Has a blog. Link it now. Read it regularly.
Barlow is one of the good guys. He cofounded the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990 and continues to be active as its Board Vice-Chairman. You can find some of his writings here.
Oh, and he is a damned good lyricist.
Via Lynn Kiesling.
I don’t condone stealing other folks property even if it is overpriced shoddy music.
However, I applaud the US Court of Appeals of DC’s decision in RIAA v Verizon:
The recording industry’s effort to curtail online piracy was dealt a significant blow today when a federal appeals court ruled that Internet service providers cannot be compelled to disclose the identities of customers suspected of illegally sharing copyrighted songs.
Well, they really can be compelled but it must now be with full due process:
Using the DMCA subpoenas, the RIAA was able to obtain the names of suspected file sharers from ISPs without filing lawsuit and without getting a judge’s approval. Without that subpoena power, the RIAA would have to file suit against unnamed file-swappers in order to obtain their identities.
The complete opinion is here (PDF) and provides some entertaining reading as the court hammers the RIAA. On the other hand, the court did not address constitutional issues raised by Verizon thus leaving the door open for congress to mess things up again.
I couldn’t disagree more with this guy:
Russ Cooper, a security expert with TruSecure Corp., said anyone who needs the Windows messaging function that AOL disabled ought to be smart enough to know how to reactivate it.
“I hope more and more providers do this type of proactive security,” he said, “and that we don’t condemn them for things we wish everybody would do for themselves.”
He is talking about AOL which has made changes to the system settings of more then 15,000,000 of their user’s Microsoft Window based systems without those users prior consent.
Its not as if Caterpillar bulldozers have never been seen taking out a few acres of forest or jungle:
Bulldozer maker Caterpillar Inc. wants to bury Walt Disney Co.’s “George of the Jungle 2” movie, which it alleges in a lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Federal Court in Peoria, Illinois, infringes on its trademarks.
In the sequel George, played by Chris Showerman, fights “bulldozing bullies” who drive Caterpillar equipment. That could have a “negative impact on children that view the movie” for the bulldozer maker and its line of toys, the newspaper quoted Caterpillar as charging.
Perhaps replacing the animation with real world scenes will take the wind out of Caterpillar’s sails.
I do find it a bit ironic taking Disney’s side in this given their position on extending copyright protection.
More D-Squared. This time on the microprobabily of micropayments. Which leads to:
Micropayments: First Clay Shirky and then Scott McCloud.
Reading Update (9/18): Kip, Longstory; shortpier, thinks micropayments for the right stuff will fly and suggests we also read Dirk Keppey’s supportive discussion at The Comics Journal.
Brian at Samizdata writes at leeennnnggth to suggest we all check out the new blog from the Adam Smith Institute. It may seem too free market for some but if they adhere to free market principles they will be an anathema to bush, et al.
Good Night!