-
Archives
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- May 2011
- March 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
-
Meta
Monthly Archives: May 2003
The ministry of silly walks
Chris Kelly has been keeping a keen eye out for silliness. Here’s his latest find. Continue reading
(E) Act: Locating Congress-critters
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. Continue reading
Words back from Congress
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… Continue reading
Posted in eldred.cc
4 Comments
law and blawgs
Jerry Lawson has a great piece for lawyers about weblogs, or bLAWgs as I’ve seen them referred to. Continue reading
Posted in good code
Comments Off on law and blawgs
would amazon please become a bank?
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? Continue reading
Posted in bad code
37 Comments
MediaCon: Glenn Reynolds into the breach
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. Continue reading
Posted in free culture
2 Comments
Exporting extreme IP
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. Continue reading
Posted in bad law
7 Comments
MediaCon: the internet threat
Memo to the few:
Two important items for today.
(1) This Internet is getting out of control. I just learned that when you search on news in Google, for example, it actually returns results with the work of people, not Incs. This has got to be stopped. Get Google to change its code. Incs. before people. Always.
(2) Research shows that the best way to resist the increasing public criticism of Mikey’s plan to relax rules on media ownership is to focus on the internet. Why worry about 3 companies controlling all of media when we have the internet as a competitor?
(BTW: ever notice?: Mikey + (c) = Mickey) Continue reading
Posted in free culture
13 Comments
competition
Doc is writing about a meme we have got to get right early on.
One (not the only) general way to describe what’s important about the Net we knew is competition. The end-to-end Internet is a platform for fostering and supporting competition.
One general kind of competition that this platform will enable is competition between commercial and noncommercial content and innovation. A richer public domain, and more in the creative commons will mean more to choose among when creating or sharing or criticizing culture.
Competitors hate competition. They will always work to increase barriers to entry. And they will use a string of silly excuses to increase the barriers to the free.
We should resist these excuses. We should be fighting to preserve this competition. “How can you compete with free?” Jack Valenti asks, again and again? By making stuff better, again and again.
But the important point is this: It is wrong wrong wrong to bias the rules against the free. Free societies make closed societies harder to sustain. The same should be true of culture. If you find it hard to be closed and important, then either accept irrelevance or accept the Internet. Continue reading
Posted in free culture
3 Comments
reply to dave
You build the hard stuff, and we’ll build the middle ground (“Some Rights Reserved)”). As you know, we’ve been planning our Conservancy Project for sometime, and are eager to find the right code/protocol/content to fuel its launch. Continue reading
Posted in creative commons
2 Comments