Chris O'Donnell alerts us to a post from someone who originally thought things like Trent Reznor's massively successful Ghosts I-IV business model experiment was a good thing, but who is now worried about the eventual consequences of somehow segregating fans. The argument is that only a small group of true fans will buy these really high end offerings, that include certain things that other true fans will recognize, making them part of an elite tribe. The fear is that these tribes will exclude those who don't pay up for the super duper deluxe versions.

It's an interesting theory, but I don't think there's much to support it in reality. First of all, as a recent excellent Hypebot piece explained, true fan tribes are nothing new, nor is the fact that many will shun outsiders or newbies until they've really shown themselves worthy of acceptance. So I don't see how this is particularly different. Also, a lot of these super deluxe packages aren't necessarily about stuff you can "wear" that would be noticeable in gatherings. On the whole, it just doesn't seem like that much of a problem. There will always be elitist fans and some will always snub less enthusiastic fans. I don't see how that changes now that those more enthusiastic fans have more ways to support the artists they love.

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vvaduva writes "The ugly truth is that many network guys secretly work on production equipment all the time, or test things on production networks when they face impossible deadlines. Management often expects us to get a job done but refuse to provide funds for expensive lab equipment, test circuits and for reasonable time to get testing done before moving equipment or configs into production. How do most of you handle such situations, and what recommendation do you have for creating a network test lab on the cheap, especially when core network devices are vendor-centric, like Cisco?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I love this bicore with five "slavecores" caterpillar BEAM bot. It is a photovore (light-seeker) with two operating speeds and rechargeable Li-Ion batteries (via USB). The builder has an Etsy shop too where you can buy his bots.

Middle Creek Merchants Robot Page
Middlecreek Merchants Etsy Shop

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MAKE subscriber Jared writes in to share his latest tutorial, how to make a laser instrument. Using a set of eight laser diodes and detectors, he converted an Arduino into a nice looking instrument. We've seen other laser harps in the past, but this one is neat because the Arduino is also used as a synthesizer to make the sounds, so the whole thing is self-contained.

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While some other countries have caved to pressure from the entertainment industry and US diplomats to implement ridiculously draconian copyright laws, it's always nice to hear of some pushing back. Nicolas A. Barriga points us to the news that despite several attempts by Chile's president to pass extremely draconian copyright laws, that would force ISPs to actively police their networks and block access to content that was accused (not proven) of being infringement, the provision was definitively rejected (Google translation of the original). Apparently, it was rejected in such a way that the President can no longer re-introduce it.

What's interesting here (beyond a victory for user rights) is that a big part of the argument pushed by the entertainment industry representatives, was that this law was necessary to remain in compliance with trade agreements (there they are again) with the US. However, it appears that Chilean politicians recognized this was a load of bunk. Nothing in their trade obligations required such a solution. This sound similar to pressure put on countries like Canada and Israel, where they're told they need to introduce copyright laws well beyond anything in the US just to live up to their international obligations. So far, both Canada and Israel have pushed back, and it's good to see Chile doing so as well.

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Bourdain writes "Gizmodo has put together a good compilation of the — seemingly almost criminally — misleading (largely plain wrong) advertising from our favorite local monopolies. My personal favorite is from AT&T which states you need 3mbps to use social networking sites like Facebook."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

At the Eiffel Tower's official web site, you can check out scans of the original blueprints created by Gustave Eiffel in preparation for the 1889 World's Fair. The famous tower in Paris was the source of much controversy (many thought its skeletal design ruined the classical cityscape) and remained the tallest structure in the world until the Chrysler Building in 1930.

