b.cognosco
Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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DOJ Seizes (non)Piracy Site
threedegrees Terms of Use
Due Diligence
European KM Practices for SME
Content Conundrum
Thursday, February 27, 2003
FCC Steps Up Speech Regulation
The American Liberty Foundation, a privately funded Libertarian organization, is reporting that the FCC is attempting to regulate its anti-war radio advertisements and prevent certain advertisements from being aired. According to a recent American Liberty e-mail:
[...] One of our ADS WILL AIR on KKDV 95.7 FM in San Francisco four times on Friday and three times each on Saturday and Sunday. Weve zipped them a check.Just moments ago, I was told the ads can air only with a letter signed by a corporate officer, standing by the claims of the spot. As you know, thats no problem weve documented everything pretty well at our website, http://www.TruthAboutWar.org
But what provoked this letter?
Im still awaiting more details, but heres what I understand as of right now. It seems the FCC is clamping down on anti-war outreach attempting to scare radio stations from selling ads to organizations like ours. [...]
I've never heard an American Liberty Foundation radio ad, and I know some stations have refused to air them. The Foundation claims to have accepted the decision of such stations as well within their rights and moved on. But I am not aware of the FCC having previously stepped in to mandate the subject matter of political ads. If others have pointers to such actions I'd like to know.
DOJ Seizes (non)Piracy Site
This article has some disturbing overtones. Note that the convicted felon didn't engage in piracy, didn't sell pirated goods, didn't operate a trading network. He sold chips. Yet the entire case, as related in the press release, and the (new) web site all repeatedly refer to piracy crime.How soon will it be before we can't alter any electronic device? How long before General Motors has after market manufacturers of automotive performance chips rounded up and jailed? How soon will the FCC be handing out $500,000 fines for truckers who boost their CB radio output? How long before you have to register your TiVo with the government?
[...]"Piracy is not a game or a hobby, it is a crime," said Paul McNulty. "This case is another example of our dedication to enforcing the intellectual property laws of this nation online. Whether you are engaged in conduct like David Rocci or you are purchasing mod chips to play pirated games, you should stop," said McNulty. "As David Rocci and others have learned recently, the consequences of copyright infringement are very real." [...]
Reasonable people can disagree on the veracity of intellectual property laws in this nation. But there can be little disagreement that the last few years have seen these laws extended well beyond what anyone could have imagined a decade ago. Seemingly arbitrary and capricious enforcement has not helped. And the sort of flag-waving propaganda exhibited by the DOJ at the ISONews sites smacks of something just a little shy of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way."
US government seizes news Web siteIn a move that has alarmed free speech advocates, the U.S. Justice Department this week seized a news Web site containing information on pirated software and hardware, turning it into a government-run site containing warnings about software piracy and links to antipiracy investigations. [...] [InfoWorld: Top News]
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
threedegrees Terms of Use
How can there be any legal substance to a contract that states it can be changed at any time without notice? No one can actually agree to anything that hasn't been disclosed. If I tried to take a contract like that to court I'd get laughed out. And the little "Better listen. I hear they have good lawyers!" at the bottom of the page is so cute. My teenagers and I will be having a little talk about the Microsoft legalese.
ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS.The services that Microsoft provides or makes available to you via the 3° web site are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU"). Microsoft reserves the right to update the TOU at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our Web pages.
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Due Diligence
Yesterday I mentioned my Macintosh experience and that I had stopped using them after almost a decade. Boneheaded things like this are what really put me over the top some 5-6 years ago. I had hoped it was better, but...I only bring this up because here's a grey-haired VC guy writing cogently on issues, demonstrating personality -- just generally doing things you don't expect a VC to do.
One other thing Tim Oren has an interesting take on: why the RIAA is doomed by it's core competency -- distribution -- and the tail-wags-dog effect of power laws. He pulls several interesting quotes from an interview with the president of Universal Music and Video Distribution, and puts them in context against the very real limits a massive retail distribution channel imposes. Very interesting reading for those trying to understand just what drives the recording industry's actions.
European KM Practices for SME
I went to KnowledgeBoard and read a number of the entries for this project. One question came immediately to mind -- why don't we have initiatives like this in the States? Do we have them and I just don't know where to look? Do we have them, but they're hidden off at SuperConferences with unobtainable entrance fees for mere mortals? I don't know. I don't think we have them and I wonder why. The Euros just seem to have a different perspective on working together.This looks like some very respectable thinkers studying how to enable practical, information-centric processes for SMEs. I'm eager to see what comes out of it.
CEN/ISSS Good Practice Guide to KMLast Thursday I .... CEN/ISSS Good Practice Guide to KM
Last Thursday I spent a great day in Brussels contributing to a project that will produce a good practice guide to KM for SME's. This takes place under the flag of CEN/ISSS.There are five items in the guide, that is due to appear in Octobre:
Terminology Frameworks Measurement Implementation in SME's Culture I have taken up interest in the items on measurement, implementation and culture. The breakout session on culture was a lot of fun, thanks Neill and Manon. The next meetings will be held in May and Octobre, which I will certainly attend.
Why not join this project yourself? Especially if you work in a small to medium sized company, run or own one, this is your chance to help set the pace and direction of KM in 25 European countries. You're welcome to contribute. [Ton's Interdependent thoughts]
Content Conundrum
A friendly conversation about Reusable Learning Objects, courtesy of David Davies.
[...] Q: So, where has this little discussion got us? I can create my own RLOs, although I was anyway only I called them learning resources. I can't use any fancy RLO content creation tools yet because there aren't any good ones although there may be soon. I can search RLO repositories just as I can search Google though I accept I may get a better chance of finding what I want searching an RLO repository given the fact that it's a resource dedicated to a particular topic as opposed to Google's come one, come all approach. Metadata may help me to find RLOs but nobody's yet been able to demonstrate that in any compelling way. And finally, although we didn't talk about it, even if I did find someone else's RLO I may not be able to use it because I may not be able to modify it for my own purpose. Not so good, eh?A: Actually, I'd say quite the opposite. Because we've been able to identify these as some of the central issues surrounding the use of RLOs, that people are taking these issues seriously and that there care some high-level group attempting to address by consultation with all stake-holders then I'd say there are likely to be some important breakthroughs in the use of RLOs in the future, or at least some clarity over what we really mean by RLOs. [...] [David Davies' Weblog]
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