The DVD CCA has failed to select (as it had planned) a « Consensus Watermark » from among watermark technologies submitted by…
That tidbits just won a footnote in my thesis
[via Consensus at Lawyerpoint]
Archives mensuelles : novembre 2002
A Discreet Bullhorn
Reprinted from an article by Matt Fleisher-Black in The American Lawyer. Issues and facts about some blogging lawyers. Here’s a snippet:
Functional though the format can be, attorneys may have difficulty satisfying its inherent bias: punchy, attitudinal expression. Demonstrating expertise in public can make one cautious. « I’ve been careful not to do anything very far out, » concedes Fox. It shows. Only one visitor to Fox’s site has posted a comment. Fox says he is « still trying it out, » and hasn’t formally alerted anyone to the site.
[Article at Law.com]
W3C bows to royalty-free pressure
Those who know me might understand why this CNET article makes me smile. Hint: I am quite familiar with the struggles another standardization organization has about the same issues.
It is a very tough and interesting issue, mostly from a policy point of view, as the legal issues are fairly simple (as long as everyone accepts the existence of software patents).
Now, arguably patents and royalties on telecom equipment are not quite in the same league as IPR encumbered software elements intended for mass distribution and adoption. Interestingly, the ITU could do both, therefore the consequences of a uniform IPR policy for recommendations will be significant.
[Update: when one of your pages is the first result on Google for a typo it’s time a) to learn to spell and b) to correct it]
It doesn’t suck ®
I bitch because I care
So if I don’t copy it, I loose it?
Great news for CD manufacturers and collectors of AOL promo CDs! The perishable DVD media is born. This had been vaporware for a while. Beyond the environmental issues, I wonder if this won’t do wonders for spread of DVD copying know-how.
Basically the DVD will most likely contain a short extract, not the whooping 4.7 GB from a full DVD and there wil be every incentive to rip the content to your hard drive asap since the disc will become opaque and unreadable in a few hours after being taken out of it’s airtight packaging.
Now, DVD with audio tracks can be interesting even if it is almost absent from the market place (I won’t even get into the DVD-Audio mess). So the media itself is promising and can be made into valuable products, as Fleecy showed me. So maybe this will be a good thing in the end. But can CD and DVDs be recycled?
[via /.]
Revenge of the blog conference
There is a conference about blogging at Yale law school. It’s free. And I don’t think I’ll be able to go.
But, the speakers list make me discover some websites I didn’t know about, so all is good.
Googlism
I assume most people have heard of Googlism by now. It’s a site that uses Google to get a list of things said about a given topic. It works fairly well for the easily amused although a meaningful use was not immediately obvious to me.
Then Fizzz suggested using « Slashdot » as a search term. Here are a few gems:
slashdot is a plot by microsoft to destroy the productivity of linux users
slashdot is filled with repitition that is very compressible
slashdot is to linux what osama bin laden is to islam
slashdot is to net culture what 125th street in harlem is to clothing companies that want to latch onto hip
slashdot is a website where open discussions thrive about things that are really important to the inner nerd in you
slashdot is made up of programmers who suffer from the delusion they are computer scientists
Identity is DRM
Netmeme has an article, which is an answer to a Doc Searls’ article. Netmeme states that stong DRM is linked to the possibility of having control over digital identity.
I find this interesting since I consider a strong and broad interpretation of copyrights, like those used in some EULAs, go hand in hand with the existence of licences like the GPL, which are based on an equally strong interpretation of those same copyrights. We basically have a parallel dilemma: TCPA vs Strong Identity and EULAs vs GPL. Two pairs of concepts stemming from very different ideologies that will have to coexist somehow since they are based on the same legal basis.
De l’origine de certaines expressions françaises
L’ambassade de France au Portugal met en ligne une poignée d’expressions dont elle explique sommairement les origines. Une lecture de moins de cinq minutes qui vaut le détour.
[Via la Grande Rousse]
Quick gift
Hey, looking for a quick gift for me? For some reason, typography stuff always fascinated me. Maybe because I have such a bad handwriting.
[via Aaron Swartz]
I’m not a vegetarian
and I agree with this piece on Plastic.
While there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with eating animals, people should be encouraged to look or even participate in the process in which living animals are transformed into meat. While this may seem morbid, it’s a powerful way of enabling one to gain respect for these animals’ sacrifice for the sake of one’s gastronomic pleasure.
Me and Max got a lot of flak from people during a little impromptu mechoui last summer were went thought the whole process, from choosing and buying a goat from a farmer to eating it.
I’m glad to know someone did explain our argument in a rational way. We did try to express them at the time, through the irrational delusions (the dalai lama eats meat but he’s still a good person because he gets muslims to kill the animals for him or at the supermarket, the animal is already dead) of a fellow occidental traveler, but it was a trying task.
Clean Flix
This is an itchy case. This trully is the new Betamax case, more so that Napster or my.mp3.com (ok, maybe not more than my.mp3.com). But anyways, if find it really pushes the envelope of frivolious whining.
LawMeme’s Ernest Miller just wrote a piece about it in the LA Times. Here’s LawMeme’s coverage.
What is it about you’ll ask? Basically someone wants to provide a way to modify the palyback of a DVD. Skip or rearrange scenes, add comments, voice over, etc. to a movie you otherwise own. And the movie people say no way.
The only legal issue I would see would be the moral rights of the author. If such a thing ever really existed. If I decide to fast forward over the boring parts of a movie or listen to the radio while watching it, it’s my business. What are the producers afraid of? That I’ll miss a product placement?
Is code art?
It was a tough case to make 2 years ago. Now the Times seems to agree.
Ok, for those who were paying attention, I wasn’t saying that code was art, I was saying code was speech. The art thing was an example.
[via Salon]
I looove web-cards
Some people (Hi Pseudo!) know how much I love receiving web cards. I mean, I love the attention and all, but I always suspected that those things were responsible for putting some of my addresses on some spammers lists. I was called a paranoid freak more than once, but it seems I am finally proven right by this TechTV article!
Merci Cla
Gouvernement cheap
Cyberpresse nous rapporte que le gouvernement du Québec entend faire concurrence aux logiciels d’impôt lui-même, et sans frais d’utilisation. Merveilleux, mais :
« Si le nombre d’utilisateurs Mac naviguant sur le portail du gouvernement du Québec n’augmente pas, précise d’ores et déjà Manon Tremblay, il est peu probable que des efforts et des dollars soient investis dans le développement d’applications faites sur mesure pour eux. Actuellement, environ 2 % du trafic sur le portail gouvernemental est généré par des ordinateurs de type Mac, alors que les normes internationales suggèrent d’ignorer toute clientèle représentant moins de 5 % du total. »
La p’tite madame Tremblay devrait réviser ses chiffres et ne compter que le trafic provenant de contribuables curieux… Le « portail gouvernemental » n’intéresse certainement personne si ce n’est pas pour le travail, dans sa forme actuelle.