Month: December 2008

Several years ago, the RIAA — Recording Industry Association of America — launched a massive wave of lawsuits against people sharing copyrighted recordings without authorization. By the tens of thousands, “John Doe” lawsuits brought anonymous file-sharers into the spotlight, with routine settlements paid by the Does to the tune of thousands of dollars.

As part of this process, the RIAA routinely sends tens of thousands of “takedown notices” to internet providers. The letter usually indicates that property owned by some studio has been found shared, with an IP address and time-stamp that the infringing file was found on a client’s computer. The ISP is instructed to either remove the offending material or the network access of the person who shared the file, and if they do not do so the lawyer will sue the ISP itself for non-compliance with the DMCA.

I’ve long thought the “takedown provision” of the DMCA — Digital Millenium Copyright Act, passed in 1998 — was an onerous burden on ISPs. That is, to ensure an ISP was treated as a “safe harbor” and not subject to getting sued themselves, they were required to disable the network services or web sites of copyright infringers on their networks. There’s a real and profound cost to this kind of compliance, and passing the cost of compliance on to the customers of the ISP is, IMHO, not the right way to go about it.

The cost of pursuing copyright infringement should rightfully be passed to the party claiming infringement: the copyright owner.

One small ISP in Louisiana is trying to get copyright holders to pay for their policing services.

The moment I read this story, I went “Eureka! That’s it!”. For the cost of pursuing and disabling the services of alleged infringers, an ISP should be compensated by the copyright holder. The expectation should be that the recording industry can prosecute the infringer and recoup these costs from the person who’s infringing, right?

I think this may be the perfect solution, allowing ISPs to keep their network access costs competitive while allowing copyright holders to protect their assets. What do you think?

Hope everyone has weathered all the snow well. Well wishes to all whatever holiday you may or may not be celebrating

I’ve been out of town the past few weeks, but had a milestone to celebrate.

With my weight at 224 pounds this morning, I am officially no longer “obese” according to the Body Mass Index. Still have about 30 pounds to go to get where I want to be, but there it is. I’m just overweight now! Woot!

Quote of the day:

“Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

“So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.” –Arthur Levin

President-elect Obama has chosen a HUD secretary. President-elect Obama said HUD is essential in the effort to stem the mortgage crisis, which “not only shakes the foundation of our economy, but the foundation of the American Dream.”

I tried searching through all my previous posts to find my diatribe on the fallacy of the U.S. housing situation. I could have sworn I went off on this sometime during 2008. Without repeating myself, let me summarize. The linking of ‘owning a home’ and the ‘American dream’ is an enormous fallacy. It is a financial marketing ploy that was irrationally grown by the detente of Wall Street and the U.S. Government. Look at where it’s gotten us. It seems there have been two major blowups this past year – Wall Street and the housing market.

Telling people that owning a home is the American dream puts a dangerous ideology in their head. The American dream should be having the freedom to choose a career and domestic path that allows each one of us the ability to find our own happiness. To the contrary, doing what it takes to move into a home, go way into credit debt, and have banks swoop up and package together all our little mortgage deals that eventually get shipped overseas so that foreign nations own 20% of our housing market is not what I would consider to be the American dream. It’s turned out to be a nightmare.

My problem with Obama is that he’s already not using his head. He’s pandering to the existing infrastructure of fallacy. I would like to hear Obama say that owning a home is nice but it’s not necessary to lead a full and happy life. I would like to hear Obama say that responsibility starts with the application of diligence, personal accountability and working to protect others in your family. I would like to hear Obama say that eliminating personal debt and executing a habit of good household finance is most important.

Friends don’t let friends get over-leveraged.

A couple nights ago I gigged a hospital corporate party with an enclave of pro musicians from around town. The organizer of the gig is a good friend of mine who is probably the best front man I’ve ever played with in my life. We had a bunch of tunes on the set list that featured some screeching rock classics; Separate Ways, Rock & Roll, Synchronicity II, among others. I guess when you work in the emergency room of a hospital these types of songs are considered calming devices.

It had been almost 18 years since I last played Separate Ways. If I recall correctly, that last time was when WS was jamming out at the QOHS pool during the back half of the Vermont senior high band home-and-away cultural exchange. And by ‘culture’ I mean the exchange of body fluids. At least for some of us. In the back seat of our cars.

But I digress. The point here is that I was floored 18 years of my life had past. 18 years ago. Kids born that night are now going to college. The price of a movie ticket has gone up 2,456%. Elephants have lost their memory.

At least everyone in the corporate crowd was rocking out to the tune. It wasn’t as though we were staring off the stage into an abyss of questioning frowns with hands covering their ears. It wasn’t as though a client spokesman was dispatched reluctantly to push their way to the stage through the force of our amplitude and to yell over the wailing rock coda solo a request to stop playing the oldies. That would have caused me pain.

And Ben, if you’re out there, I remembered my harmony part on the chorus.

Well, here I am for my first full day in Colorado Springs. From my office, I can see the Air Force academy stadium, and light planes are constantly taking off & landing for glider training for our next generation of budding pilots.

However, my particular view of this expansive city is mostly this:

Yep, sitting in my cube farm, working on a laptop as usual. One is very much like another, as far as that goes. On the plus side, I picked up a copy of Gary Taubes’ latest book and began reading it over dinner last night.

One thing that both surprised and disgusted me was how brown the snow was when flying in. From what I understand, this is part of the system that ends up cleaning the air coming in from California. The smog hits the Rocky Mountains and drops it in the high valleys. Thus Colorado is part of California’s smog-cleaning system.

When I was picking up Taubes’ book last night, I happened to show up at Barnes & Noble right as a choir was gearing up to put on a performance! They were pretty darn good, looked great, and had a lot of energy.

(Postscript: sorry for the sideways pictures. I lack the time to get them rotated and re-uploaded today!)

Welp, someone has WAY too much time on their hands and, of course, a webcam…

So I’m headed to a data center in Colorado Springs for the next ten days (Dec 11-20). During that time, I’ll be staying at a nice hotel with a gym, but I gotta ask: what do you do to stay in shape while traveling? In particular, how do you handle all the eating out?

I think my suite has a kitchen. If it doesn’t, wow, this is going to be a rough week for sticking to my eating plan 🙂

I’ve never in my life considered fitness opportunities when traveling. It’s a new experience!

–Matt

So this picture captures the feeling of the average American citizen toward the Big 3 auto-maker bailout (note: language alert!):

Thanks to the Rampant Coyote for the link.