W3C “promotes the Progress”

Posted on May 22, 2003 by Lessig

The W3C has taken an extremely important step. The step was taken in the context of patent policy. The substance of the step is important enough: W3C has taken the position that it will not recommend a standard that depends upon a patent that is not offered on a Royalty-Free basis. Some wanted a stronger position — no patents at all. But the W3C position will at least assure that Web standards will not be blocked by patents.

But the more important decision is the procedure taken in releasing this decision: W3C has released its public version of the decision with the reasoning behind the direcor’s action attached. Danny Weitzner reports this is a first. I don’t know of any example to contradict that claim. Let it be the first of many from this important organization that continues the work of the web’s founder.

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MediaCon: the most obvious point (you’d think they’d at least fake it for now)

Posted on May 22, 2003 by Lessig

Dan Gillmor has picked up the MediaCon story — thankfully. His eJournal has begun collecting stories about the obvious effect of concentrated media: that the news will begin to sing in harmony with the interests of the owners. Here’s a snippet from Salon on this. And here’s his announcement of a mediacon channel.

I don’t know who owns the SJ Merc, but whoever does, I guess Gillmor is at least some evidence against my concern that big media will compromise journalism. Some.

Posted in free culture | 2 Comments

MediaCon: but then the Internet took its ball and went home

Posted on May 22, 2003 by Lessig

Mikael Pawlo, among the world’s, and certainly Sweden’s, most active lawyers monitoring of all things cyber, wrote a terrifying story about the law regulating the net last year. Seems a newspaper ran an online forum where readers could post. A reader posted speech that was deemed “hate speech.” The newspaper was held liable — not because it failed to remove the speech quickly enough. The newspaper was liable the moment the speech was posted. Thus, the message from the Swedish courts: Do not create fora where people get to speak unless an editor reads their speech first. The story is here.

And they say the Internet will check “big media” …

Posted in free culture | 1 Comment

The ministry of silly walks

Posted on May 22, 2003 by Lessig

Chris Kelly has been keeping a keen eye out for silliness. Here’s his latest find.

Posted in bad code | 1 Comment

(E) Act: Locating Congress-critters

Posted on May 21, 2003 by Lessig

Here’s a better link to locate Congress-critters who you can write to about the Eldred Act. And here’s a description of the proposal and its purposes.

Posted in eldred.cc | 1 Comment

Words back from Congress

Posted on May 21, 2003 by Lessig

So I’ve gotten tons of mail from people who have taken up the challenge to spread the idea of the Eldred Act. I’ll be reporting on this feedback over time. Christopher Kantarjiev sent a letter to Congresswoman Eshoo (CA, Democrat) who represents Stanford. Here’s her reply:

> Thank you for your e-mail about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to
> uphold the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension
> Act (CTEA), which adds 20 years to the terms of existing and future
> copyrights.
>
> The case of Eldred v. Ashcroft challenged the constitutionality of CTEA,
> charging that CTEA fails constitutional review under both the Copyright
> Clause’s “limited times” prescription and the First Amendment’s free
> speech guarantee. The framers of the Constitution wanted to promote
> science and arts by allowing Congress to grant exclusive rights to
> creations “for limited times.” Congress has extended this period
> gradually over time and the Court held that Congress acted within its
> authority and did not transgress Constitutional limitations when it passed
> CTEA.
>
> While I appreciate the importance of the public domain and I remain
> dedicated to preserving such fundamental rights as freedom of speech and
> freedom of the press, I do believe that Congress must also act to ensure
> the international protection of copyrighted works. We must balance the
> tensions between these two sets of interests carefully.
>
> As you mentioned in your email, one possible compromise is the Eric Eldred
> Act, which takes a common sense approach to move unused copyrighted work
> with no continuing commercial value into the public domain. The Eric
> Eldred Act has not yet been introduced in the Congress, but I shall
> continue to monitor this issue, keeping your important thoughts in mind.
>
>
> If you have any other questions or comments, let me hear from you. I
> always appreciate hearing from my constituents and ask that you continue
> to inform me on issues you care about. I need your thoughts and benefit
> from your ideas.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Anna G. Eshoo
> Member of Congress

“common sense” — I count that as good news. Keep those letter going…

Posted in eldred.cc | 4 Comments

law and blawgs

Posted on May 21, 2003 by Lessig

Jerry Lawson has a great piece for lawyers about weblogs, or bLAWgs as I’ve seen them referred to.

Posted in good code | Comments Off on law and blawgs

would amazon please become a bank?

Posted on May 20, 2003 by Lessig

I know it’s trendy to say nasty things about Amazon (one-click, etc.), but man do I wish they’d expand into really useful services, like banking. I’ve been struggling through nightmare experiences with “online banks” — none of which have online services that are half as reliable or convenient as Amazon.

I’ve been through Merrill Lynch (awful awful awful), and then TD Waterhouse (sleek, but thin on service: no download to Quicken, for example), and now the latest was Citibank.

Citibank was recommended to me by Intuit. Said to be one of the “best” online banks. So I applied — in February. Today, three months and at least 10 calls and 5 faxes later, I stopped the “application” process. Seems they were unable to verify my address (a house we’ve owned since September 2000) after my wife and I sent in document after document. Today it took them 15 minutes to determine that they weren’t “sure” which documents would be needed, but then they helpfully gave me a list of three more I could fax in and they’d then determine whether that was enough.

Forget it, I told them. So I’m back to square-one: Does anyone recommend an online bank which: (1) has direct download to Quicken, (2) Amazon-like-reliability online?

Posted in bad code | 37 Comments

MediaCon: Glenn Reynolds into the breach

Posted on May 20, 2003 by Lessig

Glenn has a great column on the “internet will save us” meme. The final paragraph captures it perfectly:

So, Michael, here’s the deal: if you think that concentration in Old Media is okay because New Media will provide the discipline, then stand up for freeing the New Media from the shackles that the Old Media are trying to weld on. Because if you’re not serious about freeing the New Media, then you’re not serious about competition, and what you’re describing isn’t a bold new world, but a sellout.

Exactly right.

Posted in free culture | 2 Comments

Exporting extreme IP

Posted on May 19, 2003 by Lessig

This is a great piece about the mistake in the administration’s recent trade agreement with Singapore — requiring it (and us) to stick to the DMCA. Less noticed is article 16.4.4 which increases the term of copyright from 50 pma to 70 pma. (Remember, we had to increase our term to harmonize with the rest of the world; now the administration is pushing the rest of the world to increase its term to harmonize with us).

The frustration in all this is the total disconnect between criticism and governmental response. It is the form of a democracy, but with none of the substance. We make mistakes, and we force them on the rest of the world. The world then simply adopts the mistakes we make — in the face of overwhelming criticism.

For example, has anyone explained why, if a country needs a DMCA law, it can’t pass a law that respects fair-use like exceptions? Or if a country needs to extend copyright terms, it can’t limit the extension to works with commercial value?

The world loves to criticize the US, and criticize they often should. Yet the criticism would look a bit more credible if critics didn’t dress like puppets.

Posted in bad law | 7 Comments