2008, the year D.R.M. hits your T.V. December 7, 2007
Recently many television subscribers have started worrying about whether or not they will continue getting what they pay for. High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) has begun rolling out through many service providers and could be in use very soon. While this will only apply for premium channels and pay-per-views for now, who knows where it could extend. The service providers can not really be blamed for this as they all have contracts they have to abide by if they wish to continue providing channels to their customers. The content providers have mandated this protection if the service provider wishes to continue showing their channels or pay per-view-movies. (more…)
Support Creative Commons October 6, 2007
Creative Commons (CC) is holding their 2007 fundraiser now through Dec 31st and they need your help. Creative Commons licenses enable artists (an artist is you!) to grant some or all of their rights to the public while retaining others as opposed to an “all rights reserved” copyright. For example you can grant your fans the right to download your works for non-commercial uses as long as they give you credit, or not, it’s up to you. Creative Commons was officially launched in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig (wiki). Today there are many millions of works licensed under Creative Commons and that number is growing fast.
There’s a lot more to the Creative Commons web site than just Licenses though. CCmixter “is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.” There are tens of thousands of samples and tracks from artists and recording labels like the freesound project, Magnatune, Fort Minor and more. All available for download legally, for free.
There are many more projects and tools on their Projects page and while you are there, think about supporting Creative Commons with a donation or buy some geek gear.
Free downloads 12, this time games! September 15, 2007
Continuing our free downloads series here is a new one that has some slightly different content from our usual links. Abandonia Reloaded is a site dedicated to remakes, freeware, and opensource games. The site has games spanning every genre so there is just about something for everyone there. So if your looking to waste some time give it a look.
Free Download 10, “Good Copy, Bad Copy” August 2, 2007
The folks that produced the documentary “Good copy, Bad copy” have released it as a free download (link to Pirate Bay torrent) Thanks /.
This is a great film about our culture in the digital age and the impact copyright law has on artists today. This is a must see film which includes interviews with Girl Talk, Danger Mouse, Lawrence Lessig and more.
Big Media=Greed July 14, 2007
Today, July 13, 2007 in Great Britain, Prince slammed Sony BMG UK by making a deal to distribute his new CD “Planet Earth” with Sunday’s newspaper for free…. or just the cost of the paper.
This is a stunt to gain more listeners, but it really goes against what Big Media believes, that they own the music and movies the artists produce. Put into plain, simple terms: “Somebody’s Crazy!!” You decide who. Sure contracts are signed, deals are made, but who produced the music in the first place? Right. You know the answer.
As for Prince, I think he should just tell them to go sit with the demon The Doctor put down that black hole (yes, that Doctor). Prince can sell all the albums he wants online. Maybe he could start distribution via Magnatune or even the likes of PodSafeAudio or just under a Creative Commons license. Whichever comes to pass, I’m sure fans will still want and be willing to pay for his music and concerts. He’ll be the free and clear winner.
nomasteryoda
We couldn’t very well call ourselves fairuseday without a post on this May 1, 2007
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More on the story…
BoingBoing Digg users revolt over AACS key
BBC DVD DRM row sparks user rebellion
Slashdot Censoring a Number
C|Net Unhappy Digg users bury site in protest
YouTube Oh Nine, Eff Nine (nice musical version!)
… and many many many more
Forbes Digg’s DRM Revolt
Wikipedia HD DVD encryption key controversy
Flickr set Censorship … meh
xkcd Code Talkers
EFF 09 f9: A Legal Primer
Ars AACS LA: Internet “revolt” be damned, this fight is not over (hahaha, you’re damn right it’s not!)
TLF Digg, Network Neutrality, and the Long Tail
Freedom To Tinker Why the 09ers Are So Upset
BoingBoing Juggling monkey makes ape out of AACS
Userfriendly.org HD-DVD Sudoku
ThinkGeek Meeting notes from a recent hypothetical meeting in the AACS-LA* office.
Free Speech Roundup February 12, 2007
Ars has a good roundup of this weeks free speech issues here. The article covers topics ranging from cockfighting to the Quran to bullies. Its an interesting read to see who’s fighting for our rights and who’s bowing down to the masses.
Big Media Cult Leaders February 9, 2007
If you think the way big media bosses (RIAA / MPAA / TV Studios) treat their customers is fair, think again. This video is scary how well it meshes with the tactics of media (crime) bosses.
Bill Moyers National Conference for Media Reform January 13, 2007
Bill Moyers opened the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis Friday. During his powerful speech he praised SavetheInternet.com for their grassroots campaign to keep the Internet neutral. You can see a short clip of his speech on line;
“Free Press and SavetheInternet.com orchestrated 800 organizations, a million and a half petitions, countless local events, legions of home-made videos, smart collaboration with allies in industry and a top-shelf communications campaign“
The clip is great but the whole speech is really worth watching; it is as entertaining as educational. Watch part 1, part 2 (you tube), or download the whole thing (167Mb QT). For more info check out the conference Web site and Freepress.net for the latest information on all the weekend events. If you missed Bill Moyers program “The Net@Risk” on PBS last year you can still watch on line at PBS.org.
(edit) Download SavetheInternet.com’s “Internet Freedom Declaration of 2007” (pdf)
