Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Tomalak's Realm: Scott Berkun: How to build a better web browser. I'm in the lucky minority of people that have actually designed successful browsers, or parts of them, for any length of time, and with Firefox and Opera in the headlines, and the art of browser design becomes important again, I thought I'd write down some of what I know. 10:06:26 PM    comment []

India Alters Law on Drug Patents. India, a major source of inexpensive AIDS drugs, passed a new law that activists fear will choke off their supply to poor countries. By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.. [NYT > International] 10:05:12 PM    comment []

Nuclear Accord Eludes Iran and Europeans. Iran and Europe struggled without success to break an impasse on reaching a long-term agreement on nuclear, economic and security cooperation. By ELAINE SCIOLINO. [NYT > International] 10:05:11 PM    comment []

Rival Calls Microsoft Unready to Carry Out European Order. Microsoft is failing to comply with a European Commission order to sell an unbundled version of its Windows operating system, competitors said. By PAUL MELLER. [NYT > Technology] 7:31:30 AM    comment []

Felten on PyMusique: What Really Happened (Donna Wentworth). Ed Felten replaces the typical (sub)standard narrative about fixing "hacks" like PyMusique with the real story. [Copyfight] 7:31:20 AM    comment []

State Of Utah to Provide List Of Free Hardcore Pornography Sites (HB 260). [Infothought] 7:30:32 AM    comment []

Federalism Has a Right to Life, Too. In the Terri Schiavo matter, Congress and President Bush have embraced their own kind of judicial activism. By CHARLES FRIED. [NYT > Opinion] 7:30:16 AM    comment []

No excuse for me not to podcast now. No excuse for me not to podcast now:  Since I've just learned that Manila, the blogging platform on which I manage the rexblog (geeky note: I'm a customer of Userland's hosted Manila service) is now "the easiest to use Podcasting software on the planet" (according to the totally objective and unbiased source, Scott Young, Userland CEO), I guess I have no reason not to start adding MP3 files to posts here.  . . . By the way, I'm also a user of the Mac OS newsreader, NetNewsWire, which I've decided has to be the easiest way on the planet to subscribe to and download podcasts that automagically synch with iTunes. Maybe someone can add a comment with a link to a "how-to" about this but I figured it out with no instructions and, frankly, without even knowing the feature existed, which means it has to be very, very intuitive. Helpful link: Lawrence Lea's "Instructions on Creating a Podcast on Manila" (via: Steve Kirks, this weblog's official hero) [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 7:25:45 AM    comment []

Ann Livermore at HP.. On DRM. You know, I'm loving this thing Esther is doing, with PC Forum. We're watching lots of very cool women, accomplished, well spoken, powerful, talking about their areas of expertise. And their not here because they are women, they are here because they are brainy, cool and very insightful... the Open Source panel is *only* women, because those are the relevant people needed to talk about these issues. But Ann Livermore from HP was up earlier .. talking about DRM .. and it was a scary thing. She talked about the hardware makers responsibility to make DRM based products to protect content makers, but then said there is an "... obligation that sits on individuals as well, technology companies can't do all of it..." in terms of respecting copyright. She says HP is an "... advanced and active proponent of DRM for Hollywood..." but admits "... it's the value chain that is going to be disintermediated." Which is code for the old networks of content makers and distributors. Thank goodness. I'm really at the point where that old value chain is so clueless and obtuse, that I think they deserve what they get for not figuring out how to work with the web, and sharing and remixing of content, and instead fighting it so stupidly when it's been so obvious for so long that this was a folly. But HP isn't helping by allowing for temporary delay of this with DRM that will ultimately be cracked, or moved around, by the network. The internet is a delicate ecosystem, and while DRM won't kill it, it will create a situation where most users of HP and other DRM based products won't even know they've been left out of socializing with technology and routed around by the network. The network will move on, but it's one of the many things that will keep some folks and some parts of it back. [Napsterization] 7:25:24 AM    comment []

From Meet the Press to Be the Press. The Economist just said it: the "the traditional notion that the media play a special role in informing people is breaking down." Rising up: government as a "purely neutral" news provider, credible where a sinking press corps is not. [PressThink] 7:25:08 AM    comment []

How Does the US Justice Department Do Legal IP Analysis? (Alan Wexelblat). The following appeared anonymously in Greg Aharonian's PATNEWS. Reprinted by permission; the original author "worked at the Justice Department for several years" and does not wish to be identified further. I think this is interesting, particularly in light of MGM v. Grokster: "When the Supreme Courts wants the views of the U.S. Government, they ask the Solicitor General (SG) for those views since the Justice Department has responsibility for the government's legal positions in court and the Solicitor General is the government's representative before the Supreme Court. The SG's response will be the ultimate response of the United States Government. "The Criminal Division of the Justice Department is relatively new to the IP game, and they are not really experts at it yet. Their focus is VERY narrow. They really know nothing about patent prosecution or anything going on at the PTO. Not that they really represent that they do, but their focus is much more into catching copyright pirates on behalf of the movie and music industry. Their approach was much more akin to a prosecutor trying to make a name for him or her self, which maybe is to be expected since many of them have criminal law backgrounds and they joined to criminal division to catch crooks. "The IP attorneys in the Civil Division and to some extent the Antitrust division have a more rounded IP background. I would hope the Solicitor General would look to them for advice more than the criminal division. In formulating the response, the SG will seek the advice of the IP litigating section in the Civil Division, and the PTO's position. They will probably also ask the IP section in the Antitrust division at Justice and the FTC to comment since they have been involved in patent matters lately. Beyond that, they could solicit the opinion of just about any government agency they think is relevant. After they get all of these potentially conflicting opinions, they will attempt to distill them into a single position of the 'United States'." [Copyfight] 7:24:47 AM    comment []