[via Gizmodo]

teeks99 writes "Even NASA could benefit from the 'Launch Often' idea that is frequently referred to in the software development community. However, in NASA's case, the 'launch' is a bit more literal. Edward Lu, writing in the New York Times, points out that by lowering the consequences of launch failure, and making frequent launches available to engineers, NASA could open up a new wave of innovation in space exploration. If there were weekly launches of a rocket, there would be many opportunities for new ideas to be tried out in communications, remote sensing, orbital debris mitigation, robotic exploration, and even in developing technology for human spaceflight. Another benefit would be that the rockets would be well understood, which would improve reliability."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Following North Face's incredibly short-sighted decision to sue parody clothing maker, South Butt, it seems that the story is going viral in a variety of ways. Not only is the press and various blogs talking about it, but Paul Alan Levy alerts us to the news that South Butt has released a Facebook app that helps you "sharpen your skills" to see if you can "tell a butt from a face." As Levy notes, this sort of application and attention gaining effort shows why these types of lawsuits are likely to bite you in the butt. Even if there's a legal basis here (and that's questionable), the backlash against such a lawsuit is clear (and was widely predicted when North Face first made its threat). Anyone filing lawsuits these days needs to realize how the court of public opinion can weigh in quite loudly on such things.

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This Christmas tree in London is made out of recycled bicycle wheels, donated by a non-profit that ships bike parts to Africa to help with health care transportation in rural areas. A neat idea executed by a cool architecture firm, even though I don't think it really looks like a Christmas tree.

[Architects Journal via Inhabitat]

RobGoldsmith writes "Like sugar plum fairies in 'The Nutcracker,' the moons of Saturn performed a celestial ballet before the eyes of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. New movies frame the moons' silent dance against the majestic sweep of the planet's rings and show as many as four moons gliding around one another."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

roju writes "The MPAA has won a summary judgment against torrent indexing site isoHunt for inducing copyright infringement. Michael Geist notes that '[t]he judge ruled that the isoHunt case is little different from other US cases such as Napster and Grokster, therefore concluding that there is no need to proceed to a full trial and granting Columbia Pictures request for summary judgment.' Attorney Ben Sheffner, who worked on the case for Fox, explains some of the implications, noting that 'the most significant ruling in the opinion was the court's holding that the DMCA's safe harbors are simply not available where inducement has been established.' This case could have implications on other indexing sites, and creates a gap in the DMCA safe harbor provisions that could have far-reaching implications on other sites."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We'd like to extend our thanks to those of you who have given generously to charity this year; three of those who did so, and who correctly answered a challenge, were selected by our pals at Tokyoflash to get a gift of their choice from their wonderful catalog of bizarre watches. Watch winner Thomas Smartwood donated to the Salvation Army and the public library in Des Moines; Sean Corbett donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Chris Haigy donated to the Ali Forney Center in New York.

Ursula K. Le Guin is a very famous author who many people insist is one of the best -- though, I have to admit never having read her stuff. Yet, she is one of those who is rather aggressive in policing the copyrights on her work, and who does not tend to side with those who believe in concepts like "fair use." Most certainly, she is not a fan of open culture. A few years ago, she got into a bit of a scrap with Cory Doctorow, because he dared to publish a single paragraph of hers in a blogpost as part of a larger (positive!) commentary.

Her latest scrap with the world of copyright is to publicly resign from the Authors Guild. I'm no fan of the Authors Guild myself, and find that it tends to take a rather antiquated view on things -- from its absolutely ridiculous claim that a Kindle with text-to-speech software infringes on authors' copyrights, to its equally backwards take on Google's book scanning project, which helped index books and make them more findable which many authors have found helps increase sales.

While I am not a fan of the (still ongoing) settlement efforts between Google and the Authors Guild, it is this settlement that has upset Le Guin so much. In her resignation letter, she claims refers to Google as "the devil," and claims that the Guild has abandoned "the whole concept of copyright." Of course, nothing is further from the truth, as the Authors Guild notes in its reply (found via Michael Scott). As the Authors Guild points out, Google had a more than decent chance of winning the lawsuit because of something called fair use, which Le Guin still doesn't appear to recognize as a key part of copyright law. In her own introduction to copyright law, fair use makes no appearance whatsoever.

