Friday, November 19, 2004

From over at FurdLog: Speaking of mechanisms of control: Dogfight over videos of White House pup At stake are Webcasting rights to video clips of Barney, the first pooch, and his antics around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The White House has so far denied requests from online publishers seeking copies of the third annual Barney holiday video, insisting on hosting the video exclusively on its own Web site while at the same time freely granting broadcast rights to TV networks. […] “The justifications we have been given are that (1) the White House wants to drive ‘eyeballs’ to the White House site and (2) the White House is concerned that the video might appear ‘all over’ if it gave it to WashingtonPost.com and other online news sites,” Feaver wrote last December. “I think you will agree that neither of these attempted justifications is substantial and neither justifies the White House’s discrimination against online news sites.” […] One legal twist to the Barney saga is that news sites can probably host the memorable series of videos without the White House’s permission. Federal copyright law does not include videos or any other material created by a government employee “of the United States government as part of that person’s official duties.” “If this is a work of the federal government, the Copyright Act permits the Washington Post to host it,” said Eugene Volokh, who teaches copyright law at the UCLA School of Law. “It doesn’t require permission from the White House.” 3:33:27 PM    comment []

Two from Benton Headlines: A NATION ONLINE: ENTERING THE BROADBAND AGE The sixth report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce examining the use of computers, the Internet, and other information technology tools by the American people. Between the Census Bureau's Current Population Surveys conducted in September 2001 and October 2003, the number of households with Internet connections grew by 12.6% and a transition is underway from dial-up to high-speed Internet connections. The use of high-speed Internet connections grew significantly between 2001 and 2003 and more than offset the decline in dial-up users. For this reason, this report focuses on what Americans are doing with their high-speed connections. [SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration] WEB MEDIA BUYOUTS COMING? KINDA According to Sam Whitmore, editor of Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, over the next 12 to 24 months you will probably see big media companies scarf up blogs, where a growing number of people are going for opinions, analysis and community. 1:33:08 PM    comment []

Two from BNA News (edited to avoid those nasty bare urls): RESEARCHERS SAY FLORIDA E-VOTE WAS SUSPICIOUS According to statistical analysis conducted by University of California, Berkeley graduate students and a professor, electronic voting machines in Florida may have awarded George W. Bush up to 260,000 more votes than he should have received. The researchers likened their report to a beeping smoke alarm and called on Florida officials to examine the data and the voting systems in counties that used touch-screen voting machines to provide an explanation for the anomalies. Report Coverage MPAA SEEKS INTERNET2 TESTS The MPAA is in talks with the Internet2 research consortium, hoping both to test next-generation video delivery projects and to monitor P2P use on the ultrahigh-speed network. 11:32:50 AM    comment []

New Google Scholar search service aimed at academics. Google on Thursday formally launched a new search service aimed at scientists and academic researchers. [InfoWorld: Top News] http://scholar.google.com/  (It's ''beta'' of course, despite having been ''launched.'') 6:10:05 AM    comment []

Bioethical Debates. This week our Underreported series explores the complex issues surrounding the question, "is it ethical to scientifically improve human beings?" Arthur Caplan, from the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, and Julian Savulescu, of the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University, discuss bioethical issues. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 6:09:10 AM    comment []

Bush Confronts New Challenge on Issue of Iran. President Bush is confronting what could become the biggest challenge of his second term: how to contain Iran's nuclear program. By By STEVEN R. WEISMAN. [NYT > International] 6:08:57 AM    comment []

Trouble for California Cloning?. The United Nations considers a ban on all forms of cloning, a move that could eventually lead to problems for California's 10-year, $3 billion stem-cell initiative. By Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News] 6:07:21 AM    comment []

Whoomp, There It Is (Donna Wentworth). Contrary to what I wrote below, it looks like all of the running notes from the WIPO meeting on the controversial Broadcast Treaty will be posted in one place: the Union for the Public Domain. A few intriguing snippets: A delegate from Brazil, on day one of the meeting: IP protection should not be an end in itself, nor should upward harmonization proceed irrespective of countries' levels of development. Action is needed in all countries to ensure costs don't outweigh the benefits of IP protection. New norms in the field of copyright and related rights can have a serious impact on the development and social policies of countries in several crucial areas. The provisions of any treaty in this field must be balanced and taken on board the interests of consumers and the public at large. Access to information and knowledge sharing are essential elements to foster innovation and creativity in the informatin economy. Adding new layers of IP protection to the digital environmment could seriously obstruct the free flow of info and scuttle efforts to create new arrangemets to promote innnovation and creativity. A delegate from Chile, on day two: We recognize the usefulness of TPMs [ed. - WIPO-speak for digital rights management, or DRM] for protecting authors' rights and related rights. We're also aware that the application of past treaties with similar provisions have given rise to problems regarding the use of works in the public domain and the legitimate use of protected works. We need to find a way to be sure that these measures don't unduly effect the public domain. On a more distrubing note, Robin Gross of IP Justice reports that documents prepared by EFF [PDF] and other public-interest organizations have been trashed -- not figuratively, but literally. Copies were found in the waste basket. [Copyfight] 6:03:04 AM    comment []

WIRED: How I Learned to Love Larry. Hilary Rosen. If the essence of copyright law is to allow creators to have control, he argued, then there are ways to maintain ownership of copyrighted works and still make it possible for the average person to license the use of those works. After all, what's wrong with a licensing system that makes music more accessible to more people? [Tomalak's Realm] 6:01:54 AM    comment []

Afghan Poppy Crop Reaches Record Level, U.N. Says. Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the source of most of the opium and heroin on Europe's streets, was up sharply this year. By By CARLOTTA GALL. [NYT > International] 5:56:01 AM    comment []