Darknet

Microsoft amends its policy for censoring blogs

NY Times: Microsoft amends its policy for shutting down blogs in China or elsewhere.

Outwitting the world's Internet censors

Short article in the NY Times: How to Outwit the World's Internet Censors. Excerpt:

Every day in China, [Berkman's John] Palfrey said, an underground economy of proxy server addresses comes alive — usually connecting to servers made available by volunteers around the globe. These addresses are passed along and traded, using elaborately coded language, on electronic bulletin board systems or chat channels.

Elsewhere on the Web, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) helps maintain Tor, a communications network that helps make Internet communications anonymous, and it appears to be accessible from within China. Peacefire.org offers a program called The Circumventor that lets anyone turn a Windows-based machine into a proxy, allowing others to use it to circumvent local Internet restrictions.

Even two small commercial companies, Dynamic Internet Technology and UltraReach Internet, offer software or Web services that try to poke holes in China's "great firewall." ...

No mention of darknets, oddly.

Avatars among us

Wired News: Avatars Among Us. In which Douglas Engelbart, Larry Lessig and Cory Doctorow (avatar above) make appearances in the virtual world Second Life.

Important milestone for digital copyright law

An important legal victory: Nevada Court Rules Google Cache is Fair Use. From the EFF:

Important Milestone for Digital Copyright Law

San Francisco - A federal district court in Nevada has ruled that Google does not violate copyright law when it copies websites, stores the copies, and transmits them to Internet users as part of its Google Cache feature. The ruling clarifies the legal status of several common search engine practices and could influence future court cases, including the lawsuits brought by book publishers against the Google Library Project. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was not involved in the case but applauds last week's ruling for clarifying that fair use covers new digital uses of copyrighted materials.

Blake Field, an author and attorney, brought the copyright infringement lawsuit against Google after the search engine automatically copied and cached a story he posted on his website. Google responded that its Google Cache feature, which allows Google users to link to an archival copy of websites indexed by Google, does not violate copyright law. The court agreed, holding that the Cache qualifies as a fair use of copyrighted material.

"This ruling makes it clear that the Google Cache is legal and clears away copyright questions that have troubled the entire search engine industry," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF senior staff attorney. "The ruling should also help Google in defending against the lawsuit brought by book publishers over its Google Library Project, as well as assisting organizations like the Internet Archive that rely on caching."

Excellent news for the public and the Commons. Here's the decision in PDF format.

Will the Internet remain open?

The battle for the future of the Internet has been joined by 220,000 Free Press activists who have launched a national campaign to preserve Net freedoms against the broadband hoarding schemes of Verizon, BellSouth and Comcast, reports Tim Karr of MediaCitizen.

The Anti-Lessig wiki

Mark Hamilton, who recently redesigned his notes from a teacher blog:

Lawrence Lessig, whose book Free Culture should be on your must-read list, has taken a bold step forward: the Anti-Lessig Reader. His introduction to the new wiki:

The aim of this page is to build a collection of content that criticizes my work. I’ve mapped the chapters of Free Culture, but feel free to add any other work you’d like. Also, if there is stuff that adds support, of course that can be added. But please keep it separate from the criticism. My aim is to create a simple source for “the other side of the story.”

I love it: read the book, then log in, start writing and join the discussion. Brilliant.

Is Google Book Search fair use?

Larry Lessig does one of his famous slide shows, this time on YouTube: Is Google Book Search fair use?

Public Knowledge warns against 'controls'

Public Knowledge Asks Congress Not To Enact ‘Broadcast Flag’ Controls

Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, urged Congress not to limit consumer choice or hamper innovation by enacting legislation allowing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement content controls on digital TV and radio.

In a written statement to be submitted for the record of the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the “broadcast and audio flag,” Sohn said that new technologies are being developed all the time to give consumers more choice in viewing TV and listening to music. The “broadcast flag” is a bit of coded instruction in over-the-air digital TV signals that determine whether the content can be storied, copied or forwarded, and under what conditions. The “audio flag” would be as-yet-undetermined content controls on digital audio radio, including satellite radio.