It really is a shame. Many people tell me that Le Guin is a fantastic writer, but I have no desire to read works by someone who is afraid I might like it so much I might share that joy with someone else. I also have no interest in reading works by a science fiction author who seems to hate technology to the point of calling a tool like Google "the devil."

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Congratulations to Boing Boing reader David Glicksman, who won the draw for a spectacular timepiece from Watchismo.

Instructables user jrossetti writes:

In this instructable, I'll outline the requirements for a small chicken tractor for the backyard chicken enthusiast, such as myself, and describe the process of building it. After seeing a lot of chicken tractors on the internet for outrageous prices, I decided it'd be better for me to build one myself, for cheaper, and that fit my needs a bit better. I'll show you how I did it and give some pointers on making your own design.

For those of you that don't know what a chicken tractor is, it's essentially a chicken coop that can be moved around. Some of the main purposes for a mobile chicken coop are to allow the chickens to fertilize the grass (though this ain't pretty at all, hahah), and they can eat the grass - keeping it trim (if done right), eat bugs and weeds, and so you can hide it when your parents come visit. There's other benefits too, though I'm not saying a coop is NOT the way to go (actually, my city has an ordnance stating any permanent chicken coop must be 40 feet away from any human house, so a tractor is a nice efficient way to bypass that ordnance, muahaha!).

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An anonymous reader writes "What's Twitter good for? How about crowd sourcing control of your Christmas tree. Dangerous Prototypes built an open source, networked Christmas tree that you can control from Twitter. Send a color or hexadecimal color code to @tweet_tree, then watch the color change on the live video stream. This project is based on an updated version of the open source business card size web server covered previously."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Verizon's new $350 early termination fee and "gotcha" internet access charges recently attracted FCC attention. It is not amused by the company's reply, which has already drawn the Wrath of Pogue. Verizon's answers are "unsatisfying and, in some cases, troubling," says the FCC's Rick Kaplan. Kaplan seems particularly moved by Verizon's claim that exiting customers should foot the bill for the advertising used to attract them in the first place.

One of the highlights is a story explaining how nuclear power—remember, this is only five months after Hiroshima and Nagasaki—could be harnessed peacefully, to produce energy in America. The piece includes diagrams showing how a nuclear generator might be designed. Fun for comparing with the cutaways of modern nuclear reactors that Cory posted last week.

Also neat:

• A piece on the development of auto-pilot technology.
• A guide to working with color photography
• A story about one man's collection of 36 working, scale-model engines

Popular Science, December 1945

Thumbnail image from Flickr user x-ray delta one, via CC

This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com. Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

Back in May, we wrote about an effort in the EU to make software developers liable for buggy software. As with earlier discussions on this topic there are a variety of opinions. Obviously, people don't like buggy software, and it's natural to feel that developers should be liable for software that doesn't work properly. At the same time, however, software is incredibly complex, and it's impossible to be entirely bug free. Adding liability, then, could have significant downsides in terms of scaring many developers off from developing, especially for more complex software.

It appears that some of this debate is moving on to video games as well. JohnForDummies alerts us to a story discussing how complex video games are almost always quite buggy (found via Slashdot) and questioning if proposed liability laws in Europe might have an impact on the gaming community.

This isn't a simple issue, of course. If a company is selling a product, buyers have every right to expect the product to work as advertised. But that doesn't mean that adding direct liability really makes sense. If a company constantly produces extremely buggy software, it should have incentives to fix those bugs directly -- not from the government -- such as the fact that people will be less interested in ever buying their products again in the future. It seems like laws for buggy software would be extreme overkill.

