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Some things I just find out about too late. Consider the Access to Knowledge conference hosted by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. “A2K” was held in Switzerland from September 8 - 10. It looked like a really interesting conference about what we at GeekPAC like to call information rights. Check out this part:

The conference, the largest of its kind, will consider how, in a global knowledge economy, the ability to access and produce information and control its dissemination increasingly determines wealth, innovation, human development, and individual freedom.

This kind of terminology is very much in line with what we have in our position paper. Sometimes it feels like nobody else really pays attention to these issues, so it’s nice to see that we’re not alone. Hopefully, I won’t miss the conference the next time around.

Tags: News

Avast, me hearties...

We got a 2-day extension for a fund drive. Can we make it count? Forward this link to all your friends, and let’s make this year’s election count:

Donation page on fundable.com

Tags: Action

Breaking news - donate to GeekPAC! 3 days remain on our fund drive.

The Democratic National Convention is now over, and it’s time to take an account of what was (or wasn’t) said. Despite being regaled by some outstanding speeches by very powerful politicians, there were quite a few things left out of the mix. And let’s be serious - I wasn’t expecting to hear them, but it helps to recount what was left unsaid just for the record.

Here’s a small list:

1. Big media and big entertainment’s stranglehold on IP laws and the resultant killing of innovation
2. Exceedingly high bar to entry for poorer schools to provide access to information services: digital media, web, and software
3. Destruction of the marketplace of ideas via abuse of the patent system
4. Big telecom’s spiking of our privacy rights
5. Economic impairment as a direct result of the nation’s IP laws and regulations
6. Continuing growth of the digital divide, or as I like to say, the “Information Divide”

Each of the above wasn’t addressed for a specific reason, because each of the above has a very specific special interest group behind the status quo. For #1 and #4, the perpetrators are obvious. For #2, look no further than many of the software providors for our schools. And no, I’m not addressing any particular company, for there are many. For #3 and #5, think of all the high tech vendors who have a vested interest in the status quo, and they have learned their way around Washington, DC. For #6, well, we all have a hand in that one. In order to get past the Information Divide, we pretty much have to come to terms with its primary cause: the mauling of the marketplace of ideas at the hands of government.

And lastly, what I’m most disappointed not to hear is one iota of support behind the idea that information rights are now human rights. I explain the details of this more thoroughly in the GeekPAC position paper, but the gist is that data and information are vastly more important than our current laws would indicate. As such, our continued development as an technological powerhouse depends on their overhaul and drastic reform. With our dependence on digital data, digital resources, and digital transactions, it behooves us to recognize their importance and introduce a bit of sanity into our legal structures, such as:

1. protect citizens from an overreaching government
2. create a sustainable system of copyright law that recognizes the importance of the commons
3. overhaul (or remove entirely) our current patent laws, as they apply to software technology
4. a real plan to address the differences in technology access currently defined by socioeconomic status
5. recognition of a wider array of fair use rights - such as the right to access whatever information we legally hold in our possession

And I’m not holding my breath that we’ll hear anything at the Republican Convention either. Now you should understand why I always say that we are people without a party. Those who support these issues must create politically viable groups and influence elections and legislation.

Oh, did I mention that GeekPAC is having a fundraiser RIGHT NOW?

Donate to GeekPAC and fight for your information rights!

Tags: Action

We’re entering the stretch run of our fundraiser, and we’ve crossed the 50% barrier! If you haven’t donated yet, now’s your chance:

Donate at fundable.com!

Coming soon: a donor’s page thanking those who have pledged.

Tags: Action

Just saw this mentioned in Wired - a federal court judge in San Jose issued a ruling in the Lenz vs. Universal case, where Universal issued a DMCA takedown notice for content posted on Youtube, and the recipient of that notice is now suing Universal for damages:

In the nation’s first such ruling, a federal judge on Wednesday said copyright owners must consider ‘fair use’ of their works before sending takedown notices to online video-sharing sites.

The 10-page decision (.pdf) came a month after Universal Music told a San Jose, California federal judge that copyright owners need not consider the “fair use” doctrine before issuing takedown notices requiring online video-sharing sites to remove content.

Other than pointing out that the term “consider” presents a considerable amount of wiggle room, this seems to be a positive step in the right direction. In fact, part of Universal’s argument was that it was impossible to determine whether content met any fair use standard. It will be interesting to see if this precedent stands.

Read the full Wired article

Tags: News

This was an article published on LWN, written by Lisa Hoover. A very nice compendium of who we are and what we’re about:

Link to article.

Fundable.org page

Tags: News

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Do We Really Like the Taste of Apple's Remote-Kill KoolAid?

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story about Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. Clearly, having an easy way for mobile users to download apps is a good way to spur development and make money. According to Apple, over the past month the App Store has sold $30 million in iPhone and iPod touch apps. Of those sales, Apple should take in about $9 million, as it keeps about 30% of each app sold. While some application developers have complained about the revenue split, when one considers the costs associated with hosting the applications, cost of money changing hands, and general maintenance of the store, 30% is not unreasonable. What is increasingly unreasonable is the way Apple is controlling the App Store, both to the detriment of developers and consumers. read more

In my post from Monday, I laid out a very brief outline of some of the conclusions reached by the Second Circuit in its Cablevision decision on remote DVRs. Today, I want to take a step back and discuss why it was so important for the development of digital media and technology. Two theories espoused by the TV networks in the case were extraordinarily dangerous for copyright law. The first was that fleeting, transitory copies like buffer copies could make someone liable for copyright infringement. read more