brainwagon

I’ve long thought that there should be some legal challenge to the excessive penalties levied against file sharers. After all, if I go and steal a CD in any store in the US, it would be classified as petty theft, with fines of maybe $500 and a maximum of thirty days of jailtime, which is […]

Last night I finally got around to watching Revelations, a Star Wars fan film which I found to be truly remarkable. It is not without its flaws, but it is remarkable that fans could dedicate enough time, energy and organization to produce such a professional and competent film. I found the special effects and costuming […]

There is a nice interview on dpreview.com with David Coffin, author of dcraw.c, a nice little Linux program that decodes most RAW formats from digital cameras. Very cool and useful stuff. From the interview: 3. Are you ever concerned about the legal implications of reverse-engineering proprietary file formats? If anyone sued me, I’d be the […]

This morning as I was driving in (and running late since traffic was bad, and the UPS outlet where I was supposed to be able to pick up my monitor wasn’t even open so I went out of my way for nothing and… oh, never mind, I digress) and our local PBS affiliate ran a […]

Maybe you have been sitting on the sideline with respect to some of the intellectual property issues that I raise here from time to time. Perhaps deep down, you suspect that all those who push for copyright reform are a bunch of card carrying communists. I mean really, just look at their T-shirts for pity’s […]

Apparently you really can patent nonsense. In United States Patent 5,533,051, we get the following intriguing claim: A second aspect of the present invention which further enhances its ability to achieve high compression percentages, is its ability to be applied to data recursively. Specifically, the methods of the present invention are able to make multiple […]

You can read the oral arguments in the Supreme Court case MGM v. Grokster on p2p.weblogsinc.com. A couple of brief comments from my skim of it. Much of the early testimony surrounded the stifling effect finding in favor of MGM would have upon inventing. The justices focussed in on the idea that if you are […]

Dave Slusher has an excellent article detailing just what is at stake in the case of MGM v. Grokster. He says: I am the benificiary of being able to serve my podcasts to an order of magnitude more users than I could without it. Without the technological innovation of P2P networks, Dave would be unable […]

Another major intellectual property issue which is unfolding is the Supreme Court’s consideration of the Grokster case. With exchanges like the one below, I’m hopeful that the Supreme Court will rule against the media. I mean really… Boing Boing: Media lawyer’s blog from Grokster hearings

Over 700 comments were received during the inquiry period for comments by the Copyright Office on the topic of “orphaned works”: works whose copyright holders are either impossible or very difficult to find. Currently, orphaned works are held in limbo: their creators (even if determined) cannot be located, so their works are in limbo, perhaps […]

I met Brewster Kahle a couple of years ago at Hackers, when he brought the Internet Bookmobile and printed attendees copies of Alice in Wonderland and let us bind and cut them for ourselves. Here is an episode of IT Conversations where he talks about the ideal of providing accessibility to all knowledge for everyone. […]

The Register reports that major music labels are trying to get music retailers to increase prices. What a good idea! Let’s make it even more costly for individuals to acquire music, that’s sure to drive down the rates of copyright infringement! Seriously, what are they thinking? The problem appears to be related to Apple’s iTunes […]

Wil Wheaton has some distinctly harsh words for the notion that ASCAP now will sell you a license to play music on your podcasts. Peter Kim responded that: Wil, you WOULDN’T pay for an individual song. ASCAP licenses are blanket licenses, and the interactive minimum pricing they’ve set below $300/yr. Once you have the license, […]

Color me surprised… Judge slams SCO’s lack of evidence against IBM | CNET News.com “Despite the vast disparity between SCO’s public accusations and its actual evidence–or complete lack thereof–and the resulting temptation to grant IBM’s motion, the court has determined that it would be premature to grant summary judgment,” Kimball wrote Wednesday. “Viewed against the […]

Information Week is running an article on weblogging and the workplace. It seems mostly common sense to me. For instance: Forrester Research advises companies to provide guidelines not only for company-sanctioned Weblogs, but also for employees who do them on their own time. The IT research firm even recommends that managers occasionally view the personal […]