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goldilocksmission writes with this snippet from Goldilocks Mission: "News spread recently about a super-earth-sized planet that has been recently discovered to contain one of the most essential compounds for life to exist in the universe: water. ... GJ1214b is a massive planet that can house about six earths and is about forty light-years away from us. ... The significant discovery leap of detecting Gliese 581d to the more goldilocks planet oriented GJ1214b is a testament to the advances in the technology of detecting earth-like exoplanets."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

destinyland writes "There is a current mass market for 'cognitive enhancement' products — and arguments about the black market potential for neurostim. 'The same neurostim device that uses electric impulses from a brain implant to treat people with Parkinson's Disease can be tweaked by a few millimeters and pulse rates to make cocaine addicts feel like they are high all the time... Mix the glamour of surgical self-improvement with the geekiness of high-tech gadget fetishism and you have a niche cosmetic neurostim market waiting to be tapped...'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rob Hyndman points us to the news that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is facing a copyright lawsuit for sneaking into a fashion show and filming it. As the article notes, since the event was held on private property, you can make a reasonable argument for trespassing. But copyright? The fashion company is claiming that it should be able to copyright its fashion shows as a "performance," but it's difficult to see how a fashion show, by itself, is covered by copyright (what's the fixed expression?). A film of it would be covered, but in this case, the filming was done by the CBC, so it should own the copyright. The fact that only a limited number of press were invited, and they signed agreements limiting how they would distribute any recordings of the event shouldn't have any bearing on the copyright question at all. There are some other odd claims in the complaint, such as the fact that the cameraman acted "aggressively" when confronted. I'm unaware of any part of copyright law in which that would matter. All in all, this seems like yet another attempt to abuse copyright law based on a false belief over what it covers, and a misguided sense of "ownership."

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Seiko's legendary talking pyramid clock returns in updated form, featuring LED lighting and sharp corners. It's Japan-only for the moment. [via CrunchGear]

Am I too late for Santa?

Vintage Typewriter Shoppe

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Joel Johnson's little sister made him this cute Tetris-themed pillowcase for Christmas. [Joel's flickr]

tjansen writes "Panasonic has announced plans to create 'home batteries.' They are lithium-ion batteries large enough to power a house for a week, making energy sources such as solar and wind power more feasible. Also, you can buy energy when it is cheapest, and don't need to worry about power outages anymore."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

tjansen writes "Panasonic has announced plans to create 'home batteries.' They are lithium-ion batteries large enough to power a house for a week, making energy sources such as solar and wind power more feasible. Also, you can buy energy when it is cheapest, and don't need to worry about power outages anymore."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Interesting article over on Wired about Kirk Sorensen and the community served by his Energy From Thorium blog. To hear these people tell it, thorium fission in fluid fuel reactors offers an idyllic vision of a boundless-energy-from-the-atom type future no one has really believed in since the early 50s. Thorium, reportedly, is abundant, safe, highly efficient as a nuclear fuel, and produces waste that is radioactive only for a few hundred years instead of tens of thousands.

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Back in November, we wrote about how some were trying to get around Section 230 safe harbors to get content taken offline. Basically, since a website isn't liable for the content posted by users, the upset party would file a lawsuit against the "user" often knowing that the user will never show up in court (the discussion suggested even filing it in a way against a "phantom author" to make sure no one will show up in court). Since the user doesn't show up, a default judgment is entered, and then the lawyer has a court order stating that the content is defamatory and can go to the website demanding that the content be taken down.

Now, in cases where the content actually is defamatory, this setup is probably fine (with some caveats). But in situations where the content isn't defamatory and the default judgment is so "engineered," it's pretty ridiculous to then force a site to take down that content. And, in fact, Eric Goldman points out that, in one of these situations (default judgment entered, then with that in hand, requests were sent out demanding the content be taken down), a judge has sided with Ripoff Report (who didn't want to take down the content) and said that the site has no obligation to remove the content, since "Ripoff Report's relationship to the user is too "tenuous" (by entering into a user agreement for content publication) to constitute "acting in concert" under FRCP 65."

Goldman is troubled by this, as is Ben Sheffner, who sees it as a bad situation when there's a "wrong" that has no remedy. After all, the original complainant "won" their case saying that there was defamatory content -- but there appears to be no legal way to then get that content taken down! It's certainly an odd situation, but the more I think about it, I think the complaint that Sheffner makes (that this is a problem with Section 230) is entirely misplaced.

