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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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US Trade Rep Copyright Watch List
RIAA, Students Settle Piracy Suit
Sacrificial Lambs
HP Time-limits Ink Cartridges
Educating the Governers
Friday, May 2, 2003
US Trade Rep Creates Copyright Confusion
ZDNet's Charles Cooper discusses the USTR flap noted Wednesday.U.S. may add to copyright confusion. ZDNet May 2 2003 7:58AM ET [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Terry Frazier at 12:30 PM
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US Trade Rep Copyright Watch List
More on info on the USTR's program of creating a worldwide oligopoly for the US Copyright Cabal.
Text: U.S. Releases Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property. Washington File May 2 2003 0:17AM ET[...] USTR placed 36 trading partners on the watch list for IPR violations: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Another 11 trading partners, including the European Union (EU), were placed on the priority watch list, which entails a greater level of scrutiny. The 11 trading partners are Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, EU, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, and Taiwan. [...] [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Terry Frazier at 12:25 PM
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RIAA, Students Settle Piracy Suit
Interesting note in this Wired article regarding the RIAA suit against four college students. All four settled for relatively small amounts -- small, given the millions and millions of dollars RIAA claimed to be losing from their efforts.While the settlement amounts are not insignificant for a college student, it's less than the cost of a top-line Hyundai. Can such a settlement set a precedent for realistic values in future file trading suits?
This seems an interesting balance the RIAA is trying to strike between public hysteria to drive new laws but more restrained actions against actors in their prime target market.
How, exactly, do you treat the vast majority of your customers as criminals while still trying to market to them? Interesting dilemma...
School Blocks Out File-Trading. Amid growing pressure from the Recording Association of America to stamp out illegal file-trading on university campuses, a New Jersey school takes matters into its own hands. By Katie Dean.[...] On Thursday, all four students named in the complaints -- Aaron Sherman and Jesse Jordan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Daniel Peng of Princeton and Joe Nievelt of Michigan Technological University -- settled with the music trade group for between $12,000 and $17,500 apiece. [...] [Wired News]
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Sacrificial Lambs
RIAA has first sacrificial lambs for its pursuit of individual file traders. This is where the focus should be, and should have always been (on individuals, not infrastructure providers.) Except the DMCA has removed any need for the RIAA to show just cause or submit to oversight for its actions. Essentially, the DMCA has turned the RIAA into an unregulated, unelected, unaccountable enforcement agency. Your government at work.If there were oversight restrictions in place we could be assured that the RIAA would be forced to concentrate on individuals acting with criminal intent. It would not be possible for them to flood entire networks or castigate entire classes of users. As it stands they can go after anyone they want, any time, without incurring significant cost.
RIAA Suits Against Students May Settle.. RIAA lawsuits brought last month against the four students making and operating network search engines apparently will settle soon. The Daily Princetonian reports that Daniel Peng, and the three others, have been working with attorneys to negotiate an end to this, and expect some kind of announcement today. "It would be really expensive to litigate," said Peng, who has avoided commenting publicly since the filing. "I would like to reach an amicable settlement." In a... [bIPlog]
Terry Frazier at 4:08 PM
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HP Time-limits Ink Cartridges
Tag this one with the Lexmark DMCA case, as a logical attempt to extend control, and hence profits, to the greatest reach legally possible. The problem is the DMCA extends this control well beyond previously legal ends by stopping any form of competition or modification that would bypass any of HP's digital intellectual property. It's only a matter of time before HP joins the DMCA legal chorus to enforce its rights under this new industrial monopoly grant.Whole industries -- aftermarket auto parts, aftermarket printer cartridges, memory chips, manufacturers of any performance mechanical parts, radio and computer hobbyists, and others -- could well be destroyed by a few oligopolies embedding sufficient DigIP into their products to make them immune to any form of competition.
I don't see why it would take anything more than simple RFID embedding to establish a DMCA-qualified barrier to modification. Within a few years companies could be embedding inexpensive RFID tags into every conceivable part, linking them to a DMCA-protected control system that stops operation unless all parts are identified as OEM equipment.
Whose law trumps in such a case -- restraint of trade or DMCA?
theinquirer.net - HP inkjet cartridges have built-in expiry dates.PRINTER GIANT HP has built in time limits for its inkjet printer cartridges which means machines may stop working even if the consumable has 75% ink let to go
[ ... ]
HP has told him that the date printed on the ink cartridge is not the expiry date, and that is determined either by a cartridge being in the printer for 30 months, or the cartridge is 4.5 years old, whichever comes first. [...]
[Privacy Digest]
Terry Frazier at 10:36 AM
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Sunday, January 12, 2003
Educating the Governers
The Brits are lamenting the ignorance of their leaders (don't we all) but the lesson is important on this side of the pond, as well. In the States we have a large group of legislators who know little about technology and intellectual property. In fact, much of what they think they know is blatantly wrong, having originated in the shadowy briefcases of monied lobbyists.We need to be diligent in educating our representatives about Readers'/Users' Rights and our intent to keep them, as well as our opposition to ill-conceived technology legislation. We need to keep our legislators in touch with their colleagues who do understand the issues, and we need to support good legislation when it arises. Such work isn't easy, but it is important -- much more important than writing letters to support your favorite TV show. And despite what you may have read on other weblogs, e-mail is a useful way to reach your Congressman. Claims to the contrary not withstanding, I know it works because I've used it.
So, as distasteful as it is, pay attention to politics. Know who our friends are, and try to teach your representatives that artists aren't starving in the streets because your daughter downloaded an MP3 file. If we can keep the playing field open for innovation and entrepreneurship we can build a system that benefits all parties, not just the established old-line businesses (who have apparently been cheating both suppliers and customers for decades.) Publishers and distributors will have a place in the new system as they learn to provide services that technology-savvy customers value.
Help your congressman understand these things. Oh, and maybe send them a TiVo for Valentine's Day.
The Home Office are at it again.Make your stand now
Paul Makepeace at Ecademy:
Take a stand on UK ID cards [Paul Makepeace]. Once again the UK govt is trying to foist a national ID system on the Brits. Stand.org.uk has prepared a piece to enable people to review the govt docs, and send an email to Those In Charge. There isn't a lot of time left. If you're going to do this, do it now. It's worth noting that this kind of protest killed off the RIP bill, so it works. It's very easy - read the page -- lively, short and entertainingly informative -- then click on the relevant checkboxes in Step 1, edit the form they present, and then off it goes. You must edit the box as it contains instructions that would look particularly stupid if sent. Here's what I hastily threw together, Dear Sir/Madam, I was dismayed recently to learn about the Government's proposals for Entitlement Cards (aka ID cards). [Ecademy: user blogs]
Is restriction of liberty hardwired into politicians? [Dangerous thinking]
Here we go again.
Part of the problem is that MP's are, by and large, horribly ill-informed about IT issues. Couple this with a need to be seen to be doing something and you have a nasty situation where any loud voice is likely to receive widespread support.
My own MP gets most of her information from the Home Office. She's a Labour MP so I guess she feels she can trust them. This is bad. Of course my own guilty secret is that I was supposed to be sending them information about where they kind find other opinions about RIP. I could have thrown in some stuff about identity cards too. I still should.
In the meantime it's off to the Stand. [Curiouser and curiouser!]
Terry Frazier at 11:51 AM
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