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As noted at

November 3, 2000 by Michael Boyle

Scripting News today, the U.S. Copyright Office has issued Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works. Which is the long way of saying that you can hack blocking software to figure out what it’s blocking. This rule neatly obviates many of the concerns that were noted by ACLU lawyer Chris Hansen in his excellent article in Writ Magazine, Do We Really Want a Secret Censorship System.

The question I have is about the second class of works specified in the Rule: “Literary works, including computer programs and databases, protected by access control mechanisms that fail to permit access because of malfunction, damage or obsolescence.” It’s hard for me to parse exactly what this means. But it’s interesting, and the possibilities are, to me, very positive. Anyone who still thinks the gov’t doesn’t get it is out of touch, in my opinion. As I’ve said before, the government gets it just fine (at least in the US), it’s just that things have to be worked out in terms of law and policy, which can take a while.

Check out Lines + Splines (again)

November 3, 2000 by Michael Boyle

Check out Lines + Splines (again): “…because I’m now beginning a spate of all-Dutch posts; for the next few days (or so), all my posts will be related to Dutch type/design. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and now is as good a time as any.”

Type is great, but even better are the textual diversions, themes and sub-themes, clauses and sub-clauses, he (he?) uses to get to the point. Seemingly out of left field will come this extra something – a little anecdote or digression – that completes the picture. Quite seriously, I don’t know that any text has every mirrored the way my own brain works quite as closely as Lines + Splines.

Song haunting me

November 3, 2000 by Michael Boyle

at the moment: Deportees as performed by Arlo Guthrie (words by Woodie Guthrie):

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon, A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills, Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves? The radio says, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit? To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil And be known by no name except "deportees"?

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria; You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane, All they will call you will be "deportees"

Not only are

November 2, 2000 by Michael Boyle

the Rheostatics one of the closest things to a genius literate pop band you’re going to find, but group member Dave Bidini is a fine writer of books, not just songs. His latest is Tropic of Hockey and you can read an unedited sort-of excerpt called Gretzky Eats Shit. Bidini has also posted another story called Joan. Interesting maybe-fact – the “Gordie” in the story is probably Gordon Downie of the Tragically Hip. I’m not certain, but I’ve been hearing stories for years about the rock-band house-league hockey team in Toronto. So it makes sense.

This new Napster

November 2, 2000 by Michael Boyle

-Bertelsmann (BMG) deal is pretty cool, and if it’s a blanket deal including “immunity” for songs already being served up by Napster users then I think it stands a good chance of success. I would definitely pay $60 for the ability to continue to use Napster in a relatively unfettered way. Essentially, under this plan Napster becomes a personal copyright clearinghouse, serving consumers as ASCAP or SOCAN serve radio stations and others who present music commercially.

The problem, though, is the same as when a newspaper I used to freelance for decided it wanted to put its content online. The problem was they hadn’t bought that right from me – they’d only bought the right to first publication. I would have been more than happy to allow them to put it online as well, or in a CD-ROM archive – but my price for such usage is different in that case – and they weren’t interested in paying me that rate, they wanted the same rate. So the question that remains to me is – are the artists going to be paid by Bertelsmann for this? Or is it just added to their deals for no additional consideration?