Many new technologies and devices were introduced or on display at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. Sohn said in her statement: “Yet even as innovators in the content industry promote these alternative distribution technologies, the very same content industry wants Congress to step in and give it protection from the vague threat of massive copyright infringement the industry says these new technologies could facilitate. Let us be clear. The content industry has not shown that any infringement has resulted from these technologies. And they certainly have not shown that government technology mandates will work to stop actual copyright pirates rather than prevent ordinary consumers from engaging in lawful activities.”

In addition, Sohn said, “The message of the Consumer Electronics Show is clear. The market for delivering content digitally over new technologies is working. Consumers can watch and listen to the content they purchase anytime and anywhere they want. Some of that content will be protected, and consumers can decide whether that protection is flexible enough. All of these great developments happened without government intervention.”

Here is the introductory part of the statement:

“This hearing could not be more timely. Many of you and your staff members just returned from the International Consumer Electronics Show, an event that featured an amazing display of new innovative technologies and newly forged partnerships between technology and content companies. Here are just a few examples:

• Microsoft demonstrated new versions of its software that enables the playback of a consumer’s favorite media, whether on the person’s home office monitor, living room television, or PDA. The company has also developed a new music service in conjunction with MTV, VH1, and CMT music channels.

• Innovators like DigitalDeck, NewSoft, SlingMedia, and Sony each have developed competing technologies that allow consumers to remotely watch the television playing in their living rooms on a laptop, mobile phone, or portable gaming console.

• Yahoo! announced the development of software and services that enable consumers to view, create, and share content between their mobile phones, computers and living rooms, all using the Internet.

• Google developed a distribution system to allow anyone to provide videos for free or for sale, and allow others to download that content to a computer, Apple iPod, or Sony Play Station Portable (PSP). Google has already announced content distribution agreements with large content providers like CBS and the NBA. This follows the recent success of NBC, ABC, and ESPN, which is distributingprogramming in partnership with Apple’s iTunes.

• TiVo displayed a soon-to-be-released software update that makes it simple for consumers to watch their favorite television shows on popular players like the iPod and PSP. And soon, the next generation TiVo recorder will help consumers record over-the-air high-definition television.

• Together, XM Radio and Pioneer developed an innovative portable satellite radio player that allows consumers to automatically record their favorite songs or shows while they are being broadcast. A consumer’s preferences are stored on the radio, and when connected to a computer, XM’s software helps the consumer to find more information about the artists, purchase music through the new Napster, and discover other songs and shows by similar artists.

“The message of the Consumer Electronics Show is clear. The market for delivering content digitally over new technologies is working. Consumers can watch and listen to the content they purchase anytime and anywhere they want. Some of that content will be protected, and consumers can decide whether that protection is flexible enough. All of these great developments happened without government intervention.

“The public appetite for buying individual TV shows and songs online is growing by leaps and bounds. There are more ways than ever to watch TV and movies and listen to the radio. Sales of HDTV sets are skyrocketing.

“Yet even as innovators in the content industry promote these alternative distribution technologies, the very same content industry wants Congress to step in and give it protection from the vague threat of massive copyright infringement the industry says these new technologies could facilitate. Let us be clear. The content industry has not shown that any infringement has resulted from these technologies. And they certainly have not shown that government technology mandates will work to stop actual copyright pirates rather than prevent ordinary consumers from engaging in lawful activities.

“The content industry is asking Congress to impose three technology mandates: the broadcast flag, radio content protection and an end to the analog hole. Each mandate 1) injects government into technological design; 2) places limits on lawful consumer activities; and 3) increases consumer costs by making obsolete millions of digital devices. Once consumers start to purchase devices that are compliant with these technology mandates, the costs will be enormous. For example:

• A consumer would not be able to record over-the-air local news on her broadcast-flag compliant digital video recorder in her living room and play it back on a non-compliant player in her bedroom (broadcast flag).

