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Monday, February 24, 2003 |
Google seems sometimes to drop chunks of this blog into a hole, then return them to the index after a few days. Anyone know what's going on with that? I notice this, typically, one of two ways.
- I see that traffic has dropped way off, which means that the Sarah Kozer picture seekers aren't finding me when they search for, say, ''sarah kozer video'', and it turns out that that day's entry isn't being returned on Google, or
- I use the search box over in the margin of the page, looking for something I know I blinked (or looking for a url to a blog I know I've cited before and want to go read now), and I get no hits (or obviously the wrong hits).
Know about this, any of you?
(The Sarah Kozer bondage/foot fetish photos are linked from Feb. 3.)
11:15:07 AM 
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An Appeal to Honor in Fight Against Internet Piracy, by Amy Harmon, NYT.
Mr. [Jack] Valenti [president of the Motion Picture Association of America] has long raged against the illegality of the swapping of unauthorized copies of movies by students on college campuses. But in a speech to Duke University law students today, he plans to shift his emphasis to more basic principles: duty, service, honor, integrity, pity, pride, compassion, sacrifice, according to a preliminary text of the speech. If you treat these words casually, it continues, if you find them uncool, if you regard them as mere playthings which only the rabble and the rubes, the unlearned and the unsophisticated, observe and honor, then we will all bear witness to the slow undoing of the great secret of America. Hmmm. Let's think about it briefly. Free associate with me, if you will. Which of
- duty,
- service,
- honor,
- integrity,
- pity,
- pride,
- compassion,
- sacrifice
characterizes Mr. Valenti's industry? I know I learned a lot about the industry reading about the Art Buchwald suit. He alleged the idea for Coming to America was stolen from him, but the studio claimed no fiscal responsibility to the humorist because the $350 million grosser earned "no net profit". At trial, Buchwald won, and we all learned loads about the integrity of industry accounting practices, not to mention honor, duty, compassion, and sacrifice. I'd have to say the big winner on the list is pride. It goeth before the fall, I've heard. I'll be checking in at The Chronicle (The Independent Daily at Duke University) for news. A Web cast of Valenti's lecture today will be available at noon Feb. 27, at http://www.law.duke.edu/webcast/
11:15:03 AM
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'Honest Thief'
confronts music industry, by Sandeep Junnarkar, CNET News.com.
Operating in the Netherlands, Internet services company
PGR--doing business as The Honest Thief--plans in the spring to license its
software and provide legal advice to others who hope to set up the newest
incarnation of peer-to-peer services.
The recording industry has succeeded in dismantling services like Napster
and Aimster by taking legal action in the United States. But The Honest
Thief, whose Web site went live on Friday, plans to take advantage of a
Dutch appeals court ruling last March that essentially paved the way for
the Netherlands to become a legal haven for file-sharing activities.
The appeals court said that file- swapping service Kazaa was not
responsible for the illegal actions of people using its software. That
decision is being appealed to higher court.
Call it file-sharing or shoplifting, here in Holland we call it good
business, Pieter Plass, founder of The Honest Thief, said in a
statement. With our file-sharing service and our new software, we hope
The Honest Thief will become to file sharing what the Swiss are to
banking.
The music industry sees things differently.
11:14:53 AM
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Mike pointed me at this
amazing
auction
on eBay. It's, um, ahem, a ''Vintage Very Rare WWII French Battle
Flag.'' Yeah, that's it. A Vintage Very Rare WWII French Battle Flag.
11:14:46 AM
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SJ Mercury: From Demo: 10 technologies to watch. Of the 60 companies invited, I picked 10 I think are poised to change the way we interact with technology in the next three years or so -- either because their product itself was so impressive, or because their idea is sure to inspire others in the industry to pursue similar goals. [Tomalak's Realm]
6:20:48 AM
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