allows the Attorney General (doing Hollywood or trademark holders' bidding) to go after more or less anyone who provides or offers a product or service that could be used to get around DNS blacklisting orders. This language is clearly aimed at Mozilla, which took a principled stand in refusing to assist the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to censor the domain name system, but we are also concerned that it could affect the open source community, internet innovation, and software freedom more broadly:Unfurl
NotesWhy have we all been sitting idly while the movie and music lobbyists have been systematically advancing legislation that strips freedoms, blocks innovation, and exclusively advances Hollywood's financial agenda?FeedUnfurl
Notes These bills represent a major blow to openness and freedom on the Internet, free speech rights, and the fabric of the Internet itself. If SOPA is allowed to pass, the Internet and free speech will never be the same again. FeedUnfurl
The Pirate Bay Is The Worldâs Most Efficient Public Library - Falkvinge on Infopolicy
I Donât Want To Be Part of Your Fucking Ecosystem by Terence Eden has a Blog
Marty Kaplan: GOP Smart on Copyright for 24 Hours
The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record | TorrentFreak
Adam Yauch and Paulâs Boutique: How dumb court decisions have made it nearly impossible for artists to sample the way the Beastie Boys did - Slate Magazine
Tor/Forge E-book Titles to Go DRM-Free | Tor.com
Patent wars, Silicon Valley, and DIY software innovators. - Slate Magazine
Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Why publishers should give away ebooks
We, the Web Kids - Pastebin.com
EFF Wins Protection for Time Zone Database | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US | Techdirt
The President's challenge - O'Reilly Radar
Universal Censors Megaupload Song, Gets Branded a âRogue Labelâ | TorrentFreak
No Copyright Intended - Waxy.org
A List Apart: Articles: Say No to SOPA
US judge orders hundreds of sites "de-indexed" from Google, Facebook
The Copyright Industry â A Century Of Deceit | TorrentFreak
Major Game Publishers Onboard with SOPA and Protect IP Act
US State Department not for internet freedom - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Congress Weighs Fighting Internet Piracy Like the War on Drugs - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic
Anti-piracy bill meets Web-freedom backlash - CNN.com
Internet Community Shut Out of Stop Online Piracy Act Hearing - Again | Electronic Frontier Foundation
At Web censorship hearing, Congress guns for "pro-pirate" Google
Hollywood's New War on Software Freedom and Internet Innovation | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fight For The Future