Darknet

Music labels still offbase

Chris O'Brien in the San Jose Mercury News: Music labels still offbase.

Let my video go

Catching up on stuff. From the March issue of Wired magazine: Dear Hollywood Studios: Let My Video Go. Excerpt:

We have the bandwidth, the compression algorithms, and the Ethernet connections — not to mention TiVos, Apple TVs, and Vudus — for downloading movies directly to the TV. We should no longer have to drive to the video store or wait for the mail carrier. But that's not the case. The entertainment industry is blowing it once again.

To succeed in the digital realm, Hollywood needs to offer total convenience, almost infinite choice, and the freedom to watch any way we want. Instead, we have iTunes, which delivers video you can't watch on any portable device that wasn't made by Apple, and Amazon Unbox and Netflix's Watch Instantly, which feature downloads you can't watch on any device that was made by Apple. And with a mere 1,000 downloadable movies for rent on iTunes, fewer than 5,000 on Amazon, and around 6,000 on Netflix, none of them offers anything close to the 90,000 DVDs available by mail. They can't, because Hollywood is determined to protect DVD sales at the expense of electronic downloads. That needs to be fixed — because if people don't find what they want at online storefronts, pirate copies are just a click away.

Napster opens MP3 store

San Jose Mercury News: Napster opens MP3 store.

Netflix unveils Internet-to-TV device

San Jose Mercury News: Netflix unveils its first Internet-to-TV device.

Democracy and the Web

Editorial in Monday's New York Times: Democracy and the Web.

Users of the Internet take for granted their ability to access all Web sites on an equal basis. That could change, however, if Internet service providers started discriminating among content, to make more money or to suppress ideas they do not like. A new “net neutrality” bill has been introduced in the House, which would prohibit this sort of content discrimination. Congress has delayed on this important issue too long and should pass net neutrality legislation now. ...

You can take action in the net neutrality campaign by signing the petition at SavetheInternet.com or MoveOn.org.

Copyright and the demise of newspapers

David Ardia at the IdeaLab blog: Copyright and the Demise of Newspapers.

Neil Netanel, a highly regarded legal scholar, has an interesting post on Balkinization entitled "The Demise of Newspapers: Economics, Copyright, Free Speech." Netanel, who has written extensively on copyright issues, posits that part of the reason for the decline in newspapers stems from Internet competitors that build on the content and value that newspapers create. He suggests that imposing a statutory license or levy on commercial Internet service providers and news aggregators might be a workable solution for ensuring that newspapers receive ompensation for their investment in quality reporting. ...

Brewster Kahle gets FBI to back off

SF Chronicle: Internet Archive gets FBI to back off. Excerpt:

The FBI document, called a national security letter, told [Internet Archive founder Brewster] Kahle he could be prosecuted if he discussed the subject with anyone but his lawyers, and allowed him to speak with his attorneys only in person. ...

Kahle's case is one of only two other instances in which a national security letter has been challenged, his lawyers said Wednesday.

"National security letters allow the FBI to demand extremely sensitive personal information about innocent people, in total secrecy and without meaningful judicial review," said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Melissa Goodman.

"The big question is, How many other improper (letters) have been issued by the FBI and never challenged?" said attorney Marcia Hofmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ...

Apple to begin selling movies on release date

San Jose Mercury News: Apple to begin selling movies on release date. Excerpt:

[On Apple's iTunes], new releases will sell for $14.99, while most catalog offerings are priced at $9.99. The movies can be viewed on video iPods, iPhones and computers, as well as a widescreen TV connected to an Apple TV. People who purchase a movie through iTunes can play it as many times as they like, just like a DVD. ...

We've been waiting for this for years -- a new wrinkle in Hollywood's film release system. Leave it to Apple to nudge the studios into serving the early adopters.