Archives for February 2006
How to tell a Sunni from a Shiite
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- The Moleskine GTD tabs hack
- No choice but to get things done (on retro computing)
- How to subscribe to toilet paper
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Orphan copyrights hearing scheduled
Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property - Oversight Hearing on “The Report on Orphan Works by the Copyright Office.” Wednesday, March 8, 2006 at 2:00 PM - Room 2141 Rayburn House Office Building. (Note to House: Hire the Senate’s website designer, or at least make it possible to link to individual items on your site.)‘Da Vinci Code’ infringement trial begins
Two historians are alleging that The Da Vinci Code breaches their copyright in their non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. “Both books hinge on the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and they had a child, and that blood line survives to this day.” The historians claim Brown appropriated their ideas and themes in writing his book. Last time I checked, though, both here and in the UK, ideas were not subject to copyright, only their expressions. The historians claim, however, “that Brown copied the “architecture” or narrative structure of their work for his later novel.” This will be an interesting one to follow.The piracy paradox in fashion
Even though they are the product of creative endeavor, useful articles, such as clothing and furniture, are generally not eligible for copyright protection. We nevertheless see lots of innovation in those industries. A new paper by Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman looks at this paradox.Copying is rampant as the orthodox account would predict. Yet innovation and investment remain vibrant. … Firms take steps to protect the value of trademarks, but appear to accept appropriation of designs as a fact of life. This diffidence about copying stands in striking contrast to the heated condemnation of piracy and associated legislative and litigation campaigns in other creative industries.
An orphan works affirmative defense
The article I’ve written with Bridget Dooling on orphan copyrights is finally out from the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review. You can get it here (PDF). In the article we define the orphan works problem and show how it interferes with the use of creative works. We also describe the causes and costs of the problem, critique four of the leading proposed solutions, and propose a new and practical solution of our own. The Copyright Office came out with its orphan works report earlier this month, and the solution they recommended is very similar to ours. Still, Congress has to act before the problem is solved and we hope our paper will be useful in the debate. We would certainly appreciate any comments you might have.“Textcasting,” Anyone?
Slate is experimenting with attaching full-text articles to podcasts. This turns iPods into virtual eBook readers with new content added every time you sync. This isn’t much different than something like AvantGo; what makes it worth while is that just about everyone has an iPod.Morrissey quizzed by FBI
“Singer Morrissey was quizzed by the FBI and British intelligence after speaking out against the American and British governments. The Brit is a famous critic of the US-led war in Iraq and has dubbed President George W. Bush a ‘terrorist’ - but he was baffled to be hauled in by authorities. Morrissey explains, ‘The FBI and the Special Branch have investigated me and I’ve been interviewed and taped and so forth. They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England. But it didn’t take them very long to realise that I’m not.’” Hat tip to Courtney.The Oscar Deception: Art flicks make beautiful decoys
Edward Jay Epstein: “Take this year’s Best Picture nominations: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Munich, and Good Night, and Good Luck. What all of these films have in common is that they have virtually nothing to do with the real business of the Hollywood studios. For Hollywood to choose them as a public display of its virtue is almost as absurd as international oil companies presenting awards to avant-garde artists who happen to paint in oil.”Apple announcing “fun new products” next Tuesday
“Steve Jobs has a mobile phone. I’m not sure which mobile phone it is, but he’s definltely got one. And he hates it. He curses at it every day. He hates it like he hated the original IBM PC. He hates how hard it is to add contacts and make calls and he cringes at the web experience and the Java games, if he’s even bothered to try them. He holds it in his hand during long trips and admires some things about it, but knows *he could do it better.* He knows that if Apple decided to make a mobile phone, it would be the most intuitive and elegant mobile phone in the world. And he wants that phone.” -Russell Beatie writing in November, 2004. I agree.Tollbooths on the Internet Highway?
Yesterday the New York Times had an editorial about network neutrality. They employed a great analogy: “When someone calls your home, the telephone company puts through the call without regard to who is calling. In the same way, Internet service providers let Web sites operated by eBay, CNN or any other company send information to you on an equal footing.” They conclude, however, that Congress should enact net neutrality legislation to ensure that “equal footing.”Here’s what I want to know: Given competition, how many consumers would stand for a phone company that didn’t put through everyone that called them unless the caller paid extra? The key here is competition. The NYT seems to understand this because it says that “Most Americans have little or no choice of broadband I.S.P.’s, so they would have few options if those providers shifted away from neutrality.” That’s debatable. But even if it weren’t, wouldn’t seeking more competition be the ultimate solution?
