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Copyright

Bad Comcast, Bad

It’s been rumored for a while that Comcast was filtering traffic on it’s network, specifically Bittorrent, and now the AP after significant testing, according to this story on MSNBC.com.

I’m extremely disappointed to have this confirmed. After Time Warner and Comcast swapped markets a year ago, I’m now a Comcast subscriber. Time Warner and it’s Roadrunner service was an excellent internet provider – a number of years ago when I was running a home server, I received an email from Time Warner. It informed me they noticed I was running a mail server, which was against it’s TOS, but they probed and it wasn’t compromised, and they let it be.

Comcast, on the other hand, within 3 months of taking over service, jacked up my rates by 30% (from $45 / month to $60 / month), on the premise I only had their broadband service, and not their TV or phone service, but would leave my rates at $45 if I signed up for one of those. (I still don’t understand how this isn’t illegal tying… I really wish I had gone to law school.)

As a Linux developer, Bittorrent is a legitimate file sharing service. I can share ISOs of the software I contribute to. Bittorrent is not just a copyright infringing service.

Comcast needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

Support net neutrality, and learn more. Call your Senators and Congressional representatives, and don’t let big business ruin the internet.

Derivative Works

Big Media is nothing if not two-faced about the creation of derivative works. From the music industry busting re-mix artists – the same artists paid by the industry to promote their artists in dance clubs, to the film industry’s penchant for remakes. And how many movies made today are born from an original idea? Even this year’s Best Picture winner, The Departed, is a remake of a Hong Kong film.

Techdirt takes a look at this issue, using the story of the fans who re-made Raiders of the Lost Ark shot for shot starting in 1981 and taking the next 7 summers to complete it. As Techdirt points out, this couldn’t be done today. The author does a great job in pointing out the irony in the movie business on the subject of copyright.

Click here to read the article.

Digg Melts Down (and DRM continues to break)

In what surely will be the most talked about story of the week (just above Dell shipping Ubuntu on PCs), Digg melted down last night. I watched it in real time last night as more and more users added stories displaying the banned HD-DVD encryption key.

It’s amazing how one 16 digital hexadecimal string of numbers (and a little bit of censorship) can wake up a community.

The blog at Franticindustries has the best recap of the story I’ve seen yet.

But never until today has the entire Internet risen as one to protect their right of free speech, with one string of hexadecimal numbers being their defeaning shout.

As the article goes on to say, Digg was only the catalyst – almost every other major tech site of note has the key displayed in a story or a user submitted comment. The early adopters and tech enthusiasts are rising up against DRM – it’s now becoming more than a movement. In the year when major record labels are going DRM free in music, users patience with digital rights management for next gen technologies is wearing thin. Users want to use their content how they want to – they don’t want to be told when and how they can use their content. If I want to listen to music I legally purchased online on the device of my choice, I should have that ability. If I want to buy a movie on DVD, and encode it to watch on a portable player, I should be able to do that. If I want to watch a DVD movie on my computer, that doesn’t run Windows, I should be able to do that.

This is how we got DVD playback on Linux – one software company left a hole open displaying the encryption key, and it happened again with HD-DVD. When both parts of the key are available to the user – one half on the hardware or in software playback, and the other half in the media itself, users are going to figure it out. Just like the Digg users rising up as one, the community dedicated to breaking the encryption is united as well.

For some reason, this key has become more than just a way to circumvent copy protection: it is now a statement.

It says: information must be free.

In as little as 24 hours, countless iterations of the key have sprung out. ThereÂ’s a registered domain containing the key; thereÂ’s a string of colors equivalent to the key value; hell, if license plates were allowed to have 32 digits I bet there would be a great demand for a particular number.

09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0

Remember this number.

And get involved. Learn more at Defective by Design and join the EFF.

Stop the RIAA – Join the Petition

The EFF has started a petition to send to Congress regarding the RIAA’s tactics in stopping music piracy.

From the petition:

We respect reasonable copyright law, but we strongly oppose copyright enforcement that comes at the expense of privacy, due process and fair application of the law.

We urge you, as our representatives in Congress, to stop this madness.

As of this morning, the petition is at 80,758 signatures – with 100,000 signatures the EFF can send this to the Senate and House Commerce and Judiciary Commitees.

I purchased 3 CD’s last night – I’m all for supporting the artists, but the music industry’s governing body is out of control when they’re blackmailing 12 year old girls and suing families who don’t even own a computer.

Sign the petition today, the RIAA’s madness has to be stopped.

