Today WQAD TV 8 in Moline, IL has been granted a request to waive his right to a preliminary trial. Helder is being held in Linn County Jail in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is suspected of planting pipe bombs in 18 mailboxes across five states.
Reuters: "Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker." [Scripting News] Another low-tech solution. What's going to happen now, we have to register our Sharpies?
Keith Teare received a letter from Microsoft, which he published on his weblog, which among other things, demands that he stop publishing his weblog. [Scripting News] It appears Keith's method of being open and direct is ruffling a few feathers in Redmond. Pity. He's actually teaching a lesson all young business people need to learn: Be careful who you do business with-- or they can come back to bite you.
It appears that the Public Roundtable held on May 10, and the flood of letters sent to the LOC made a definite impact on the decision makers (including the LOC and the Senate Judiciary Committee.) They learned first hand from the statements made to the LOC and Senate Committee that all webcasters, not only the large well funded ones, had not been given a fair and reasonable hearing. The LOC learned that if they adopted the Ruling of February 20, 2002 a considerable number of webcasters, including non-commercial and college webcasters, would have been put out of business.
By hurting the small independent webcaster who had been shut out of the Ruling process would have been a clear cut case of averting the wishes of the Judiciary Committees wishes by adversely hurting small business.
Passion clouds the facts: the other major item the Roundtable exposed the LOC to was the fact that RIAA and the Webcasters had come to some agreements on the entitlement of the artists to be paid something for their works, and agreement regarding the problems surrounding the original reporting requirements. The solutions are not clear cut, but the potential for compromises were set out at the Roundtable.
At this point we have a 30-day waiting period to see what the Librarian of Congress is going to rule.
From where I sit everyone needs to maintain our honest resolve for a long term solution. Most do not understand that this CARP ruling is only good for a 2 year period that is ENDING this year. We actually should be working on negotiating the next two year CARP rates now. But because this Order is precedence setting in order to establish rates, the new CARP II rates will end up being delayed until they have something concrete to discuss.
Hopefully RIAA and the Webcasters will get together to discuss some voluntary compromises as well. As Bill Goldsmith of KPIG.com and RadioParadise.com put it,
" The record labels can either play fair now - or be forced to by Congress and the Copyright Office."
Because if the Ruling is unsatisfactory to any of the parties, even after the Librarian of Congress issues it in June 2002, the new CARP rates could end up in the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals for a hearing.
[The Shifted Librarian reports]"Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary theorist at Harvard University whose research, lectures and prolific output of essays helped to reinvigorate the field of paleontology, died today at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.
The cause was adenocarcinoma of the lung, according to his wife, Rhonda Roland Shearer.
One of the most influential evolutionary biologists of the 20th century and perhaps the best known since Charles Darwin, Dr. Gould touched off numerous debates, forcing scientists to rethink sometimes entrenched ideas about evolutionary patterns and processes. He is credited with bringing a forsaken paleontological perspective to the evolutionary mainstream." [NY Times]
Jerry Pournelle had to deal with Gould a time or two in his professional life here's an alternative point of view which is both a fair and honest assessment of the man I'd met. Gould always put Jerry down for being a science fiction author, despite Jerry's a very well known Ph.D. in Psychology. ...And the Byte author most of us grew up reading.
THE STRATEGY OF TECHNOLOGY is Available Online by Stefan T. Possony, Ph.D.; Jerry E. Pournelle, Ph.D. and Francis X. Kane, Ph.D. (Col., USAF Ret.) 1991 Edition
The Strategy of Technology was written in the 60's and published in 1970. When I was a student it required reading in order to understand technology in regard to the Cold War. One of it's authors Jerry Pournelle is an old friend and mentor.
"Strategy of Technology was very much a book for the Seventy Years War (or Cold War if you like); although the principles remain true and important, all the examples are pretty well drawn from that conflict and specifics are directed to weaknesses in the nomenklatura system that governed the USSR in those times."
Jerry continues... " The book has been out of print for years, and when this web site began I was urged to make copies available here, which I did. I have posted the "revised" edition, which contains most of the first edition, prefaces, and some extensively reworked chapters done mostly by Kane and myself, although Stefan [Possony]had a hand in some of the earlier revision, and we did discuss the later ones with him. After his stroke he remained aware but had great difficulty in communication, which produced extreme frustration as he tried to convey important thoughts that came out incoherently; a very painful situation for all concerned."
For those of you looking for a classic point of view, this is an excellent and rare resource. Jerry accepts donations of $2.00 for use of the materials. The cash ends up with Dr. Possony's widow, Regina, who is a survivor of Stalin's prison camps and lives in Mountain View.
Over the past couple days I've been doing through hell with my computer. No email viri' as far as Norton knows-- but somethings been running a muck, that's for sure! Even Radio wouldn't function properly and refused to post-- until I noticed that something changed the date on my computer to 2001. Radio didn't like that at all. So today I reloaded fresh templates, and need to do a little house cleaning. If I'm not posting as regularly as normal don't think I'm giving up. I'm just trying to make it better. MLW
Round 2: CARP is Rejected by Librarian of Congress 30 Day Clock is Now Ticking
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