Section 230 works exactly as intended here: making sure that a third party is not made liable for the actions of others. The problem is with the default judgment process. It's a situation where there's really no "defense" for the content that was posted at all -- which is Ripoff Report's main concern. Now, there are plenty of reasons for why default judgments are granted when one party doesn't show up, but it can lead to really bad results -- such as potentially in these sorts of cases. Perhaps a more reasonable solution would be to set up a separate process that actually requires substantive review of the content before it can be forced offline -- even if the supposedly liable party doesn't show up. I recognize that opens up all sorts of other issues as well -- but it seems like the most "fair" solution: don't require takedown by third parties in default judgments, but include a separate process for establishing whether or not the content really needs to be removed. That leaves Section 230 intact, as it should be, and focuses the solution on the real issue.

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rysiek writes "A few days ago, Miguel de Icaza wrote on his blog that the whole of MonoDevelop is now 'free' of GPL-licensed code. 'MonoDevelop code is now LGPLv2 and MIT X11 licensed. We have removed all of the GPL code, allowing addins to use Apache, MS-PL code as well as allowing proprietary add-ins to be used with MonoDevelop (like RemObject's Oxygene).'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

rysiek writes "A few days ago, Miguel de Icaza wrote on his blog that the whole of MonoDevelop is now 'free' of GPL-licensed code. 'MonoDevelop code is now LGPLv2 and MIT X11 licensed. We have removed all of the GPL code, allowing addins to use Apache, MS-PL code as well as allowing proprietary add-ins to be used with MonoDevelop (like RemObject's Oxygene).'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jamie noted a bit on The Science of Avatar running on Ain't it Cool, written by a professor of astrophysics who has worked on searching for planets and SETI. I believe I might be the last person on earth who hasn't seen it; here's hoping I can find 3 free hours over the holidays.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

padraic_93 writes "Information has become available which reveals development is underway for the new iPhone 4, as well as suggestions of features and Apple's plans for the phone. A report on PinchMedia, which made repeated use of the term 'iPhone 4,' was cited on the website MacRumors, though the website admitted that such reports can often be forged. The report also made allusions to a 'Corporate Event' planned for June 28th — July 2nd 2010, which have been taken as referring to the next WWDC." A related rumor holds that Apple has ordered 40-45 million 5-megapixel cameras, which might hint at new functionality.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Earlier this year, I randomly ended up in a fascinating conversation with a marketing guy from Pepsi, who was telling me about some of the online marketing efforts the company ran during the 2009 Super Bowl, saying that they got the same "response" as the multi-million dollar Super Bowl commercials got, but only cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, rather than millions. Based on that I have to admit I'm not all that surprised to find out (via The Infamous Joe) that Pepsi has decided not to buy any Super Bowl ads for the 2010 game, but will be investing a ton in some online promotions. This is after 23 straight years of Super Bowl ads by Pepsi, costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars. I'm sure that the Super Bowl will be just fine (it claims it's sold out 90% of its ads already, though the prices did drop a bit this year, apparently), but it does suggest that some may be realizing that there are better ways to get your message out than spending a ridiculous sum for a single commercial spot.

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This augmented reality app from Ogmento for Orange Israel features an interactive virtual iPhone hovering over a stylized marker. The demo allows the user to control the virtual iPhone through its touch interface and superimposes it over a realtime camera view. [via gizmodo]