Google DRM

The Register asks the questions about Google’s new DRM that need to be asked.

Just because it’s Google, doesn’t mean they deserve a free pass. DRM is DRM. And now we have multiple, confusing, versions of DRM to muck up our content.

As the article says, so much for your motto, Do No Evil, Google.

If you still need to get up to speed on why DRM just plain won’t work, Read Cory Doctorow’s June 2004 speech on DRM to Microsoft or in pretty html here.

American Edit: Dean Gray Tuesday

The mashup artists, known collectively as Dean Gray, posted a mashup of Green Day’s American Idiot album in late November.

Within 10 days, Green Day’s label, Warner Music, sent Dean Gray a takedown notice. Today, Tues. Dec. 13th, is American Edit day, when websites all over the globe host the MP3’s for download. Not for commercial gain, but to share and enjoy Green Day’s music, dubbed with other music, to promote Green Day.

Hit the link above to grab a download link, or surf on over to my other website where I’ve posted the files individually and as one archive (in tar.gz format).

If you’re into other mashups, Lock3down has American Edit for download, as well as some other interesting mashups.

Evil Corporations #3: Macrovision

I haven’t done an Evil Corporations story in over two years, and it’s definitely time. The focus: Macrovision.

From their About Us page on their website:

Macrovision helps solve the global need for content protection, DRM and software licensing solutions.

Now we all know that I’m no fan of DRM or Digital Rights Management, and right there in their company description Macrovision makes it a point to let you knwo that’s exactly what they’re about.

Macrovision’s claim to fame was protecting VHS tapes in the 80s – did you ever try and copy a videotape from a rental store, and got those rainbow lines at the top and bottom? That’s them.

Even though it’s legal for you, as a consumer in the United States, to make one copy for backup and archival purposes, they make sure you can’t.

The latest story hitting the web today, is a follow-up to one from June. In June, Macrovision sent a cease and desist letter to Lightning UK!, makers of DVD Decrypter. DVD Decrypter lets you strip the DRM off a DVD so you can archive to a hard drive or make a physical copy. Macrovision claimed the ability to strip the DRM violated their patents.

Well, the latest story has Macrovision claiming they’ve bought out Lightning UK!, and sending takedown notices to websites hosting DVD Decrypter. I’m sure they paid off the original developer thinking if you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em (ala Microsoft).

This is unfortunate for two reasons – one, reverse engineering should not be illegal, and in the U.S., under the DMCA, it now is. Two, if the developer had released this under a free software licenses, such as the GPL, the code would be in the wild. Now, due the evil greed of one corporation, we’re going to lose the ability to back up our DVDs. I know, as the father of 2 (almost three!) children, that I want to back up the movies they watch a lot and put them on a home theater PC. No more scratching and wrecking movies – which has happened with a few already.

But no, I’m no longer allowed to. And that’s why Macrovision is being added to my list of evil corporations.

Stupid Local TV Broadcasters

I missed 45 minutes of Destination: Lost Wednesday night because of a major storm that ripped through the Twin Cities. (It was no Category 3 or higher storm, but it did a little damage).

The local ABC affiliate, Channel 5 KSTP, used the hurricane system and people’s fears of those storms to sensationalize the storm reporting for as long as they could, including 45 minutes of Destination: Lost and the first 20 minutes of the season premiere of Lost.

I have it on my TiVo – it’s just them repeating themselves for an hour – high winds, look at the radar, blah blah blah.

But that gets me to my point: ABC is unwilling to re-broadcast the premiere this weekend, due to cast contracts and the residual payouts. At least they’re admitting it’s about the money, so they can screw over their viewers.

Being technologically aware, I just went out and downloaded it from an HDTV rip and burned it to DVD. 42 minutes long now and no commercials – just because my local affiliate wouldn’t broadcast it.

And the television industry considers this an illegal act. An over the air television show, currently stored on my TiVo, and I can’t go download a copy and watch it on my TV. I purchased Lost Season One on DVD a week and a half ago. I’ll spend money where it’s deserved, for a quality and innovative program like Lost.

But yet, god forbid you miss one show in a series, you are not supposed to download them. What if it’s a show like Lost, Alias or 24 where you miss one episode and it can seriously set you back in understanding the plot?

The TV industry needs to get with the times then and offer a technological solution if they want to make this illegal. They should be ashamed of themselves for being the Luddites they are. Sony Betamax vs. Universal was settled over 20 years ago and yet here is history repeating itself.