...by the inmates...for the inmates...
Tuesday, March 09, 2004EFF Has Balls, Kicks Ass, Takes Names, Sues FCC. Sweeeet.
If the FCC had any balls, this would not be necessary.
EFF is suing the FCC over the Broadcast Flag!. W00H00! EFF is suing the friggin' FCC for sucking up to the Hollywood studios and enacting the loathesome Broadcast Flag without a shred of evidence that it was necessary and without a shred of evidence that it could stop "piracy" -- unless, by "piracy," you mean "inventing VCR-like technologies without the permission of scaredy-cat studio execs." So we're suing them! I love my job.
"The FCC's digital broadcast television mandate is a step in the wrong direction because it would make digital television cost more and do less, undermining innovation, fair use, and competition," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann, "The FCC overstepped its bounds, unduly restricting consumers and manufacturers when it issued its broadcast flag ruling..."The lawsuit, called ALA v. FCC, was filed in the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and charges that the FCC exceeded its jurisdiction, acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, and failed to point to substantial evidence in adopting a broadcast flag mandate.
Link [Boing Boing Blog]
Where Marketers Go for Information, Part 1: Free Resources
Which are the trusted sources for ideas, data, case studies, or advice? If you're blessed with a big budget, you can buy them. If not, you probably scour the Web for information. Most of us have a set of sites we visit (ClickZ obviously being one of them) when we want to stay on top of the game.
This series will examine current valuable information sources. Today, a look at where marketers go for free information. Whether current events, competitive information, data to use in a forecast, or just a few good ideas, there are numerous free sources for those willing to do the legwork. And always remember: use good judgment. [ClickZ]
New Mind Mapping Newsletter
New mind mapping newsletter. Will Reed, a mind mapping instructor and owner of the B-Smart website, recently introduced me to his new Mind Mapping Strategies online newsletter. [Innovation Weblog]
RSS Tipping Point
This from the CTO at InfoWorld. Chad thinks this is significant. I think their experience was significant long before their RSS hits exceeded their home page hits. If their site is similar to that of my employer, only 50% of entry hits are on the home page.
RSS consumers are begging you to send them information. They are the power-users that you really want. They don't want to wait until some marketing email czar decides it is time for another blast. They are begging you to send them information as soon as you have something to say. They don't want to wait until your "once a month" newsletter or your "twice a month" email blast. They want to know now if you have anything new to say. As far as I'm concerned, it can't get any better than that.
Ever since we began publishing RSS feeds at InfoWorld, the requests for our home page had always exceeded requests for our Top News RSS feed. Not any more. Over the past several weeks, requests for InfoWorld's Top News RSS feed have regularly exceeded the requests for our home page. This has been going on long enough now that we're certain that it's permanent. I think it's a big deal.
During the business day, we track hour-to-hour performance (using a combination of shell scripts and Analog) and in any given hour, about 8 of our top 10 most requested files are RSS files. The actual numbers are proprietary, of course, but I can say that we have seen significant growth in overall RSS requests just in the past several weeks.
Feels like a tipping point to me.
(I realize that the characteristics of RSS aggregators' requests are different than those initiated by regular users browsing your site -- aggregators behave more like robots or spiders. But I still think this is significant.)
[Chad Dickerson]