• A member of Congress could not email a clip of his appearance on the national news to his home office (broadcast flag).

• A consumer would not be able to record analog home movies using a digital camcorder and transfer them to a computer in order to make a DVD (analog hole).

• A student would be prohibited from recording excerpts from a DVD for a college Powerpoint presentation (analog hole).

• A consumer would be unable to record individual songs off digital broadcast and satellite radio (radio content protection).

• Current versions of TiVos (and other digital video recorders), iPods (and other MP3 players), cellphones and play station portables would not work with analog hole closing compliant devices, rendering them virtually obsolete. (analog hole).

• A university could not use digital TV video clips for distance learning classes (broadcast flag).

“I urge the Committee to think very long and hard about trying to fix what is not broken. Ask yourselves, in light of recent marketplace developments, is it good policy to turn the Federal Communications Commission into the Federal Computer Commission or the Federal Copyright Commission?

Is it good policy to impose limits on a new technology like HD Radio (that unlike digital television, consumers need not adopt) that may well kill it? Is it good policy to impose a technological mandate (like the broadcast flag and closing the analog hole) that would result in consumers having to replace most of the new devices that they just purchased?

“There are better alternatives for protecting digital content than heavy-handed technology mandates. Those alternatives are a multi-pronged approach of consumer education, enforcement of copyright laws, new business models for content distribution and the use of technological tools developed in the marketplace, not mandated by government. The recent Grokster decision and the passage of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act are just two of several new tools that the content industry has at its disposal to protect its content.”

More information available at Public Knowledge.

Later: Public Knowledge's Art Brodsky followed up with this today:

Here is the link to Gigi Sohn's full statement for the record on broadcast flag.

I note we were not invited to testify, but wanted to get our views on the record, which is why are submitting a statement. I also note that while the content industry justifies the flag on the basis that their creativity will dry up without adequate protections, Gigi's statement notes that Viacom made that identical argument in 2002 and that now more than half of prime time programming is in HD, without the protections.

Lessig in Second Life

On Wednesday night I was a guest in Linden Lab's virtual world Second Life. Prof. Lawrence Lessig made a 90-minute appearance, discussing intellectual property law and taking questions from an audience of 100 virtual participants.

It was a fascinating event, one that will be a precursor to many more such appearances by major figures in the years ahead, I believe. All participants are represented by avatars. To read the chat conversation, you need to download the 29mb file and display it at its 800x600-pixel size.

Ourmedia page | video

Building a better Hollywood

For those who missed it, Fast Company magazine devoted its December issue to a package on Building a better movie business. It's now online here.

John Valenti, 'Darknet' fan

One of the most unexpected emails I received during the past month came from John Valenti. Yes, that Valenti -- MPAA chief Jack Valenti's son. John called "Darknet" the most influential, eye opening book he's read in the past year, alongside John Battelle's "The Search." When he recommended it last week to the president of Fox Digital in Los Angeles, he was met with, "Oh, that book again!"

I met with John, along with Dave Toole and Morty Wiggins of Outhink, at the Carnelian Room in San Francisco yesterday, and autographed a copy of my book for John to give to his father. We hope to work with John to round up private financing for a public-spirited personal media business we're working on.

A new world of anti-consumer electronics

Please pay attention to this hugely important action alert from the Electonic Frontier Foundation:

Hollywood Plants Its Flags in Our Homes

On Tuesday, January 24, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold hearings on government regulation of digital media in the form of the broadcast flag and the audio flag. But even before the committee hears the arguments, Hollywood lobbyists have already planned the results. Drafts are being passed around Congress by Senator Gordon Smith (D-OR) of a "Digital Content Protection Act" that would make both flags laws at a stroke.

