response 1 of 104:

Jun 24 13:08 UTC 2002

Two news blurbs:

A lot of web broadcasters are shutting down now, citing RIAA royalties that,
even after being cut in half by the Librarian of Congress, are too high.

http://www.theregus.com/content/6/25338.html

Apparently the issue isn't just the current royalties, it's that they're
*retroactive* for the last four years.  So places that have been
broadcasting for a while, especially the larger ones, suddenly have a
massive tab due.

---

Microsoft seems to be spinning their DRM OS to make it more palatable.  This
is the "Secure PC" operating system with built-in support for copy
protection.  Microsoft, perhaps realizing this isn't very marketable to
anyone except Hollywood and record companies, is now referring to it as an
OS meant to protect your security and privacy, instead of one meant to
protect intellectual property.

http://www.theregus.com/content/4/25344.html

response 3 of 104:

Jun 24 19:04 UTC 2002

  ((((Oh, yeah, and these items just aren't for "copyright issues in 
      digital media," there's also a great deal of stuff about issues 
      roiling the music business which I stuff in here.))))

response 5 of 104:

Jun 26 13:36 UTC 2002

Another Register item, this one about a bill introduced by Congressman
Howard Berman (D-California).  The bill would make it legal for the RIAA
to disrupt peer-to-peer networks that are being used to distribute
copyrighted works, essentially giving them the right to defend their
copyrights with vigilante justice:

http://www.theregus.com/content/6/25385.html

Berman does suggest there would be strict limits on what would be
acceptable for them to do -- damaging property would be out, for example.

response 7 of 104:

Jul 5 16:02 UTC 2002

Monday's dead-tree edition of USA Today had a story on music recording
sales for the first half of 2002.  The slide continues and accelerates.
If I remember the numbers correctly:
    album-length CD sales down over 9%
    all-format sales down over 12%

From the peak year of 2000, all-format sales are down over 18%.
 
The collapse is concentrated at the top of the charts.
In first-half 2001, 34 albums sold 1,000,000 copies;
in first-half 2002, only 20 albums have reached that level.

response 9 of 104:

Jul 9 23:21 UTC 2002

  Today's Slashdot ( http://slashdot.org ) links to an anti-music-industry
  essay by 70s singer-songwriter Janis Ian.  She's supportive of file sharing
  and critical towards the record companies -- which is no doubt why the 
  interest from the Slashdot crowd..

     http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html

response 11 of 104:

Jul 15 14:37 UTC 2002

   http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,53704,00.html
   
   Quiet, Sad Death of Net Pioneer
   
   2:00 a.m. July 9, 2002 PST
   
   It's horribly ironic that the news of Gene Kan's death has  trav-
   eled so slowly -- no tributes posted on Usenet, no mention of his
   passing at any of the usual geek news sites.
   
   Perhaps the story of how a 25-year-old genius took his  own  life
   is  simply something that is just too difficult for folks to talk
   about.
   
   Kan, peer-to-peer file-sharing programmer extraordinaire, died on
   June  29.  His  professional  life revolved around developing new
   ways to share information easily and quickly. Thousands of people
   use  Gnutella  to  swap  files, a program Kan was instrumental in
   developing and promoting.
   
   Kan's suicide was not completely unexpected, according to some of
   his  friends. They had hoped Kan was winning his hard-fought bat-
   tle against depression exacerbated by personal problems.
   
   "We did all the things you're supposed to do," said Cody  Oliver,
   Gene's   business   partner  in  peer-to-peer  search  technology
   gonesilent.com. "We got him on Prozac; we connected  him  to  the
   suicide  hotlines.  He  promised he wouldn't do anything drastic.
   But now he's gone. It's a really rough time."
   
   The signs of impending awfulness were there,  Oliver  said.  Very
   recently,  Gene  had  changed his resume, which was stored on the
   University of California at Berkeley's server, to read: "Summary:
   Sad example of a human being. Specializing in failure."
   
   The university has removed Kan's pages.
   
   Whatever was going on in his personal life,  friends,  colleagues
   and  industry observers all agree that Gene Kan was not a failure
   -- either as a professional or as a human being.
   
   Kan was among the first programmers  to  produce  an  open-source
   version  of  the file-sharing application Gnutella, which enables
   users to search for and transfer files from computer to computer.
   
   His ability  to  translate  complicated  technology  into  easily
   understandable  terms  quickly led to his becoming the unofficial
   spokesman for Gnutella in particular, and for file-sharing appli-
   cations in general.
   
   "Gene was one of the first people to make hay with the idea  that
   peer-to-peer  file  sharing  wasn't just about music, but about a
   powerful  approach  to  problems  in  computer  networking,"  Tim
   O'Reilly, of O'Reilly Publishing, said.
   
