Author: matthew

So I’m finally back from vacation. I have a HUGE backlog of email to catch up on, and a new challenge for myself: blog a day.

Sure, some of the entries will be short, but I want to keep my thoughts up-to-date and record my progress on various goals throughout the year. So here’s #1 for the year!

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?

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

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!)

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.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal that Barack Obama was not a natural-born citizen due to his dual British-American citizenship at the time of his birth. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/08/scotus-rejects-appeal-questioning-obamas-citizenship/ . In sum, he was born on American soil, to an American mother, despite a father who was a British subject.

One claim is still finding its way through the courts, challenging Obama’s recorded birth in Honolulu, Hawaii.

I’m just glad to see this particular bit of idiocy die.

Happy Thanksgiving from me to you! I know it’s been a bit quiet around here lately. I have a whole boatload of blog ideas that I plan to unleash this coming Monday. Think of this as the calm before the storm…

We all know THOSE kind of Christians. Yeah. This lady lets us know in no uncertain terms that she’s not one of THOSE kinds of Chrisians.