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MikeChino writes "Sandia National Laboratories recently announced a new breed of glitter-sized solar cells made from crystalline silicon that use 100 times less material to generate the same amount of electricity as standard solar cells made from 6-inch square solar wafers. Perfect for soaking up the sun’s rays on unusual shapes and surfaces, the tiny solar cells are expected to be less expensive, more efficient, and have promising new applications in textiles, clothing, and building facade installations."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This effort has been underway for some time, but it's great to see that a federal Anti-SLAPP law has finally been introduced. If you're unfamiliar with this, a little over half of the states in the US have their own anti-SLAPP laws, which help those who have been sued solely to shut them up. SLAPP, of course, stands for "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation," and it's used to describe bogus lawsuits that are solely designed to tie up someone who can't afford it in court -- thus often making them stop whatever activity (or speech) annoyed whoever sued them, rather than go through the process of fighting the bogus lawsuit in court. Anti-SLAPP laws let those sued in this manner to quickly fight back and get the bogus lawsuits dismissed. The problem, of course, is that right now it's a mishmash of state laws (or no laws at all), meaning that these sorts of bogus lawsuits are still brought all the time. A group of folks have been working for quite some time on putting together plans for a federal anti-SLAPP law, and Rep. Steve Cohen has finally introduced it -- with the key feature being that those sued can recover fees, which makes it much more likely that they can get lawyers who will defend them (on a contingency basis) to get the bogus lawsuits tossed out. I have no idea the likelihood of this particular proposal getting anywhere, but as someone who has been threatened with bogus lawsuits way too often, it would be nice to know the protections I have expand beyond California (which already has a pretty good anti-SLAPP law).

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adeelarshad82 writes "A month after signing a deal with EMI for music video content, Hulu has reached an agreement with Warner Music Group to add its content to the video site as well. The deal will allow Hulu to post music videos, artist interviews, live concerts, and behind-the-scenes footage from artists on WMG labels like Atlantic Records, Rhino Records, and Warner Bros. Records."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Making paper airplanes with your kids is a lot of fun, and best of all it's inexpensive! You are never too old, or too young, to fold up some paper and marvel at the mystery of flight. Each of these books will show you how to make some truly unique planes, not just the standard detention-hall variety.

Fantastic Flight book:
These aren't your ordinary paper airplanes. These airplanes loop, circle back, flap their wings and spin, tumble, soar, and, of course, glide. Fantastic Flight reveals how to combine aerodynamics, origami, and a single sheet of paper to create phenomenal flying fun.

Gliding Flight book:
Gliding Flight is a return to paper airplane basics: one person, one piece of paper, and a few folds later, one airplane. Using a refreshingly inventive approach to designs and flying characteristics, you can make 20 original paper planes, such as the Stealth, the Wind Devil, the Glart, and the Skid Kid. In the current age of electronic toys, The Gliding Light proves you can still have fun with a simple sheet of paper and a little imagination.

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While we're still waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the Bilski case, which may or may not directly impact the question of software patents, JJ points out that the Patent Office has released some new rules on patentability, based on the appeals court ruling in Bilski (technically, the Patent Office issued a ruling, back in August, but just recently declared that ruling "precedential"). The full ruling can be found here (pdf). The key bit:

For a claimed machine (or article of manufacture) involving a mathematical algorithm,

1. Is the claim limited to a tangible practical application, in which the mathematical algorithm is applied, that results in a real-world use (e.g., "not a mere field-of-use label having no significance")?
2. Is the claim limited so as to not encompass substantially all practical applications of the mathematical algorithm either "in all fields" of use of the algorithm or even in "only one field?"

If the machine (or article of manufacture) claim fails either prong of the two-part inquiry, then the claim is not directed to patent eligible subject matter.

As many are noting, this remains incredibly vague, though the Patent Office is limited by what the courts have said. One would hope that the Supreme Court's ruling in Bilski might lend some clarity, but the oral arguments suggested that the court might try to steer the decision away from anything having to do with software patents entirely. So, we may still have something of a mess for quite some time.