If this bill were to pass, government - and the entertainment industry - would control what you could do with digital media in your home. The broadcast flag would place TV shows in a DRM ghetto, where your right to copy, back-up, sell, time-shift or convert them into formats convenient to you would be at the whim of the broadcasters. The audio flag would give the FCC matching powers over "digital audio broadcasting," including satellite radio, digital HD radio, and potentially even Internet radio. Fair use would be frozen into "customary historical use."

There's no benefit here for artists or customers, and for infringing copiers, evading these copy controls will be as easy as ever. No matter how inconvenienced individual users would be, pirates would be able to bypass it. The bill would usher in a new world of anti-consumer electronics and a chance for the MPAA's and RIAA's member companies to seize even greater control over all media distribution and use.

If you live in one of the states below, your senator is on the Senate Commerce Committee. Let him or her know that these flags would mark a new era of Hollywood's control of the home and of our digital networks.

You have a senator on the committee if you are a resident of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New, Hampshire, New, Jersey, North, Dakota, Oregon, South, Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, or West Virginia.

Write to the Committee:

If you're not in one of those states, it's still important for you to write to your senator and representative to support DMCA reform and take some of the bite out of these
preposterous mandates.

Support DMCA reform.

More information:

The Draft Digital Content Protection Act: (PDF)

Our Analysis of the Bill

If this bill passes, many, many of the restrictions on our digital freedoms that I warned about in "Darknet" will become law. I just emailed the committee. Please do so, too, and tell your friends.

Apple's iTunes no longer invades privacy

Good news, via Corey at iTunes: Apple changes iTunes, now obtains consent before collecting info.

Google Video's DRM scheme

David Pogue in Thursday's NY Times: Google Video: Trash Mixed With Treasure.

One aspect of Google Video, however, will not be so easily changed: its copy-protection scheme, a new one that Google wrote itself. You can't burn the shows to a CD or DVD, and can't play them back on portable players like iPods. In fact, most of the TV shows don't play back at all without an active Internet connection, which, for most people, also rules out laptop playback on planes, trains and automobiles. This is sickening news for anyone who thought that two incompatible copy-protection schemes - Apple's and Microsoft's - were complex and sticky enough already. And compared with the ABC and NBC shows available on the iTunes store, the value of the CBS shows looks even worse.

Sony Rootkit: Invasion of the computer snatchers

Stanford's Center for Internet & Society presents its lunch speaker spring schedule. I'll be speaking on Feb. 20 about the clash between big media and personal media. But next up is this: "Invasion of the Computer Snatchers: The Sony Rootkit Incident."

Who: Natali Helberger, Associate Professor at the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam

When: Monday January 23, 2006, 12:30-1:30 PM

Where: Room 280A, Stanford Law School

Lunch served, open to all.

Details below.

Sony's latest Digital Rights Management (DRM)-endeavour earned a charge of "fraud, false advertising, trespass and the violation of state and federal statutes prohibiting malware, and unauthorized computer tampering". The technology installs, unnoticed by the user, a piece of software that prevents consumers from unauthorised copying, is able to monitor and report user behaviour back to the firm and, accidentally, holds the door wide open for Trojans. Under other circumstances one would be tempted to describe such a strategy a hostile "spy at-tack". In case of Sony BMG, this seems to be part of a business model to sell digital music to consumers. The talk will have a closer look at the charges of the EFF and a Californian lawyer against Sony BMG's latest DRM strategy. The Sony BMG case adds a number of interesting new dimensions to the 'DRM and Consumer' debate. The talk will explain why the case is so important, also against the background of similar recent case law in Europe, and why it points into an entirely new direction of talking about DRM.

Natali Helberger is Associate Professor at the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam. Dr. Helberger is managing legal partner to the INDICARE project. INDICARE (Informed Dialogue about Consumer Acceptability of Rights Management Solutions in Europe) is a project co-funded by the European Commission. The objective of INDICARE is to address issues regarding consumer acceptability of digital rights management solutions; identify obstacles and suggest solutions. At the moment, she is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

Lessig: the ideas interview

The ideas interview: Lawrence Lessig. The man behind Creative Commons tells The Guardian why the copyright system has to change.

