Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Ways to Keep Schemers From Beating the System. The thoroughbred racing industry has learned it takes more than tight-lipped discretion to prevent betting coups in an era of evolving technology. By Joe Drape. [New York Times: Technology] 11:32:01 PM    comment []

The Open video project is A shared digital video collection. The purpose of the Open Video Project is to "collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities". The Project is sponsored by and developed at the Interaction Design Laboratory at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. With a good search facility Thanks Blueblog (Acc. to Smart Mobs.) 9:20:28 PM    comment []

Iran to curb nuclear program. Tehran agreed Tuesday to a closer monitoring of its nuclear effort. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 9:18:27 PM    comment []

How Not To Install Computer Hardware. On [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 5:17:05 PM    comment []

Smoking Gun: Nab Couple For Front Lawn Frolic 1:22:11 PM    comment []

Microsoft Lassos Music Customers. A Windows XP feature forces consumers to use Internet Explorer to purchase music online, even if they specify that they prefer a competitor's browser. The feature also steers users to a Microsoft-owned website. The DOJ and 19 attorneys general are not amused. [Wired News] 6:31:17 AM    comment []

Apple whistles a happy 1 million iTunes. The company says that 1 million copies of its iTunes software for Windows have been downloaded since its introduction last week and that song sales have spiked as a result. [CNET News.com - Front Door] 6:26:52 AM    comment []

MS antitrust: New licensees point to progress, MS says. Microsoft Corp. says that it is continuing to comply with the final judgement in the U.S. government's antitrust case against it, holding up as proof four new licensees of its Microsoft Communications Protocols Program (MCPP), which allows third-party products to interoperate with Windows clients. [InfoWorld: Top News] 6:24:27 AM    comment []

More on policy laundering and the Allen Group (following on yesterday's item here): Copyright Term Extension: does a bad report cost more than a good report?. As Michael Geist writes, it is increasingly the practice of the US government to export its copyright policy though bi-lateral trade agreements. One example is the trade agreements being concluded with Australia right now that will require Australia to increase its copyright term to life plus 70. The Allen Consulting Group has prepared what it apparently considers an economic analysis of the proposed Term Extension. The report was commissioned by the Motion Picture Association, among others. The report is embarrassingly poorly done. I describe some errors in the extended entry below. But I hope for the Allen Consulting Group that this report is not representative of its work in general. [Lessig Blog] 6:23:04 AM    comment []