Thursday, September 25, 2003

Is public radio public? Dave Winer asks some excellent questions regarding public radio. Dave also points out that streaming is a form of copy protection (most public radio services only stream their broadcasts, rather than provide easy to use/move mp3 files). This strategy also ignores the explosive growth of mp3 players such as the ipod. Wisconsin Public Radio provides only streaming. I sent an email to Greg Schnirring (schnirring@wpr.org), Director of Radio requesting that they provide mp3 format audio files of their programs. 2:58:36 PM

The VOIP battle heats up There are a number of articles on fast growing Voice over IP ("telephone" calls on the internet). PC World addresses the looming tax issue(s), while Dartmouth begins to provide soft phones to incoming students. Packet8 and Vonage are two VOIP providers. (I use packet8). Pulver.com has a useful summary of state activities on VOIP (including Wisconsin's ill advised regulatory moves). 8:33:20 AM

NY Times on Piracy I'm a long time NY Times subscriber. I did a double take this morning when they featured a front page article on "Studios Moving to Block Piracy of Films Online". I phoned NY Times Executive Editor Bill Keller (voice mail, of course) and expressed my disappointment that once again, they've drank the Hollywood Kool Aid on "fair use". Much like Dave's questions regarding mp3 feeds from public radio, it seems absurd in 2003 that I cannot conveniently space and time shift purchased movies. The recently launched word pirates site is quite useful in this respect. 8:18:36 AM