   "It was Gnutella and Freenet, more than Napster, that got the at-
   tention  of  the  technical  elite  and made us think more deeply
   about the way the Internet was evolving," O'Reilly added.
   
   "And years from now, when we  have  an  Internet-scale  operating
   system,  and  don't  think of a computer as something on our desk
   but as something pervasive that we interact with through hundreds
   or  thousands  of different points of contact, we'll look back at
   pioneers like Gene and see the soil  in  which  the  future  took
   root."
   
   Kan was always careful to point up all the good things that could
   be done with peer-to-peer applications, while never mincing words
   about the problems the music industry perceived with file-sharing
   technologies  that also allow users to swap music and other media
   files.
   
   He testified before the Senate  Judiciary  Committee  last  June,
   advising  the  recording industry that "the toothpaste is already
   out of the tube," and it would be best to adjust their businesses
   to  the  new reality of file sharing, as opposed to trying to ban
   it.
   
   "I had the privilege of sitting next to Gene when we both  testi-
   fied  before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on file shar-
   ing -- his cool and calm, and centrality of purpose set  my  ner-
   vous  mind at ease," recalled Jim Griffin, CEO of Cherry Lane Di-
   gital, a music-publishing firm.
   
   "Gene's mind and talents were sharp  and  always  in  service  to
   mankind  and  the  bigger picture, and it is truly ironic that he
   sped the sharing of information but word of his death  has  trav-
   eled so very slowly."
   
   (page 2)
   
   Kan's most recent project, InfraSearch, is  based  on  Gnutella's
   technology.  InfraSearch allows any connected device on a network
   -- from cell phones and wireless PDAs to PCs and  servers  --  to
   communicate, collaborate and share information.
   
   Sun Microsystems bought Kan's company, then known as  GoneSilent,
   last  March  for  a reported $10 million, and until his death Kan
   worked for Sun as a consultant on the connected  search  project,
   now known as Project JXTA.
   
   "He was happy with the work. It was going well and he was getting
   paid,"  Oliver  said.  "Sun  wanted him to do some things that he
   wasn't thrilled about, but he knew that was part of the deal when
   you work for a big corporation."
   
   Oliver said when he thinks  of  Kan,  he  doesn't  dwell  on  his
   friend's  brilliant mind or advanced technical skills, but on the
   "damn good fun we had together before this whole mess."
   
   In his private life, Kan loved racing cars  and  writing  strange
   haikus.  He also collected license plates with technology-related
   expressions but refused to have  the  oft-suggested  "MP3"  plate
   made,  believing  it  would  cause hassles he didn't want to deal
   with.
   
   "It is hard to imagine any good coming from his  death,"  Griffin
   said. "But I'm guessing the peer-to-peer network will soon extend
   to the great beyond."
     
   
 .

response 13 of 104:

Jul 15 16:46 UTC 2002

As sad as it is, stories like Kan's help me when I am feeling like a 
failure. It helps to know that even people I consider successful get 
those feelings and get depressed and whatnot. It helps me to remember 
that one doesnt have an objective view when one is depressed.

response 15 of 104:

Jul 22 13:40 UTC 2002

The Register is reporting that a videoconferencing company in Austin,
Texas is claiming patent rights to technology used in the JPEG standard,
and is demanding royalties on pretty much everything that decodes them.
 Sony has apparently already ponied up $15 million:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26272.html
The JPEG committee seems confident they can get the patent overturned
with evidence of prior art:
http://www.theregus.com/content/6/25676.html

Also, fair use advocates apparently weren't welcome at a U.S. Department
of Commerce public workshop on digital rights management:
http://www.theregus.com/content/6/25660.html

response 17 of 104:

Jul 22 15:42 UTC 2002

PNG isn't really a good replacement for JPEG, because it's a lossless
compression -- it just can't match the file size reductions you can get
with a lossy compression like JPEG.  An 800x600 color photograph ends up
huge as a PNG file.  PNG is an excellent replacement for GIF, though.

response 19 of 104:

Jul 23 01:30 UTC 2002

gull, how did you get "gull.us"?  I didn't think anything but the fifty states
and DC had been created under .us.

response 21 of 104:

Jul 23 03:30 UTC 2002

And once again I mourn the loss of Mr. Postel.

response 23 of 104:

Jul 23 16:06 UTC 2002

Slashdot points to the EFF blog on digital TV issues.  
In separate letters, Sen. Hollings and Rep. Tauzin urge Federal 
Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell to move forward
immediately on requiring equipment to respect the "do-not-copy" flag/
"broadcast flag" in all digitial television applications.  
The legislators says the FCC already has the authority to do this.
 
Rep Tauzin's letter is co-signed by Rep John Dingell (D-Mich), 
who will shortly be appearing on a primary ballot for many of you.  :)