When you use The Internet Archive to host your video files, it will offer to make derivative files in alternate formats. Recently, Ogg Vorbis+Theora was added to the list of formats IA will make for you. This means you can get all sorts of videos in a format anyone can play anywhere using a variety [...]
An excellent framing of the debate around challenging Blackboard’s patent (local copies of the news announcement, patent re-examination request, and USPTO’s order for re-examination) which stifles educational software. Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:27:28 -0600 From: Nathan Owens To: cio@uiuc.edu CC: provost@uiuc.edu Subject: unethical practices by Blackboard Dear CIO Kaufman, A copy of this e-mail [...]
BoingBoing has the scoop: Viacom did a general search on YouTube for any term related to any of its shows, and then spammed YouTube with 100,000 DMCA take-down notices alleging that all of these clips infringed its copyright and demanding that they be censored off the Internet. YouTube made thousands of clips vanish, and sent [...]
The 9/11 report is a US government work and therefore is uncopyrighted. It was born into the public domain and should remain there forever. You may deal in the document fully without any restriction due to copyright law. Some bloggers (Techliberation.com, BoingBoing.net) noticed that the 9/11 report distributed from 9-11commission.gov has Digital Restrictions Management applied—copying [...]
Apple has been ordered to pay almost $700,000 (Ars Technica, MacNN) for the legal fees of the reporters it sued to find out who their confidential sources were. There are lots of Apple users on the Progressive Left, people who claim to value freedom of speech for its own sake. I ask you: Is this [...]
BadVista.org, an FSF campaign to “advocate for the freedom of computer users, opposing adoption of Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free (as in freedom) software alternatives.” is hosting two actions to coincide with the release of Microsoft Windows Vista in New York City tomorrow at 11am and 2pm. If you can make it, please do [...]
If you’re British, please sign this UK government petition to tell the Prime Minister to make software patents clearly unenforcible before 20 February. If this petition helps you stay clear of the madness Americans have (most likely unknowingly) brought upon themselves, it’s a good thing. Software patents are government-issued monopolies on ideas used in software [...]
The 23rd Chaos Communication Congress (23C3) has ended and videos are available under the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Germany” (BY-NC-ND) license (local copy). They’ve published their videos in Ogg Vorbis+Theora and other formats as well. One of the highlights is a talk from Prof. Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University on “Code vs. Culture” (audio+video, audio). [...]
Things to consider: Eben Moglen’s appeal for the FSF touches on the recent Microsoft-Novell deal wherein Microsoft says they’ll license their patents to users of Novell’s SUSE GNU/Linux distribution and devices that resist our attempt to make them work for their owners. The easiest time to give up Microsoft Windows Vista is before you can [...]
Code v2.0 is Stanford Law Professor’s revised version of “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace“. This revision was started (in part) on a wiki (a website anyone is allowed to edit) and Prof. Lessig took a copy of the wiki text up through December 31, 2005 then added his own edits. The Wiki text was [...]
GNU Software Freedom Law Center FSF blogs Electronic Frontier Foundation Nina Paley Richard Stallman