Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Wes blinks KernelTrap: No More Free BitKeeper. (Press release, Linus's comments) I think this is the best move for everyone; the BKL just pissed people off. Companies that think they can somehow cooperate with the open source community while releasing proprietary software should study this case carefully. [Hack the Planet] 9:54:21 PM    comment []

Grokster Transcript Available (Ernest Miller). Read all 55-pages of the Grokster oral argument transcript here: Grokster Oral Argument [PDF]. Courtesy of The Challenge of P2P, the blog for Prof. Pam Samuelson's "Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Technology: Legal and Policy Challenges" class at Berkeley this semester. [Copyfight] 9:53:52 PM    comment []

File-Sharing Is the Latest Battleground in the Clash of Technology and Copyright. The Supreme Court case between MGM Studios and Grokster is just the latest installment of a longstanding battle between technology companies and copyright holders. By HAL R. VARIAN. [NYT > Technology] 9:51:09 PM    comment []

What Susan said.  Susan Mernit gave a talk at an American Press Institute Seminar called,  "The Real Deal: How Young Adults Spend Their Time Online-- from RSS and SMS to peer-to-peer file sharing...how newspapers can tap into the new information networks." With much generosity, she has posted a summary of her presentation, making it easier for the rest of us when we need to make such a presentation to an audience of print-publishing-types. [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 6:09:30 PM    comment []

Top ten myths about gurus: Over at Guruphiliac, Jody Radzik outlines the top ten myths about your guru... any guru. Here are a couple: 10. Guruji knows what's best for you While we acknowledge the possibility that a real true guru could know what's best for you, s/he'd also know it's best to let you decide for yourself. Gurus who pretend to know what's best for all their devotees are fooling themselves as much as they are their disciples... 4. Guruji has no desires This is based in the most pervasive of the occluding expectations, that desire somehow prevents self-realization. Desire is merely the way the body responds to conditions. The guru may (or may not) be over sex, but when they want a Twinkie, they go get a Twinkie. Link [bOing bOing] 3:27:17 PM    comment []

Privacy: What Search Sites Know About You. Search engines have long tracked user activities through anonymous cookies. But as Google and other search engines get into e-mail and social networking, embarrassing search terms may be traceable to individuals. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News] 7:18:23 AM    comment []

Mike half-ventures a prediction in Grokster and other matters. What with last week's hectic schedule -- the oral argument in the Supreme Court over the Grokster case, last-minute filings in the broadcast-flag challenge, and various concerns over the student newspaper at my alma mater -- I didn't get much of a chance to blog last week. Still, I have had the chance to read what other people have been blogging here and there, and came across this excellent screed by Barry Ritholtz on his Big Picture blog. Ritholtz questions whether the recording industry really is well-positioned to make moral arguments against downloading, given that industry's own spotty moral history. A similar point might be made about the film industry, and to some extent has been made already by Larry Lessig in his book FREE CULTURE If you heard the Grokster oral argument, or reports about it, you know that the Supreme Court asked a number of questions about whether there should be an "inducement of infringement" cause of action. Since it seems clear to me that the justices weren't completely satisfied by the answers to these questions, it wouldn't surprise me if the Court decided to hold the case over for reargument on "inducement." If that happens, remember you heard it here first. [Godwin's Law] 7:16:35 AM    comment []

Retro Redux: When Yellow Blobs Ate Other Yellow Blobs. Competition was in full force at the Parsons School of Design last weekend, when Atari gave aspiring designers a chance to design one of their games. By SETH SCHIESEL. [NYT > Technology] 7:15:53 AM    comment []

scan your skin. This appeals to the leave-my-mark part of me: scan your skin and send this project the jpg. A square of your skin will become part of a database of human skin possibilities. This may be ironic or politically incorrect, or maybe just art, I'm not sure. (Is it?) Which part of your skin would you .... [jill/txt] 7:15:37 AM    comment []

Better Disguises Through Chemistry. In the battle for health-conscious consumers, food companies are looking at a chemical that tricks the taste buds into sensing sugar or salt when it is not there. By MELANIE WARNER. [NYT > Business] 7:13:11 AM    comment []