Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Grokster Briefs via RSS (Donna Wentworth). Also courtesy of Joe Hall, here. For those without RSS aggregators, keep checking here or here. [Copyfight] 6:13:20 AM    comment []

Case Against "Bikes Against Bush" Dismissed. Wireless activist Joshua Kinberg was earlier profiled on Smartmobs. Today Kinberg (bikesagainstbush) writes us: "After 5 months, my case was finally dismissed on January 20, 2005 -- the same day George W. Bush was inaugurated for his second term of office". Joshua also states "Its been quite a long ordeal, and I want to thank everyone again who supported me and Bikes Against Bush hroughout this process". Bikes Against Bush was an interactive protest/performance occurring simultaneously online and on the streets of NYC during the Republican National Convention. Using a wireless Internet enabled bicycle outfitted with a custom-designed printing device, the Bikes Against Bush bicycle could print text messages sent from web users directly onto the streets of Manhattan in water-soluble chalk. more about ....... [Smart Mobs] 6:13:08 AM    comment []

Iranian women, scaling new heights, eye Everest. In May, they hope to be the first Muslim women to reach the summit. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 6:08:59 AM    comment []

The EFF now has an endangered gizmos list. [Hack the Planet] 6:08:31 AM    comment []

Carson's legend: the genial host of a late-night town square. In contrast with some of today's comics, Johnny Carson was an equal opportunity needler. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 6:08:26 AM    comment []

MGM v. Grokster pessimism.  . . . Regarding the upcoming MGM v. Grokster case concerning the legal liability standards for Peer-To-Peer technology, I think the technology/freedom side is going to lose the case, and this is why: The current law, the "Sony" standard concerning the copyright defense for product-makers of having substantial non-infringing use, was made under too many factors that I don't think auger well for the current outcome: 1) The original "Sony" Betamax decision was a 5-4 split. It doesn't get any closer. 2) The VCR didn't, in practice, threaten the business model of broadcasters. Commercials were viewed no matter what time program was seen. 3) It was a case of one established big corporation vs. another established big corporation. So the plaintiffs were socially equal to defendants. In legalese, I suspect the geek phrase "disruptive technology" translates into "a basis for distinguishing the current situation from the existing precedent". The sad thing is, I don't think the P2P freedom battle is intrinsically unwinnable. Only I can't see an ultraconservative Supreme Court ruling against "all the money in the world" and in favor of only a potential. If that potential were developed, maybe five years in the future, the scales might be different. But right now ... there's no (respectable) there there. It could be made, but it hasn't yet. Oh well, nothing I can do ... "We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it.". [Infothought] 6:04:16 AM    comment []

Microsoft Yields in Brussels Case. Microsoft will not appeal a court ruling that requires the company to sell in Europe a version of its Windows operating system without its media-playing software. [NYT > Technology] 6:03:21 AM    comment []

Karen Reflects on WebCred. My favorite quote from Karen Schneider’s posts about last week’s WebCred conference: Librarians are primarily concerned with last-mile issues: access, organization, preservation, intellectual freedom, and information literacy. Content providers, such as journalists and bloggers, are primarily concerned with first-mile issues: creation, dissemination, delivery. [Free Range Librarian] An excellent summary! [The Shifted Librarian] 5:58:08 AM    comment []

Orkut, a hot political issue in Iran. In no other country than Iran, you'll hear politicians use "Orkut" and "Yahoo Messenger" in their sentences. Nasser Nassiri, a radical MP last week called for a ban on Orkut and Yahoo Messenger, both extremely popular among Iranians, and suggested the parliament will start work on a bill to officially ban them. As always, the reason was to destroy the ethical foundations of the society. Now another radical but connected MP, Emad Afroogh, who is the chair of the cultural committee of the parliament, has officially denied that they are going to ban Orkut and Yahoo Messenger. However, people's comments have it that the Iranian Telecom has already filtered Orkut. OpenNet initiative guys have confirmed it in an email to me. What a lovely dysfunctional and chaotic country Iran has become. [Editor: Myself (English)] 5:52:51 AM    comment []