- Why privacy is not dead
Many of the people I follow online re-posted the link to this brief article by danah boyd on Technology Review about how our implementation of privacy in networked systems needs to evolve. Much of what she says resonates with what I was trying to say in my podcast rant about complex privacy and privacy controls. Hopefully more people will pay attention to a researcher whose focus is in this area than did to my muddled rantings. If you struggled to understand what I was trying to communicate in my own rant, please read this post by boyd. - A new coalition forms to offer self-service private cloud
- MPEG-LA extends royalty fee period for H.264
The H was one of several sites to have this news. Its still a little unclear exactly when the new waiver period ends, what exactly “end of the license period” means in practical terms. Regardless, this is only for players, not for encoders. By comparison, Google’s patent grants for WebM make both ends of video, production and consumption, free as in beer and liberty. There is also nothing stopping the MPEG-LA from changing terms on new licenses, even if existing licenses are still in some royalty-free grace period. Chris Foresman at Ars Technica clarifies that the waiver of royalties only covers free internet streaming, excluding for-pay video and other uses. - Police extend detention of e-voting critic