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jamie writes "chromatic has a great post today on the conflict between OS distributions' and CPAN's installations of perl modules, along with some suggestions for how to start resolving this maddening problem: '[Though Debian has] made plenty of CPAN distributions available as .debs, I have to configure my CPAN client myself, and it does not work with the system package manager. There's no reason it couldn't. Imagine that the system Perl 5 included in the default package... had a CPAN client configured appropriately. It has selected an appropriate mirror (or uses the redirector). It knows about installation paths. It understands how to use LWP...' The idea of providing guidelines to distros for how to safely package modules is a great one. Could modules request (a modified?) test suite be run after distro-installation? Could Module::Build help module authors and distro maintainers establish the rules somehow?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The program guide for TED 2010 is up and, as usual, the speakers are interesting. Highlights, for me, include ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro (do yourself a favor and watch some of Jake's YouTube videos), neuroscientist Sam Harris, 4chan founder Christopher "moot" Poole, David Byrne, spider silk scientist Cheryl Hayashi, and Wisdom of Whores author Elizabeth Pisani.

TED 2010 Program Guide

One of the many lawsuits against file sharing sites/search engines around the world is the IsoHunt lawsuit -- yet another case where the entertainment industry decided a marginal player in the space didn't have enough attention and sued. While the judge in the case had earlier pointed out that the MPAA failed to show actual evidence of infringement of copyrights by US users on IsoHunt, that still didn't stop the judge from granting summary judgment to the movie studios, saying that because IsoHunt induced infringement, it loses, no trial needed. This isn't a huge surprise, given how courts have ruled previously, but there are some oddities in the ruling, which you can see below: The court relies on the fact that IsoHunt owner Gary Fung made many statements that could be read as inducing infringement, but most of the statements appear to have been taken out of context. In fact, it looks like the court interpreted any time Fung mentioned "stealing" to mean support for copyright infringement, even if the words he stated were actually suggesting something different. For example, the court cites the following statement by Fung:

"Morally, I'm a Christian. 'Thou shalt not steal.' But to me, even copyright infringement when it occurs may not necessarily be stealing."

The court seems to think this indicates inducement, but if that's the case, then shouldn't the Supreme Court itself be guilty as well for famously stating in the Dowling case:

"(copyright infringement) does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud... The infringer invades a statutorily defined province guaranteed to the copyright holder alone. But he does not assume physical control over copyright; nor does he wholly deprive its owner of its use."

If the first is inducement, isn't the latter as well? Furthermore, the court seems to take a quote that refers to "stealing from leechers" to mean inducing infringement, apparently not recognizing that leechers have a very specific meaning in the BitTorrent world, and the statement appears to have nothing to do with infringing on copyright.

That said, there are some other things that put Fung on much thinner ice, including helping people find certain files and helping explain how trackers work -- though, again, it's not clear that Fung would know for certain that the files being searched for were infringing. The court does find it (reasonably) damning that Fung presented a list of top box office films, with links to pages that asked people to share torrent files that pointed to the films themselves. You can certainly see how that could trigger the "inducement" finding.

But what may be most interesting (or troubling, depending on your perspective) is the court's discussion on the DMCA, which basically says that DMCA safe harbors do not apply if it can be shown that the site turned a blind eye to infringement. If that reasoning is used, it could eventually implicate sites like YouTube, despite rulings like the one in the Veoh case. Expect IsoHunt to appeal, though given the details in the case, it seems quite unlikely that it will prevail. There are too many precedents against this sort of operation, even if the court misinterpreted Fung's statements, which it deems as "most telling" in the ruling.

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Print'em out, give to friends... gorgeous.

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bluec writes "Generally speaking, the BBC isn't allowed to encrypt or restrict its broadcasts: the license fee payer pays for these broadcasts. But the BBC has tried to get around this, asking Ofcom for permission to encrypt the "metadata" on its broadcasts – including the assistive information used by deaf and blind people and the 'tables' used by receivers to play back the video. As Ofcom gears up to a second consultation on the issue, there's one important question that the BBC must answer if the implications of this move are to be fully explored, namely: How can free/open source software co-exist with a plan to put DRM on broadcasts?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

While many were surprised that the first few grants of broadband stimulus money did not go to the telco lobbyist boondoggle known as Connected Nation, you knew it had to come eventually. There were cases where Connected Nation was given deals despite being more expensive and having less experience. Or, in the case of Minnesota, the governor just decided the state should go with Connected Nation, before a state task force (appointed by the governor to explore this issue) could even weigh in.

