- Complainant apologizes for incorrect video codec takedown
The details reported in the article are clear and concise as is the conclusion. The DMCA is too easily misunderstand and inadvertently abused even in a clearly legal situation such as this one. - Patent reform bill stalled in Senate
The bill would have reformed damages and review after a patent is granted. Its slow progress and stalling is probably a result of lobbying pressure, despite bipartisan support. - Using a skeletal RFID Oyster card in the wild
This is a fun looking hack and I am tempted to get some acetone and try it with the Metrotrip card used here in DC. - New, free album from NIN
It is both free as in beer and free as in CC licensed. I’ve listened to it a few times and its a bit of a departure from previous albums. A physical package will be available in July. - Thousands of indies form into virtual fifth major label
This is a negotiating move, to give indies, who produce a huge fraction of overall music for sale, equal footing when dealing with existing and new online services. - Google accuses Verizon of dodging open access requirements
Google’s objection is to Verizon’s previous positioning. Two options, one truly open and the other just like today, claiming this is a consumer choice issue though they will no doubt market the options preferentially. Google is threatening suit over it. - Verizon promises to abide by open access
Verizon is making lip service to open rules, but they have done so in the past. They believe their so-called two door plan is compatible though it clouds the choice of open devices to the consumer. - Profiles of young criminal hackers
Criminal and perhaps more than a bit foolish. The article sets them up as object lessons of what not to do as all have been caught and are serving or have served time for it. - Researchers use Akamai to find local BitTorrent peers
Northwestern University researchers share a technique similar to P4P that doesn’t require ISP involvement. Piggy backs on similar information from commercial caching systems, makes consumers more independent. Also, unlike Pando, their demo is a simple plugin to popular client, Azureus. - MySQL to remain open source
Community VP claims plans for closing sources were made pre-Sun, when MySQL AB was considering IPO. Explains doing so now makes less sense with Sun emphasizing other open efforts. - Senator warns ISPs he will push for net neutrality
Oregon Democrat Wyden is threatening revocation of tax and safe harbor protections. His rhetoric claims the monopolistic behaviors of ISPs are poor return for the past investments by Congress of these protections. - Comcast considering metered access, new caps
Following Time Warner’s example except they are considering lower caps and higher penalties. The idea is at odds with fostering online innovation, potentially hobbling data rich applications but at least the company is being up front about the plans they are considering. They have not done so in the past. - MS successfully wooed NBC by adding a copyright cop to Zune
All this may have been is a request from NBC, since Microsoft is now denying. Regardless, it is going to do very little help either in actually succeeding with their digital video offerings. - Public Knowledge on Zune, NBC
Clarifies that this is not DRM but filtering and as such as consistent with Universal’s stance in the past. This overlooks how ineffective filters really are. And the author notes Microsoft’s denial specifically mentioned devices, not software. - NSL case settled in favor of Internet Archive
At stake are both the constitutionality of the NSL, which have already been called into question despite their continued use and the status of the Internet Archive as a library. This small victory may not affect the answer to either of those questions. - Java typing to get perhaps too strong
Hard to argue, the JSR in question clearly would erode readability of the language, considerably. Other specious JSRs have been re-tooled or dropped, though, so hope remains. - A language specification for Python, in Python for low level implementers
Seems to be motivated by performance and perhaps even some re-tooling to make implementing and supporting the interpreter more manageable. Would be curious to hear or read what the Python community at large thinks. Or would this be mostly transparent? - New net neutrality bill
As much as I value neutrality, I am always hesitant about a legislative answer. Especially one that of necessity will end up being vague and hence just as ripe for abuse as lack of protections. - New label shows the way to success
A good piece with some positive lessons other labels should be paying close attention to. I especially like the resonance with some of Kelly’s 1K True Fans model. - 25 year old BSD bug
Turns out a bug in BSD versions of Samba was not a bug in Samba at all but one in all BSD variants, including OS X.
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