It would be interesting to integrate Yoid or ESM into Helix. (I see someone from Real is on the ESM tree right now.) [Hack the Planet]

I tried ESM last night.  It worked perfectly.  And it was a high-rate stream (300kbps), too.  Decentralized Internet distribution of video is advancing very quickly right now.  One link to add to the three above: MPEG4IP, a Cisco project.  From the site: "MPEG4IP provides an end-to-end system to explore MPEG-4 multimedia. The package includes many existing open source packages and the 'glue' to integrate them together. This is a tool for streaming video and audio that is standards-oriented and free from proprietary protocols and extensions."

If you run Linux, check out Transcode, the Linux Video Stream Processing Tool by Dr. Thomas Östreich of the University of Göttingen Institute of Theoretical Physics in Germany.

2:35:54 PM   

introduction to the creative commons. At the creative commons launch party this week, 'they' unveiled this animation, which does an excellent job of describing the problems with copyright law, and how creative commons augments copyright law to make dervative works easier to clear. A must-view, everyone! [deeje.com] [Simon Fell]

AWESOME!  The idea of the Creative Commons is hard to explain.  This Flash animation does it beautifully.  It's part public-service ad, part manifesto.  It's awesome.

1:14:01 PM   

Verdict Seen As Blow to DMCA. The decision to acquit a Russian coding firm of piracy charges will make it more difficult for the government to prosecute such cases under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, some experts say. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]

It sure was a relief to read the verdict.  A long, drawn-out appeals process would have been a bummer.  But I didn't want to comment until I'd seen some analysis published.  According to EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann, "The chief problem with the government's case was that these guys weren't pirates.  I think it was hard for the jury to believe that these people should be treated as criminals simply for creating a tool."

You know, that's essentially how I see it -- the old "crowbars aren't illegal, breaking in with them is" argument.  Which is why the DMCA is so frustrating.  It's so clearly unfair. 

As for the consequences of this decision, we'll have to wait and see.  But I know what I hope will happen.  I hope it mutes the chilling effect of the DMCA -- the power the DMCA gives big corporations to bully innocent citizens. 

12:54:23 PM