Meeting 2008-02-13
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Information
- Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2008
- Time: 8:30PM
- Place: Torgerson 3180
Attendance
Plan on attending:
Plan on skipping:
Goodies
Game
News
Neal Gaiman offers to release one book for gratis online
You pick.
- I wonder if he will be using a CC license? --Conley 00:39, 12 February 2008 (JST)
Yahoo board to reject Microsoft bid as too low
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=af66pj4OpPto&refer=us
Yahoo's being greedy, it's pretty self explanatory. Also: Google CEO Eric Schmidt contacted Yang to suggest a partnership, the New York Times reported Feb. 4. A partnership with Mountain View, California-based Google may allow Yahoo to outsource its search service, shedding the costs of running its own search engine and sharing ad revenue with its larger rival.
Microsoft's offer was about $31 per share-- analysts say Yahoo's holding out for $40.
Tolkein Trust sues Newline
The trustees of The Tolkien Trust, a British charity, have filed an action against New Line Cinema for its failure to pay a contractually required gross profit participation in the three films based on the world-famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. The trustees of the estate of JRR Tolkien and HarperCollins Publishers are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The suit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The Lord of the Rings films produced by New Line are among the most financially successful films ever created by Hollywood and were released in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. The cumulative worldwide gross receipts to date total nearly $6 billion. Notwithstanding the overwhelming financial success of the films, and the fact that the plaintiffs have a gross participation in each of the films, New Line has failed to pay the plaintiffs any portion of the gross profit participation at all.
- This reminds me of when Disney tried to get out of paying royalties for making Peter Pan, which I believe is technically under perpetual copyright by a children's hospital in the UK. They lost in the end. Matt 10:14, 13 February 2008 (JST)
Radio Head remix available
From Boing Boing: "Amplive made a remix of Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' and was planning to release it without the band's permission leading to a cease and desist order on December 18. Today it was announced that both parties had since met and Amplive was now given permission to release the album. Downloadable MP3s are now available."
- This is why you need a real license. Putting stuff up for Gratis without specifying what freedoms you are allowed just doesn't cut it. --Conley 03:02, 14 February 2008 (JST)
Harvard adopts open access policy
Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted a policy this evening that requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online.
- Perhaps other universities will follow?
- Any chance we can get Virginia Tech to do the same thing? Matt 04:39, 14 February 2008 (JST)
- Not likely. Professors like to publish to certain well-read journals. Doing so requires that they publish no where else. When you are a big name like Harvard, it is easier to pull a stunt like that. --Conley 04:59, 14 February 2008 (JST)
Writer's strike is over
From Slashdot: "CNN is reporting that the 100-day Hollywood writers walkout is now officially over. The new contract managed to snag two of the three major points the Writers Guild was looking for. The writers will now have "jurisdiction" for content created especially for new media (Internet, cell phones, etc) and will get paid for the reuse of content on new media when the studios get paid."
ShareReactor admin found guilty, but only pays $4200
Sharereactor, a site that is much like Pirate Bay, in that it stylizes itself not as a content distributor but as a search engine, and is therefore not responsible for content, is found guilty of copyright infringement. It only differs from Pirate Bay in that it uses eDonkey instead of BitTorrent. "Now, some 4 years later, the District Court of Frauenfeld, Switzerland has decided that as the ShareReactor site was the main source of income for 28 years old Riesen (through on-site advertising and donations), he is guilty of ‘commercially’ assisting others to commit copyright infringement by ’simplifying’ access to illegal content." This probably has implications for similar proceedings with the Pirate Bay's owners.
Net Neutrality Bill
"According to a draft version of the bill that we've seen, the Act won't try to legislate network neutrality. Instead, it adds a "Broadband Policy" section to the Communications Act that lays out a few general principles. The bill would force the FCC to see if those principles are being lived up to and whether any policy changes might be needed. In other words, the Congressmen want the FCC to do something, but they aren't ready to completely overrule the Commission's judgment. "
RIAA goes after dissenters
"p2pnet.net reports that the RIAA has egg on its face. When the Electronic Frontier Foundation requested permission to file an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Boston University students challenging the RIAA's ex parte discovery order, the RIAA lawyers attacked the blog 'Recording Industry vs. The People' for its criticism of the RIAA as seeking to 'abuse the American judicial system, distort copyright law, and frighten ordinary working people and their children' and then falsely claimed that the blog's author is an EFF attorney — this despite the fact that they know that the blog's author (known on Slashdot as NewYorkCountryLawyer) is a partner in a New York law firm and not an EFF attorney. Judge Gertner apparently wasn't impressed, and granted the EFF's motion, rejecting the RIAA's objections, since she felt amici curiae might 'shed light' on the 'copyright law' and 'computer technology' issues before her."
Microsoft to start "copyright education" curriculum
College Affordability Act passed through the house
The Affordability Act passed through the house
354-58
"COAA makes a host of changes to the higher education landscape in the US, but for our purposes, the most interesting was the requirement that schools make plans to offer some form of legal alternative to P2P file-swapping and that they also make plans to implement network filtering. Not making such plans would carry no consequences, however, and we're told by House staffers that no one's federal financial aid is in danger."
No consequences? Perhaps we should try to see how VT responds to this, and react accordingly.
Before:
The EFF says that the language requiring a piracy detection system at universities still remains in the bill. See the article.
VTLUUG Installfest
Sunday, February 10th, from 12 PM till 6 PM in Squires 145
Letter to the CT concerning the RIAA lawsuit
Patrick was going to write a letter. How did it go?
Stallman's Speech
- 8:00 PM
- Tuesday, March 25
- Torgerson 2150
- According to a tip in a Slashdot comment, apparently none of us should wear suits, as he judges these people as "greedy corporate types." Matt 11:21, 13 February 2008 (JST)
CC internships
Show and tell
Open floor
Free Film
Check out a list of free films.
Suggestions:
- Conley
- WRTJ Ep 76-92
