Copyright

The online protest against changes to copyright law in New Zealand – aka Internet Blackout NZ – was successful in that it has resulted in a 4-week delay. It is expected that this will give the new New Zealand government enough time to reconsider the consequences of such a ridiculous law change, and most probably repeal the changes entirely. The NZ Herald has more details. This is an enormous shout out to everyone who drove the protest and participated in some way. In particularly;

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Over the weekend I read about Viacom's efforts to fight the Youtube/Google behemoth. Today Viacom announced they have made a deal with Joost (not even in open beta yet) to distribute their content (from networks like Comedy Central and MTV). So you'll have to wait until the summer to watch your favorite episodes of the real world.

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The world's largest 'bit torrent tracker' site, The Pirate Bay, is planning to buy its own nation in an attempt to circumvent international copyright laws. According to a website set up to secure the purchase of Sealand, Pirate Bay plans to give citizenship of the micronation to anyone willing to put money towards the purchase. I guess people will do anything to not pay itunes a buck or two to see the new episode of Battlestar Galactica.

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In a significant victory for free speech on the Internet, the California Supreme Court has ruled that ISPs, bloggers, and others netizens may not be held liable for publishing false and damaging material authored by someone else. Only the original authors of defamatory speech – not those who republish the defamation -- can be found liable. The court’s decision came in the case of Barrett v. Rosenthal, and affirms that blogs, websites, listservs, ISPs like Yahoo! -- as well as individuals like the defendant Ilena Rosenthal -- are protected under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act (CDA), which explicitly states that "[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

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Lawrence Lessig of Creative Commons has been coming up on my radar alot over the past few weeks. Now, Creative Commons happens to be one of the clients I manage, so I guess that's not too surprising, but I'm talking about outside of work. For example, this blog post at World Changing is an interview with LL about CC's Developing Nations License. As usual, innovative and thought-provoking ideas from CC. The idea is this: keep your copyright in the "developed" world while distributing it freely (with attribution) in the developing world.

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A brief look at YouTube's most popular videos of the day, and what do you find? Cingular with the #1 video?! (391,397 views today alone!) Yep, the name of the video is "Cingular presents: YouTube Underground!" Cingular nabs the "Viral Day Action" award (VD Action) with this clever bit of marketing... a video announcing a YouTube contest for the best band, video or song on the hugely popular video social networking site. And, only a day after Warner Music signed a deal with YouTube - agreeing to a new royalty-tracking system... A good week for the 'Tube.

Recently, I finally saw the movie "The Corporation" [ 1]. After seeing enough movies critical of modern life to not get too depressed, the movie did leave me with a somewhat balanced combination of fear and disgust. However, I realized there must be a way to improve on things. Yes. I am an optimist [2]. When I first studied sociology I learned that social structures can take people and make them into who they are. A prisoner and a prison guard [3] were normal people created by experience is one of the best known examples of institutions creating kinds of people. In relation to the movie, a central theme was that because corporations are legally considered human beings with all the same rights as flesh and bone human beings, and because corporate laws require profit, expansion, and self preservation, corporations [and therefore people] behave in a psychotic manner.

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I came across this today and really enjoyed it: 95 Theses of Geek Activism. Perhaps it helps that I identify as a hacker in the manner described in the first thesis. Geek Activism is really all about being smart, thinking for yourself and not simply accepting what others say just because they happen to be on TV or run the corporations or government (the differences between these are fading). Read them. Follow the links. You'll learn a little bit more about me - and maybe a little bit more about yourself, too. I'll end with a quote that comes to mind, perhaps because activists are geeks, too (though they may not know it).

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