Entries Tagged 'Copyfight' ↓

Like many, I’m pretty skeptical about big network led efforts to bring their TV and other content online, but still kind of optimistic. So it was with interest that I read John Battelle’s post Hulu Is Up at Searchblog. His conclusion? “This is a big step.”

A response, in three screen captures:

In the past couple of weeks there has been an increasingly organized movement to draft renowned copyfighter Lawrence Lessig to run for Congress in the California 12th district. Lessig himself is considering it and says, “that decision will be made soon.” One of the more interesting aspects of his possible run is that Lessig recently committed to switching gears to deal with governance and corruption issues instead of focusing on copyright and related issues. It goes without saying that I and thousands like me would love the idea of a guy like Lessig in Congress. There are many fine Congresspeople, but still relatively few that have a real handle on some of the most important issues of the day.

It is widely rumoured that between now and Christmas, the Conservative government is going to introduce new Canadian DMCA-style copyright legislation. Michael Geist has written a useful list of actions Canadians can take to address this: The Canadian DMCA - What You Can Do.

about a big Apple-related event at EMI Music this morning, and without more advance notice than that, we found out today that EMI Music will be selling DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire, starting in May. I doubted that Apple would ever sell DRM-free music alongside regular, but it’s obvious now that the two-fer - no DRM and improved sound quality - sets a high enough bar for Apple to do this in ITMS. I suppose it’s important that the distinction be greater than just DRM/No-DRM (or price).

published an interesting piece called How FairPlay Works: Apple’s iTunes DRM Dilemma at the end of February. It’s a must-read in the context of the very open Apple-DRM file. At the bottom of the article there are links to several other interesting pieces as well. Well worth your time.

asks an important question: Would Apple Mix DRM and Non-DRM Music at the iTunes Store? and refers to longtime Mac developer Peter N Lewis, whose blog post about Why Apple Cannot Allow DRM-free Indie Music is a worthwhile read as well. Lewis covers ground that I covered in my initial post about Jobs’ letter and reaches the same conclusion that I did. However, I think Gruber makes (as usual) some very valid arguments, in particular pointing out that there are interface conventions available in iTunes that make it possible that ITMS could stock non-DRM songs alongside DRM songs without causing too much confusion.

Compare and contrast these views with Cory Doctorow’s analysis, presented in an article in Salon today. Doctorow (who is a friend of a friend and someone whose views I tend to agree with) doubts Jobs’ sincerity and simply doesn’t believe that the DRM hasn’t given Apple the lock-in as Jobs suggested. I disagree with Doctorow that Apple is an eager DRM advocate - I think the evidence is pretty clear that they were overly cautious at the beginning (and so were more pro-DRM in the past) and now they’re only very grudging supporters.