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Monday, April 14, 2003 |
Copy-control CD complaint:
Qld
businessman complains to ACCC about EMI's copy-control discs, by Sam
Varghese, Sydney Morning Herald.
The complaint by Tom Dullemond, who runs a small company in
Gladstone that sells software for writers, is based on the fact that these
discs, when played on Windows and Apple PCs, do not produce the high
quality CD sound one might expect from what looks like a music CD.
Dullemond, who has like many others had his email bounced when writing to
EMI, said the discs stated (in tiny print) that they would only play on
audio CD players and the Windows/Apple operating systems.
Due to this, complaints from people who were unable to play these discs in
PC CD-Roms or any CD-drive that strictly adheres to the redbook specs for
CDs (audio-CD players can play copy-control discs because they are more
error-prone; DVD drives or other high-precision CD drives will most likely
not play the new discs) could not be followed up, Dullemond said.
My complaint, however, stemmed from the fact (confirmed by EMI) that CC
(copy-control) discs when played in Windows and Apple PCs do not play the
high quality CD sound one might expect from what looks like a music CD.
They play back a low bitrate compressed .WMV file in a proprietary software
audio player, he said.
Dullemond, who lodged his complaint in early March, said he received a call
from the ACCC soon after.
The ACCC lady who spoke to me conceded that not disclosing this
information to consumers (I had to do some serious internet digging and EMI
tooth-pulling to find this out) could be pursued by the ACCC. After all, a
consumer is told the CD they buy can't be copied - they're not told that
the CD plays back low quality sound on computer systems.
The ACCC refused to confirm that any complaint had been lodged.
4:19:05 PM 
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New
German Copyright Law Pleases Scholars and Angers
Academic Publishers, by Burton Bollag, CHE.
A hotly contested copyright law adopted on Friday by Germany's
Parliament gives universities and research institutions considerable leeway
to digitally distribute copyrighted materials among students and scholars
without paying extra charges. The law has been welcomed by academics. But
academic publishers, who fought tooth and nail against the bill, say it
will force them out of business.
The bill was designed to bring German law in line with a two-year-old
European Union directive covering a wide range of digital-copyright issues.
But the directive is silent on the issue of copyright exemptions for
education and research. Publishers say they will challenge the new
legislation with European authorities in Brussels.
12:18:20 PM
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NET
Guard Dying Quietly, by Colin C. Haley, boston.internet.com.
Passed last year, the [Science and Technology Emergency
Mobilization Act] calls for a National Emergency Technology (NET) Guard --
a group of tech-savvy volunteers to prevent, or at least mimimize, the sort
of network gridlock that added to the confusion and fear the morning of
Sept. 11.
It is essential to ensure that America's anti-terrorism efforts tap the
tremendous science and technology talents of the private sector, Sen.
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a floor speech last July.
In early December, Wyden's spokeswoman said it might take a year before the
program was running. But now, five months later, nothing has been done, and
there's a real possibility nothing ever will be.
11:18:13 AM
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The Low End of Higher Things, reviewed by Chris King, St. Louis
Post-Dispatch.
Clewell is not a poet's poet. That's not a slight against his
work, which is respected by many poets (including Billy Collins, U.S. poet
laureate), but an acknowledgment that you need not be a poet to enjoy it.
Clewell's subjects are easy for anyone to grasp. He is a poet of personal
quirks, conspiracy theories, underdogs and (in this book more than ever
before) love. His voice is conversational, warm in the way of an old
friend, and a unique mix of the apologetic and unabashed.
I know, he tells us with a nudge, that Charlie the Tuna artifacts are too
silly to collect and rhapsodize about in a poem - and he tells us this in a
poem in which we find him collecting Charlie the Tuna artifacts. In these
uneasy times, we have to envy and emulate someone who can write, "I'll be
setting my Charlie the Tuna/alarm clock for us all because I still want
days like tomorrow."
Clewell also writes with a wider scope than his own oddities. His nose for
conspiracy leads him to poems about the CIA and Jack Ruby that comment on
American culture. Yet even these poems are intimate portraits.
We sweat with CIA agents through their LSD experiments and get so close to
Ruby as he talks to a showgirl who works in his Dallas club that we can
almost smell the petty gangster's aftershave.
Also compares David -- favorably, I would say -- to the young Bruce
Springsteen.
Amazon doesn't have a jacket photo, which is too bad, as it's a delight.
But they are stocking the book, in The University of Wisconsin Press Poetry
Series:
The Low End of Higher Things. Get yours today. Comic books, beatnik
kitsch, and all that jazz
(That url will probably break in transit, and I'll aim to fix it later.)
11:18:09 AM
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Doc Searls: IALTBAL. I Am Learning To Be A Lawyer. The easy way, in fact. The post below has elicited two enlightening posts, from Professors Lessig (AL) and Winer (NAL), both respectively and respectfully. The gist, from Larry: I think it is useful and important to distinguish between DRM and DRE ‹ digital rights management vs. digital rights expression. DRE is a technology simply (1) to express rights. The ³management² in DRM implies a technology — code — both (1) to express rights and (2) to enforce it. But for all of the reasons that the DMCA debate has made clear, there are lots of problems with DRM systems precisely because code is used to enforce copyright rights. Code can never accurately map fair use, it can never reserve a right to criticize the existing expanse of control, etc. DRE is therefore DRM minus the management. A DRE system simply enables an efficient way for people to say what freedoms they are enabling. In a world where the default is ³all rights reserved,² CC DRE enables a simple way for people to say ³My content is free in the following ways.²
This goes part way toward something I had suspected, but hadn't clearly known: that DRM is still, for most (if not all) intents and purposes, the concern of industrial-grade suppliers of "content." Larry takes it the rest of the way with this: Finally, one technical point: Our CC licenses expressly state that you can¹t use our technology with a DRM system that does not adequately protect ³fair use.² As I¹ve not seen a DRM system that adequately protects ³fair use² yet, imho, that means you are not allowed to use a CC licenses with a DRM system yet. At least that is so if you take seriously the commitments the CC license imposes.
There's something of a gauntlet here. Who's going to make a working Venn diagram of DRE, DRM and FU? That's the challenge, it seems to me. [The Doc Searls Weblog]
6:53:39 AM
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Get Out and Walk. It's Only Water. At the Edinburgh Science festival, a group of engineers stroll across an Olympic-size pool using specially modified shoes that float. It's one of several water-walking competitions held around the world, and it's serious fun. By Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News]
6:44:21 AM
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