So it should come as no surprise that (right before the holidays) it's been announced that a big chunk of broadband stimulus money is going to Connected Nation (including, of course, in Minnesota). It's a really sweet boondoggle. The operation was set up by telco industry lobbyists, with the claim that it will accurately map broadband penetration (an important factor in figuring out a broadband plan). But, rather than actually mapping the data, and actually revealing the details, Connect Nation basically hides and obfuscates the data in a way that protects the telcos. Aren't you glad that your taxpayer money is now being used to support this effort?

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Jeff posted this nice how-to on wiring up a 7-Segment LED to an Arduino. His code uses the 'map()' function to scale the sensor data and display it's relative value on the 7-Segment display. This is a good project to try out, after you make the infamous pin 13 blinking LED. [via arduinofun]

In the Maker Shed:


Make: Arduino

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kkleiner writes "Singularity Hub has just unveiled its second annual roundup of the best robots of the year. In 2009 robots continued their advance towards world domination with several impressive breakouts in areas such as walking, automation, and agility, while still lacking in adaptability and reasoning ability. It will be several years until robots can gain the artificial intelligence that will truly make them remarkable, but in the meantime they are still pretty awesome."

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coondoggie writes "Even as the latest shift of astronauts arrived at the International Space Station, challenges with the orbital outpost on the ground are threatening its future. Those challenges include the pending retirement of the space shuttle but also the way NASA and the ISS are managed. A report issued this week by the Government Accountability Office said NASA faces several significant issues that may impede efforts to maximize utilization of all ISS research facilities"

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Some enterprising pranksters at Willow Garage hid a ckBot robot in the ceiling of their office, then used it to shoot ping pong balls at an unsuspecting co-worker. Awesome! [via <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5432125/ping-pong-robot-hides-in-the-ceiling-until-
the-moment-is-right">gizmodo]

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When Nokia first sued Apple for patent infringement over the iPhone, we noted that it appeared like yet another case of a company getting beat in the market suddenly whipping out some patents to sue over. This seemed to anger the usual bunch of patent system defenders -- along with a group of Nokia defenders -- but it appears that others are noticing as well. The NY Times has an article discussing Nokia's sudden aggressiveness in the patent realm, noting that the company has been facing some business troubles, and it's notable that its patent aggression seems to have shown up at just the same time as its own performance trouble. Funny that.

Of course, this is a major issue. As with so many high tech areas today, there are giant patent thickets. It's effectively impossible to launch a product that doesn't violate dozens, if not hundreds, of patents. And (despite claims to the contrary) it's got absolutely nothing to do with companies "stealing" from each other. It's got plenty to do with companies making the next logical step in the innovative process, and coming up with products that meet what the market wants. But with patent offices around the world being willing to hand out patents on minor changes, it's impossible to actually build a useful product that doesn't violate patents. This has nothing to do with innovation. At this point, patents are just a weapon that can be flung against anyone who does innovate if you can't compete.

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Richard Kline writes:

Non circular gears are strange. When the topic of square gear trains appears in casual conversation, people tend to think a joke is being made, that it is 'impossible' to make a square gear that actually meshes properly. After being drawn into a vicious debate with a co-worker about the existence and plausibility of such gears, I realized I had no choice but to resort to an actual demonstration to sway his view. In the not-too distant past this would have been a virtual impossibility, at the very least I would have had to spend an indeterminate amount of time hunched over a scroll saw, trying to cut splintery wooden gear prototypes by hand. Fortunately, this is the pushbutton world of 2009, a Google search turns up dozens of laser/waterjet cutting services and MakerBots are squeezing out ABS plastic Darth Vader helmets in every good nerd's house this Christmas. And thus, a project was born...

Gears Squared

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