Lessig enters a virtual world

Prof. Lawrence Lessig is coming to Linden Labs' Second Life virtual community for an appearance -- complete with avatar -- this Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 PT. He'll be interviewed by Philip Linden (the alter ego of Linden Labs CEO Philip Rosedale), reports Hamlet. If you're not a member of the Second Life community, you can sign up on the waiting list to enter the event.

Net's anyone-can-publish culture under assault

Randall Stross in the NY Times: Hey, Baby Bells: Information Still Wants to Be Free. Excerpt:

The broadband carriers that we have today provide service that attains negative perfection: low speeds at high prices.

It gets worse. Now these same carriers - led by Verizon Communications and BellSouth - want to create entirely new categories of fees that risk destroying the anyone-can-publish culture of the Internet. And they are lobbying for legislative protection of their meddling with the Internet content that runs through their pipes. These are not good ideas.

iTunes tracking upsets users

San Jose Mercury News: ITunes tracking upsets users.

A new version of Apple Computer's iTunes software that tracks the music individuals listen to has struck a sour note among fans.

Included in the software update is ``MiniStore,'' which makes music download recommendations whenever people click on songs stored on their own computers, even those not purchased through iTunes. Critics say the new software, released earlier this week, tracks a person's listening behavior with a unique identification number, and does so without notifying consumers.

``What bothers me most is the fact that Apple generally doesn't do this sort of thing,'' said Kirk McElhearn, who has published several books on Macintosh computers and is author of the blog Kirkville. ``It's kind of a letdown. Someone said, `It's as if someone breaks into your house and makes a list of the books you have.' ''

The monitoring program can be turned off through an icon at the bottom left of the iTunes screen.

Apple, in a statement, said it ``does not save or store any information used to create recommendations for the MiniStore.''

The problem isn't so much the data gathering, but that Apple didn't spell out what it was doing and why, said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a research director for Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto non-profit. ...

Borrowing from the culture

Prof. Lawrence Lessig recounts my tussles with the Hollywood studios in his latest column in Wired magazine: When Theft Serves Art. (I don't like the term "theft" because it's loaded — there's still a thing called "fair use" in this country.) Excerpt:

Not only are artists free to create and profit from images that build on Warhol's, but the foundation doesn't even ask to see how his work will be used. To condition the freedom of scholars or artists to use Warhol's pieces upon such a review would be censorship, Wachs explained. And the foundation has learned that there are people on both the right and the left who are keen to engage in just this sort of censorship.

Compare this with the practice of major film studios, as reported in J.D. Lasica's book Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. Lasica asked to use small clips from famous films in some home movies he wanted to make - footage he promised would never be shown to anyone outside of his friends and family.

Universal Studios told Lasica he would be "obligated to pay $900 for each 15 seconds." When he asked for two 10-second clips from a Daffy Duck movie, Warner Bros. said, "We do not ... allow our material to be edited or altered in any way." And the Walt Disney Company told Lasica it "had to establish a general policy" of - you guessed it - saying no. In Disney's view, no one - not even artists, not even noncommercially - is free to build on Disney the way Walt Disney built on the Brothers Grimm.

There's not much hope that Congress will begin to think sensibly about the IP extremism its laws encourage. But we'd achieve a great deal if copyright holders - and those who challenge them - started speaking and acting with a Warhol sensibility. ...

Legal Affairs package

A special package in Legal Affairs:

Without a Net: The Internet is vulnerable to viruses so lethal that they could gravely damage the online world—unless we upgrade law and technology now. By Jonathan Zittrain.

Cool Tools for Tyrants: The latest American technology helps the Chinese government and other repressive regimes clamp down. By Derek Bambauer.

Digital Borders: National boundaries have survived in the virtual world—and allowed national laws to exert control over the Internet. By Jack Goldsmith and Timothy Wu.

