KaZaA sues RIAA for copyright infringement:
Sharman Networks is suing the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for distributing replicas of its P2P file sharing software.
Sharman says the RIAA has distributed versions of KaZaA Lite with warning messages to potential infringers, which it deems “monopolistic and conspiratorial” behavior. In July a Judge nixed an attempt by Sharman Networks to stop the distribution of RIAA-flavored KaZaA software using Antitrust legislation. That failed, but this time it’s trying again.
This latest twist highlights some of the RIAA’s stranger behavior. The copyright-cartel has been playing fast and loose with other people’s copyrights: while claiming that it is upholding the law, it has proved only too happy to break it. And while claiming to uphold the integrity of the music it distributes, it has pioneered the art of poisoning works of art with clicks and hisses.
But the RIAA hasn’t escaped Antitrust scrutiny just yet: last month it was sued by the Webcaster Alliance. An unguarded comment by an RIAA attorney expressed the lobby’s groups satisfaction at seeing 25,000 smaller webcasters perish, if AOL could stream 200 channels.
Careless talk. ®
Is this a case of pot calling the kettle black? Not really. If the RIAA is going to try to use the State to bolster it’s claims, it should also expect retaliation of the same order (fighting fire with fire…).
Though this irony reminds me of Sharman using the DMCA to squelch “rogue” listings on Google.
ISO this:
Historically, the ISO has levied fees from people who wanted to buy a copy of the standard but made their implementation free to everyone.
Bucking the trend of making all standards royalty free, the ISO is now considering levying fees for implementing these three critical standards covering codes for languages, countries, and currencies. While the last one will have less of an impact, the first two could impede the development of a world wide web, as they sit at the core of any internationalization effort on the internet. Not only do they affect the web but they also have a potential impact on every single facet of the internet.
For example, RFC 1591, which explains how domain names are organized points to one of the documents, ISO-3166. If the net was to act without that fee-levying, the whole domain name system would have to be redesigned to avoid using domain names ending with country codes like .uk or .fr. Every country would then have to accept a new set of standards and then implement them. The cost of such an undertaking alone would probably completely take any value out of the internet for decades to come.
Basically, the three standards in question are so embedded in the fabric of the internet that, without them, the internet could die. As such, one could argue that such standards give the ISO a virtual monopoly over the Internet and that’s cause for concern.
Although he focuses on ISO web standards, I actually think that Tristan Louis makes a compelling argument against the entire notion of “intellectual property” as patents, trademarks and copyrights inhibit the lack of potential growth through normal market processes. It is true that IP laws may and oftentimes do protect and monetarily “reward” inventors, but at the cost of growth, competition and a consistent policy towards free-markets (I’m assuming that those promoting IP do in fact believe that “free-markets” are beneficial to everyone).
At any rate, Mr. Louis’ insights regarding the latest actions by the ISO are quite prescient, with any luck the W3C will come out victorious.
And as Worf would say: Assimilate this!
The holy grail of machine talk:
(CNN) — The concept of machines talking to machines without any human interaction has long been a holy grail for the technology and commercial world.
It is called Web services — but it has nothing to do with the Internet directly — instead it is the name given to the universal language that computers around the globe may one day use to describe each object in our physical world.
This “meta-language” will allow computers to tell the difference between pens and pencils, strip lights and light bulbs, as well make intelligent, informed decisions and act on them.
If you’ve been following all the reports that I’ve been publishing on this topic, you’ll see that there isn’t anything too super profound discussed in the article. It does do a good job summarizing the ideas behind computer speak y0 — and I never heard of OASIS before.
