Here’s a collection of links to Doctorow DRM/Web 2.0 stuff from Boing Boing over the past few days.
EFF paper: Digital Rights Management: A failure in the developed world, a danger to the developing world
Excerpt:
The “DRM hypothesis” is that the public is dishonest, and will do dishonest things with cultural material if given the […]
The NYTimes ran an article today discussing the future of the online newspaper model. There has been quite a bit of criticism of the way online news sites give free access to current news and either make users pay for archives or not have them complete (or not have archives at all). I’m […]
Barbara Fister makes a number of great points in this Library Issues article. On online books:
Evidence suggests people will pay for the convenience of reading sustained texts offline. After all, the 9/11 Commission’s report became a bestseller even though it was available for free on the Web. The National Academies Press, which makes the […]
University of Texas’ Dennis Dillon wrote this short article in the December Chronical of Higher Education discussing the problems libraries face in an electronic future. As he points out, journal subscriptions are skyrocketing while simultaneously growing in number and becoming more specialized, creating a situation where libraries may be forced to become more specialized […]
As communities start understanding the importance of providing free Wi-Fi, we are beginning to see resistance from legislators and industry.
Telecommunications companies have taken notice as cities, nonprofit organizations and startup companies have begun using these technologies to offer free or steeply reduced Internet access, said Bill Gurley, a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist with […]
Here’s a PDF link to the EFF brief. As quoted on Copyfight, Eben Moglen lays it out wonderfully:
At the heart of Petitioners’ argument is an arrogant and unreasonable claim–even if made to the legislature empowered to determine such a general issue of social policy–that the Internet must be designed for the convenience of their […]
Similar to the brief mentioned yesterday from 17 comp sci profs, 22 media studies scholars have filed a brief (PDF) discussing how the case relates to scholarly work and education. Long excerpt:
Amici are deeply concerned that recent legal, commercial, and political turmoil surrounding the proliferation and use of “peer-to-peer” communicative technologies threaten to chill […]
…and why the government needs to focus on providing Wi-Fi/broadband. Read or listen at Wired.
Excerpt:
You’ll be pleased to know that communism was defeated in Pennsylvania last year. Governor Ed Rendell signed into law a bill prohibiting the Reds in local government from offering free Wi-Fi throughout their municipalities. The action came after Philadelphia, where […]
Via Freedom to Tinker and Boing Boing, 17 comp sci profs have file an amicus brief (PDF) in the Supreme Court Grokster, a case that will determine whether p2p tech is illegal and if tech companies can be liable for copyright infringement using their products. I’ve only read what F2T and BB posted of […]
I don’t really want to give any more fame to the comments from ALA prez-elect Gorman last week, but George Needham’s satirical post at It’s all good is a rather amusing response.
From Cory Doctorow:
It’s not a service I’d use, but I believe that it’s the kind of service that is vital to the Web’s health. The ability of end-users to avail themselves of tools that decomopose and reassemble web-pages to their tastes is an issue like inlining, framing, and linking: it’s a matter of letting users […]
Kembrew McLeod’s new book, Freedom of Expression®, is available as a downloadable PDF. From the publisher:
In Freedom of Expression®, Kembrew McLeod covers topics as diverse as hip-hop music and digital sampling, the patenting of seeds and human genes, folk and blues music, visual collage art, electronic voting, the Internet, and computer software. In doing […]
librarian.net linked yesterday to a fantastic article by Nathan Bierma on the future of libraries: Future Bound: The greatly exaggerated demise of an American institution. He discusses how audio books and multimedia have had tremendous growth at a time when the ebook was supposed to be taking over (which it barely has started to). […]
Last week we had a very interesting discussion on the Web4Lib discussion list about how libraries relate to other online tools like, of course, Amazon and Google. I thought Alane Wilson’s post was dead on in a lot of ways, although we shouldn’t forget the absolutely vital role that non-tech librarians play. Going […]
Everybody’s been talking about Righting Copyright: Fair Use and Digital Environmentalism from the current BOOKFORUM, so I’m linking to it for those who haven’t yet read it. It’s actually a very good overview of the current state of digital copyright and what some call the Digital Environmentalism movement, led by folks like Lessig, that […]
From the
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and […]
In a post on his plasticbag.org, Tom Coates summerizes the movement toward amateurization of, well, nearly everything. Most of the article focuses on weblogs and how they’ve enabled just about anyone to publish if they are inclined to do so. It’s the new homepage, he notes, but with temporal context and ease of […]
The Economist is running an article on a paper by Yochai Benkler in the Yale Law Journal (PDF) on the economics of sharing. As explained in the article, the recent growth of sharing in technology, such as open source software, has been something of a mystery to economists, but what’s even more interesting […]
Libraries and National Security, an article recently published in First Monday, details the history of librarians and national security from WWI to the present. Libraries have done a complete 180° from their position during the First World War when they sought out a role in the war effort and willingly restricted information. In […]