"Get a license or do not sample"

Posted on September 9, 2004 by Lessig

So ordered the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Sampling, we’re told, is piracy. But be certain to see the 19 footnotes in this relatively brief opinion, or the 28 separate quotes the opinion includes from other peoples work. I assume the court got a license for those.

Now that’s not quite fair. The court’s decision turns upon its “literal” reading of the sound recording statute. The sound recording statute has no de minimis exceptions, the court held. So while you are free to copy three notes from a musical composition, you can’t copy the same three notes from a recording. So copying (so long as de minimis) is fine; cut & paste is not. It is a “bright-line” rule the Court has crafted: Ask permission first. (And don’t worry, they might have added. It’s simple.)

So once again: life in the analog world is freer than life in the digital world. You can do it, just don’t use technology to do it — unless, of course, your lawyer has spoken to their lawyer.

Posted in free culture | 26 Comments

come to the concert

Posted on September 5, 2004 by Lessig

wired-cc.jpg

Tickets going fast.

Posted in creative commons | 3 Comments

the GPL in Germany

Posted on September 5, 2004 by Lessig

Christian Ahlert and Thomas Hoeren have translated a Munich Court decision about the enforceability of the GPL in Germany. Ahlert also has an introduction, to the case and to Creative Commons, and Professor Hoeren has written a commentary.

Posted in good law | 4 Comments

Feel the Hate

Posted on September 5, 2004 by Lessig

That‘s certainly how the GOP convention seemed to me, though maybe I’m just too “sensitive.” But this certainly was a different convention from the GOP convention at which I was a member of the Pennsylvania delegation (indeed, the youngest member of any delegation) in 1980. That the was the Party of Jack Kemp. This is the Party of Zel Miller (!).

Posted in presidential politics | 32 Comments

films to see before you vote

Posted on September 5, 2004 by Lessig

It is the nature of the net that just about the time you think, “there ought to be …,” there is. Here‘s a site with a collection of films relevant to the election. It would be better were there more that were clearly from the other side. Ideas?

Posted in presidential politics | 15 Comments

Ranked Choice Voting: the democratic cure to Naderitis

Posted on September 3, 2004 by Lessig

Here’s a demo of San Francisco’s implementation of Ranked Choice Voting — permitting people to vote for their first choice in an election, but then allowing their preferences to count if the first choice loses. As many have observed, this would make it easier for people to vote for their first choice (e.g., a 3d party candidate certain to lose), without having that vote increase the likelihood that their third (or 100th) choice wins.

Posted in good code | 25 Comments

can this really be true: diabolic diebold

Posted on September 3, 2004 by Lessig

I’ve never really bought the conspiracy story surrounding the Diebold voting machine stuff. I’ve been happy that the issue has been raised (and even happier that the battle about copyright that Diebold’s effort at censoring criticism created also created the Free Culture movement at Swarthmore, and now spreading).

But if this story is true, I will have to rethink my view. As reported at Blackboxvoting:

By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location, a second set of votes is created. This set of votes can be changed, so that it no longer matches the correct votes. The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set. It takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate the risks.

Is this really true?

Posted in bad code | 14 Comments

help the British think about free software?

Posted on September 3, 2004 by Lessig

The UK Parliamentary Office on Science and Technology is preparing a POST note on ‘Open Source’. (No, I didn’t know what a POST note is exactly either, but check it out here.) The author is looking for helpful comments. I’ve created a temporary email address for David Berry. You can send him comments at that address for a week.

Posted in good law | 1 Comment

five deferments or two tours of duty

Posted on September 3, 2004 by Lessig

Finally, the Kerry campaign gets some passion in response to the attacks.

Posted in presidential politics | 41 Comments

the declaration of independence, the constitution, and now this: yet another inspiration from philadelphia

Posted on September 3, 2004 by Lessig

Philadelphia is considering adding WiFi boxes to all street lights, making the whole city WiFi alive. What I like best about this idea is how the link to street lights suggests how we should think about this resource:

(1) Is it free? No, just as street lighting costs money, it will cost money to put Wifi boxes on street lighting.

(2) Is it free. Yes, like lighted streets, and air conditioned city hall, you won’t have to pay to enjoy the resource.

(3) So it is free and not free: yes, as all great public resources are.

And as with all great public resources, this will benefit Philadelphia in ways we cannot begin to imagine. Let the city provide a platform, and watch the entrepreneurs find a million ways to make it valuable. Did anyone have any clue about all the ways the GPS would be used once Ronald Reagan set it free?

Posted in good code | 14 Comments