Will fair use survive?

Will Fair Use Survive? (Free Expression Policy Project at NYU's School of Law) by Marjorie Heins and Tricia Beckles.

A playlist about music playlists

Derek Slater on H2O Playlists: A Playlist About Music Playlists and Other Taste-Sharing Tools.

New FCC chairman on digital restrictions

Art Brodsky of PublicKnowledge reporting from the Consumer Electronics Show:

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he drew a distinction between content shifted around a home network, and content shift outside, also known as piracy [to some]. In his Q&A with CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro, Martin endorsed allowing consumers to have some control over the music and other material they purchase.

Martin didn't elaborate on the crucial question of how that distinction should be made, such as does the "home" also extend to your PSP in your car, or how content should be treated differently to make sure it stays in the approved environment, but not into the non-approved sectors. In the unofficial gaggle Q&A with reporters (and other interested observers) following the event, Martin elaborated only to say that the content protection issue should be viewed in the context as a balance between the needs of consumers and the needs of content providers.

In asking Congress to give the Commission authority to reimpose the overturned broadcast flag (and we all know who brought the case that led to said overturning), Martin said he asked for authority over digital TV and digital radio because are versions of Internet Protocol-based services and as such are sufficiently alike.

He declined to say exactly what the FCC would do with any new authority, saying the decision over jurisdiction was now in other hands, that is,with Congress.

Record individual radio songs to MP3 player

Engadget published a short writeup I filed today that broke some pretty interesting news:

TimeTrax, the company that lets you record and time-shift your XM or Sirius Radio satellite subscriptions, announced the TraxCatcher, a device that lets you record over-the-air FM radio, capture songs as MP3s, and create a free music library. It should work for talk radio programs as well.

This will be the first device that lets you record over-the-air FM radio and capture individual songs.

The RIAA may not like it, but given the long history of people recording over-the-air FM broadcasts onto cassette tape, it's hard to see Congress stepping in and making the practice illegal.

Cross-posted to New Media Musings.

AllPeers: Killer app for Firefox?

Tectonic: AllPeers: Killer app for Firefox?

For an application that isn't even publicly available, AllPeers – a Firefox plug-in being developed in Prague – is receiving a great deal of hype. Some are even predicting that this will be Firefox's killer app.

AllPeers is simply a peer-to-peer (P2P) technology that allows you to share digital content with a buddy list. Using Firefox as the front-end, AllPeers says that it will run cross-platform, allowing transfers between Windows, Mac and Linux, and possibly more in the future. And, like Firefox, it's going to be open source. ...

My first torrent

For me, 2005 will go down as the Year of Living Frantically. Between traveling to dozens of cities for my book "Darknet," speaking at conferences, and launching and supporting Ourmedia.org, I've had almost zero free time during the past year. (Oh, yeah, I have a family, too.)

So I'd been delaying creating torrent files because I figured it would take hours learning how to do it.

Not so. My friend Gary Lerhaupt launched Prodigem a year or two back, and he's taken the pain out of BitTorrent p2p file sharing. I urge you to check it out -- it's an excellent service, and free. (There's a small charge if you want to try to make money from your works -- another good idea.)

For my first torrent, it was natural to share all the excerpts from "Darknet" that I've placed online over the past several months. So here's the Prodigem web page containing my torrent, and here's the link to the torrent itself.

Included in this package:

Introduction
Concept: Darknets
Ch. 1: The teenage filmmakers
Ch. 2: The tech and CE industries get cozy with Hollywood
Ch. 3: The Prince of Darknet
Ch. 4: Fair use in the digital age
More Ch. 4: When the studios won't give permission
Ch. 6: Your locked-down digital future
Ch. 7: The tech exec who broke federal law (and why the law is broken)
Ch. 8: Hollywood's visionary outcast
Ch. 11: Pho, Cole Porter and Tarzan economics
Ch. 14: Embracing our digital destiny