Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Blink and you really do 'miss it'. On BBC: Health [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 8:16:59 AM    comment []

Court Decision In Internet Censorship Law (Nitke / Ashcroft). Nitke versus Ashcroft is a case challenging Internet censorship law, involving issues of "community standards" and the Internet. I (Seth Finkelstein) am serving as an expert witness in the case. Case lawyer John Wirenius' blog entry describes the decision: http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwirenius/2005/07/25/ "[On July 25, 2005], the three judge panel of the Southern District of New York issued a 25 page per curiam opinion finding against the plaintiffs--us, to be clear--in Nitke v. Ashcroft. The decision is a stunner--as much for what it doesn't say as for what it does. The Court found that Barbara and NCSF (through The Eulenspeigel Society) had been chilled in their speech and had censored themselves because of the statute allowing the Government to choose which venue any artist using the Internet may be prosecuted in, and applying that local community's standards to all art on the Internet. The Court also found that Barbara and NCSF could not rest easy on the obvious social value of their speech, because not all prosecutors and not all juries see social importance the same way. Then they found we had not produced enough evidence as to how many artists would be chilled, and how local community standards varied. Thus, we had not shown to what extent the standards varied from community to community, and how much speech was effected." I have a page of resources about the case at: http://sethf.com/nitke/ Case lawyer John Wirenius' material: Overview: http://wireniusreport.net/overview.html January 2005 Update: http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwirenius/2005/01/01/ http://wireniusreport.net/ http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=jwirenius NCSF's site: http://www.ncsfreedom.org/ Barbara Nitke: http://www.barbaranitke.com/ [Infothought] 8:16:55 AM    comment []

DVD to PSP Conversion Guide. If you've been looking for some ways o convert DVDs so you can play them on your PSP, here's a big ole' Flash movie that will walk you through this step by step. You'll DVD Decrypter, PSP Video 9 and a PC. Once you get the files out using DVD Decrypter, then you convert them with PSP Video. Link. [unmediated] 8:11:55 AM    comment []

Coordinator of International intellectual Property Enforcement (Alan Wexelblat). AP story (here on SiliconValley.com) indicating that Pres. Bush has created a new post of coordinator of international intellectual property enforcement. The first appointee is Christian Israel, formerly of the US Commerce Department. They're using words like "aggressive" which I take to be code language for dealing with countries like China that can't be intimidated by the kind of bilateral trade treaties that the Bush administration has used to pressure smaller countries into accepting US intellectual property regimes. [Copyfight] I don't know about you, but a report of the appointment of "Christian Israel" by this administration immediately sets my mind to thoughts of spoofs and pranks. But sometimes you can't make this stuff up. 8:10:35 AM    comment []

What is isn't. Not only this, but "vista," I just learned, means "chicken" in Latvian. [The Doc Searls Weblog] The "this"? It's at engadget: While Microsoft’s marketing team was hooting and hollering on stage in Atlanta as they announced that Longhorn’s official name would be Windows Vista, at least one person was stewing back in Redmond. No, Ballmer wasn’t peeved that they lost his invite to the Atlanta shindig; the title of crankiest man in Washington State was officially awarded to John Wall, head of Redmond-based tech services company Vista, Inc. Wall’s company owns a trademark on the name “Vista,” and he’s now considering his options, which could include taking his neighbor to court — though he’d like to at least chew the fat over the back fence first. “We’re going to consider our options and talk to them,” he told the Seattle Times. Wall isn’t alone. Among the companies that could be affected by the new name are La Jolla, California, based Vista Software, and Warren, Ohio’s Vista Window Co., which makes, you guessed it, Windows. Somehow we suspect that, if any of these companies make a run at Microsoft, they’re going to face a reaction that makes Apple’s successful defense of the Tiger brand against Tiger Direct look meek by comparison. It’s Windows Vista, now and forever (or at least until Blackcomb comes out). Get used to it. [Via Slashdot] 8:08:30 AM    comment []