Cross-posted at TLF. You can leave and read comments there. →
~Eames rosewood lounge chair
My birthday is coming up next month, so I would just like to point out that the Eames Foundation is offering hand-numbered (whatever that means) 50th anniversary edition rosewood lounge chairs and ottomans in exchange for a contribution. So let’s be charitable. This is for a good cause.
Factual or a fraud? Jury still out on ‘White Male’
I’ve been very intrigued by previews of the new documentary “Unknown White Male” that is supposed to follow the life of a guy who has amnesia and can’t remember his name or a thing about his past. Turns out the whole movie might be a hoax. Roger Ebert: “There is a moment when Bruce is back home again in London, and as the car takes him past Buckingham Palace he says, ‘Who lives there?’ Amnesia or not, isn’t that a little too perfect? Who, looking at that vast building and knowing nothing about it, would think anyone lived there?” Hat tip to Jacinda.Holocaust denier Irving is jailed
BBC: “British historian David Irving has been found guilty in Vienna of denying the Holocaust of European Jewry and sentenced to three years in prison.” Do I really have to point out how ironic this is? European countries like France and the Netherlands made a ruckus earlier this month by printing the Mohammed cartoons out of principle in order to show their supposedly unconditional support for freedom of expression. Yet, European countries including France and the Netherlands have holocaust denial laws like the one Austria just used to sentence Irving to prison for nothing more than speaking his mind. I wonder if there will be outrage now?Me in the Washington Post on Moleskines
The WaPo runs a feature today on Moleskine notebooks and I’m quoted. The reporter, Dan Morse, called me over a week ago and we’ve chatted a couple of times. Something I didn’t know: “The national bookstore chain Barnes & Noble counts Washington as its third-largest Moleskine selling ground, trailing New York and Philadelphia. In all, Washingtonians are expected to buy nearly 70,000 Moleskines this year.” FYI, here’s the Moleskine post that has brought this site more traffic than any other post.Béisbol Libre
Wonderful article on Cuba’ participation in the upcoming World Baseball Classic in the Weekly Standard. I think the saddest part of all this that Cuban major league players won’t be able to play for their country like their Dominican and Puerto Rican colleagues will.Alito’s new clerks
The NYT takes a look at Justice Alito’s new clerks. They include a 35-year-old “former top aide to Attorney General John Ashcroft and an architect of the Bush administration’s legal strategy after the Sept. 11, 2001[.]” I wonder how unprecented this really is and whether it will, well, set a precedent. Also hired was Alexander Volokh.~Mid-century modern Flickr pool
I just discovered this mid-century modern furnishings, design and architecture pool on Flickr. It is amazing, especially because all the photos are by amateurs. Not only is everything beautiful, it’s a wonderful resource for practical ideas because these are mostly shots of people’s real everyday living spaces. Of special note are the photos by Veronika Lake who has great taste.
$1.4 Billion Spent on Spin
“The Bush administration spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years,” according to Ad Week.Our new cable franchising study
As I’ve noted here before, for the past couple of months I’ve been working on a study of cable franchising that looks at the cost of franchising to consumers and what the FCC, Congress, and the states can and should do about it. Yesterday we released the bulk of it as a comment to an FCC proceeding and as testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee, which will hold a hearing on the issue tomorrow. So if you want a sneak peek of the full study check out our FCC comment as well as our Congressional testimony (PDF), which has legislative recommendations that aren’t in the comment. Our main conclusions:- Cable franchising costs consumers over $10 billion annually in higher prices and forgone benefits. By constraining competition, local video franchising imposes significant costs on two groups of consumers. Current cable subscribers pay higher prices than they would pay if there were competition, and potential customers forego cable TV service because they believe it is too expensive at current prices.
- The FCC has the authority to preempt local franchising authority practices that act as barriers to entry and should do so.
- An even better solution would be for Congress or the states to get rid of franchising altogether or streamline it as Texas has done.
IPod on the Tracks
Very cute story in today’s NYT about a guy who drops his iPod into the gap between the subway and the platform. “The whole moment had the brisk finality of a goal in air hockey.”-
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This is the personal site of Jerry Brito, a lawyer and writer in Washington, D.C. He’s an academic researcher and the creator of Unclutterer and several other blogs. More »
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