b.cognosco

Push by any other name. A hot topic at the moment is the bandwidth usage by news aggregators. According to my own site statistics, aggregator hits on my various RSS feeds now outweigh browser hits on my HTML pages by a factor of 2 to 1. My bandwidth usage tops 250MB/day on a slow day. My free bandwidth limit is 3GB/month. You do the math. (581 words) [ Source: dive into mark]

Heritage Foundation Sees Kinder, Gentler Coble-Berman

10:08:17 AM

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James L. Gattuso and Norbert J. Michel defend the Coble-Berman Act as a mere trifle, claiming most of the rhetoric is overblown. I have just one question -- if all these folks want to do is add a few spoof files and create software that downloads their own files slowly, why do they need an act of Congress to make it alright? Since when do we need Congressional approval for legal acts?

We don't. The goal here is not action within current legal guidelines. It's part of a much larger, much uglier propaganda and lobbying campaign meant to cast the average American as a criminal and fundamentally alter the existing legal framework for computer usage and collaboration in favor of large media conglomerates.

Gattuso and Michel claim Coble-Berman is much like any homeowner protecting his house from invaders. By this reckoning I should actually be allowed to kill the invading media agent in self-defense. It's my property that is actually being invaded, after all.

No, Coble-Berman is like the lynch mobs of the 19th century, when self-appointed vigilantes roamed around terrorizing whomever they pleased, and this is an extremely weak justification/rationalization.

Coble-Berman is bad law and the Heritage Foundation should know better.

Facing the Music: The Battle Over Digital Piracy. Heritage Foundation Oct 22 2002 1:03AM ET
[...] What can the government do? Too often, its response has been to adopt new rules that limit technology, an approach that can kill innovation. The “self-help” proposal currently before Congress, sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., tries a different approach: Allowing copyright owners to take action to protect their own property.
The concept of self-help isn’t new in American law. Homeowners, for instance, have long been able to take steps to stop burglars found in their homes. Lenders can take steps to repossess automobiles, houses and other property, even without the owner’s consent. Music and movies are intangible, intellectual property, but the principle remains the same: If, under copyright laws, these products are being distributed without the owner’s consent, the owner should be allowed to stop the theft. [...] [ Source: Moreover - IP and patents news]

Xbox as Microsoft's Vision of Future Computing

9:17:03 AM

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The Register analyzes Ballmer's comments in Australia and draws some conclusions about what Redmond has in store for the rest of us. If you think TCPA/Palladium is just about business users and is really not going to impact the average computer user, well, you haven't really thought about it at all.

Ballmer baulks at Oz Xbox chippers charter. Threatens to go legal, take football away
[...]Microsoft however is particularly interesting here, because it's coming from the PC end of the business, the Xbox is a PC really, and we're seeing the company develop and transition PC-style approaches to security and licensing into the console arena. And assuredly, some of these will be going back in the other direction, and if you consider the new Ts & Cs covering machine IDs, DRM and the like, you can see it's already happening. [...] [ Source: The Register]