Culture and Society

We have been active in the DMCA-reform movement, participating in the public comment process a few months ago (Ernest Miller of LawMeme did the heavy lifting – Ernie rules), insisting that consumers should be able to make backup copies of their own DVDs, and that news and reviews entities (like …

For a fraction of the cost and inconvenience of actually attending the legendary Berklee College of Music in Boston, you can take exciting courses in music production, writing, business and theory online: Production “David [Franz] was able to make an online music class come alive and teach a topic that …

As the surgical airstrikes against Saddam were beginning last night Iraqi state radio suddenly broadcast this: “The facilities of the Iraqi regime have started to be hit… This is the day we have been waiting for… The attack on Iraq has begun,” the United States jammed and then obliterated Baghdad …

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has been acknowledged for its cultural impact with a new definition in the online Oxford English Dictionary, along with over 2000 other changes and additions. Muggle, n. In the fiction of J. K. Rowling: a person who possesses no magical powers. Hence in allusive and …

Experts quoted by the Washington Post think it almost certain the US military will use “high-powered microwave weapons” (HPM) against Iraq: They use bursts of electromagnetic energy, delivered by low-impact bombs or “ray gun”-like devices, to disable or destroy the electronics that control everything from an enemy’s radar to its …

We just reported yesterday that MSN thinks broadband internet access has arrived. Well check this out: it makes today’s broadband look like the Pony Express Scientists have developed a new data transfer protocol for the Internet fast enough to download a full-length DVD movie in less than five seconds, the …

My father-in-law has been holding forth on this issue for the last seven years: why isn’t there somewhere you can go and mix and match your favorites songs by a given artist and have them burn the CD for you? No down;oading, no digital files – a real, physical CD …

We’ve been looking with a jaundiced eye on the DMCA for some time – it is full of holes and needs some serious repair work by Congress. Here’s another: A group representing college media centers is warning the U.S. Copyright Office about a possible conflict between two federal laws, one …

ISPs in losing battle against P2P: Increasingly peer-to-peer (P2P) software, which allows surfers to share music and video files, is dodging the defences of internet service providers. It is becoming technically harder and harder to win the battle against file-sharing, said Sandvine, a firm that provides equipment to manage networks. …

Okay, so Billboard viewed the NARM opening this way; Andrew Orlowski saw things through slightly different colored glasses: Departing RIAA chief Hilary Rosen yesterday invoked the name of slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King as she defended the music oligopolies’ right to prevent people sharing music. She also …