In its response to Charlie Nesson’s argument that one of the hearings in an RIAA suit ought to be webcast, the RIAA lawyer said:

“[The video footage] will be readily subject to editing and manipulation by any reasonably tech-savvy individual. Even without improper modification, statements may be taken out of context, spliced together with other statements and broadcast (sic) rebroadcast as if it were an accurate transcript. Such an outcome can only do damage to Petitioner’s case.”

So, Chris Soghoian is running a contest, asking you to mash up testimony given to the FTC about Digital Rights Management (DRM). The prize: He donates money to EFF. The real prize: The scalding breath of comedy.

[Tags: riaa mashups web2.0 charles_nesson chris_soghoian drm copyright copyleft ftc contest ]

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Dan Bricklin carefully recounts what he went through to turn blog posts into a book, including those durn typographic issues. Learn from Dan!

[Tags: books blogs dan_bricklin publishing ]

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The University of Maine has approved new guidelines for tenuring and promoting academics [later:] in the New Media program (although see the comments for a complexification of this). The new guidelines allow crediting an academic for contributing to social media.

This the right thing to do not only because it is a more realistic assessment of an academic’s worth. It’s also the right thing to do because it helps to build the value of the network. If knowledge and expertise are becoming properties of the network, it is the social responsibility of our institutions to encourage the enhancement of that network.

[Tags: social_media social_networks academics universities scholarship expertise ]

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A tweenbot is a humble little wheeled creature, clothed in cardboard with a magic marker smile, set traveling in a straight line on the sidewalks of a city, with its destination written clearly on a paper tag. Strangers with some inevitability point them in the right direction until they get to where they’re going.

I have no idea what to make of this — if it moves by itself, our loving but pathetic little brains assume it has a desire? — but it makes me happy.

[Tags: robots intentionality kindness_of_strangers urban_mysteries ]

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Last night I watched two things on TV.

First, I caught up with some of The Onion’s news clips. One was a report about a video game — “Close Range — that consists of nothing but shooting people in the face. Although the “news” item wasn’t The Onion at its hilarious best, it was at least brief.

Then we watched Oliver Stone’s “W.”

When will I learn? Stone continues to be the worst major director of his generation. Perhaps we can quantify this by saying that he’s the worst Academy Award-winning director in my lifetime. That’s not to say that everything about every movie he makes is awful. But it doesn’t matter, for all of those good moments put together are washed away by the mighty river of awfulness that goes by the name of “Alexander” [My review and followup]. So, yes, “W” has some ok moments. Well, actually it doesn’t. It has a good vocal impersonation of Bush, and the humorous revelation that Richard Dreyfuss actually sort of looks like Cheney. But otherwise it’s made out of 100% cliche and cardboard. It also has two more of Stone’s signature qualities: It goes on too long (it should have stopped when Bush wins the presidency) and it uses embarrassingly failed tropes that Stone thinks are arty. (In “W,” he cuts to Bush alone in a baseball field, as if in a dream. Or something.)

My conclusion: The four minutes parody news report from The Onion, of average quality, is far superior to all of Oliver Stone’s work put together. Especially if you were to put all that Stonage together and actually watch it.

PS: The Onion lets you play “Close Range” for free.

[Tags: movies tv the_onion oliver_stone reviews fps games ]

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I know I’m late to the PlayForChange.com party, but this is a pretty impressive video, on several grounds. Don’t be misled by the opening; it’s not really just about a street musician.

In a semi-related story, the YouTube orchestra is getting ready to play Carnegie hall. To join, you had to post an audition video on YouTube…

[Tags: music worldmusic globalvoices ]

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Jonny at his best:

[Tags: jon_stewart humor ]

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Well, not exactly. Starbucks is offering a free cup of coffee to everyone who votes in the Indonesian elections. (Via Mong Palatino at GlobalVoices

[Tags: elections starbucks indonesia globalvoices ]

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The abstract of a new paper by the pioneering Pam Samuelson and Tara Wheatland:

U.S. copyright law gives successful plaintiffs who promptly registered their works the ability to elect to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work. This provision gives scant guidance about where in that range awards should be made, other than to say that the award should be in amount the court “considers just,” and that the upper end of the spectrum, from $30,000 to $150,000 per infringed work, is reserved for awards against “willful” infringers. Courts have largely failed to develop a jurisprudence to guide decision-making about compensatory statutory damage awards in ordinary infringement cases or about strong deterrent or punitive damage awards in willful infringement cases. As a result, awards of statutory damages are frequently arbitrary, inconsistent, unprincipled, and sometimes grossly excessive.

This Article argues that such awards are not only inconsistent with Congressional intent in establishing the statutory damage regime, but also with principles of due process articulated in the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on punitive damage awards. Drawing upon some cases in which statutory damage awards have been consistent with Congressional intent and with the due process jurisprudence, this Article articulates principles upon which a sound jurisprudence for copyright statutory damage awards could be built. Nevertheless, legislative reform of the U.S. statutory damage rules may be desirable.

[Tags: copyright copyleft riaa pam_samuelson tara_wheatland law charles_nesson ]

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I have not unmixed feelings about T-Mobile’s “spontaneous” dance fest in London’s Liverpool Station. (You can see it here. You can see the making of it here.) On the one hand, it’s a very cool event, and people seemed to like it. On the other, I think I’d feel a bit betrayed if I found out that my joyous dancing was actually part of a commercial.

So, overall, thumbs up, and kudos for creativity. But just a bit of pucker of distaste for commercializing the flash mob vision. Not that anyone asked me.

[Tags: flash_mob t-mobile marketing cluetrain ]

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