Open Library
Imagine a library that collected all the world’s information about all the world’s books and made it available for everyone to view and update. We’re building that library.
Posted by Giles, Monday, July 16, 2007, at 10:00 PM.
Posted to Computers | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Public domain | Technology
Three of Potential Interest
Checking my email online tonight, to discover more than thirty open tabs in the browser; stuff to read later, stuff to blog on, stuff to deal with, etc. Here are three:
— Sports Artist Sued for Mix of Crimson and Tide:
In the solemn cathedral of college football devotion and instruction that is the Paul W. Bryant Museum here, a large painting dominates the main chamber. It is called “The Sack,” and it shows an encounter between a Notre Dame quarterback and a human locomotive in crimson and white.
“I’ve never been hit like that before,” the quarterback, Steve Beuerlein, said after his near-lethal sack by Cornelius Bennett in 1986, in the University of Alabama’s first victory ever over his team.
Daniel A. Moore, who painted “The Sack” and scores of other renditions of signal moments in Alabama football history, said he felt something similar last year, when his fax machine began to spit out a lawsuit from the university.
Downward spiral. Here’s a wish for recovery before impact.
— Droolworthy, and, uh, funny as hell:
MacRumors Apple ad contest winner. See more.
— I’d noticed the font used in the Sony Alpha ads recently, and wondered about it. Lo and behold, in my (astonishingly large stack of) email was an ad for it:
Vista Sans, from Emigre. (Natch. Love their stuff.) Read some of the designer’s notes on Vista and others at FontShop.
More ASAP.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at 12:00 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Computers | Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Public domain | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever
Polling Place Photo Project
From the AIGA (!):
The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that seeks to empower citizens to capture, post and share photographs of democracy in action. By documenting their local voting experience on November 7, voters can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.
Did I mention it’s being spearheaded by the AIGA? Wow. And some friends:
The Polling Place Photo Project is part of Design for Democracy, an initiative of AIGA, the professional association for design. William Drenttel of Design Observer initiated the project, working in collaboration with Jay Rosen, founder of NewAssignment.Net (a project of New York University’s Department of Journalism).
Good for all of them — applause from here. I’ll be doing my part (after I check the rules for photography hereabouts). Please do the same!
Posted by Giles, Friday, November 3, 2006, at 1:55 PM.
Posted to Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Photography | Public domain
NYT: Trying Again to Make Books Obsolete
David Pogue on Sony’s latest e-book gadget:
“The market for downloadable books will grow by 400 percent in each of the next two years, to over $25 billion by 2008,” predicted the keynote speaker at the 2001 Women’s National Book Association meeting. “Within a few years after the end of this decade, e-books will be the preponderant delivery format for book content.”
Whoops.
The opening paragraphs. Should say something — which I’d summarize as a big meh. Read why.
As if we expected differently!
Posted by Giles, Monday, October 16, 2006, at 6:16 AM.
Posted to Books | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Publishing | Technology
British Library on Copyrights
From yesterday’s Ars news:
The British Library has the Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, but it’s still not happy. Why not? Because it has the intellectual property blues.
The Library issued a manifesto today on intellectual property law in the UK and offered six suggestions for cleaning up the current mess, all of which attempt to strike a proper balance between the rights of creators and consumers of content. […]
Overall, the proposals are well-balanced, though parties on both sides of the debate will find bits to dislike. Copyright holders will dislike the restrictions on contracts and DRM, while those in favor of “open access” may be disappointed that the British Library advocates a “life + 70 years” copyright term. Still, it’s good to see an institution with the stature of the Library arguing for such a balanced set of proposals, and we hold out hope that the Library of Congress will one day advocate for many of the same proposals on this side of the pond.
Hear, hear.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, September 26, 2006, at 9:15 PM.
Posted to Books | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Public domain | Writing
Google Books Highlights Banned Books
For decades, literary classics such as The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye have had a profound impact on millions of readers. Yet every year, there are hundreds of attempts to remove great books from schools and libraries nationwide. Fortunately, the American Library Association and many other organizations are fighting back with Banned Books Week, taking place this year Sept. 23-30.
Now Google has joined the party. At google.com/bannedbooks, you can use Google Book Search to explore some of the best novels of the 20th century which have been challenged or banned. And while libraries and bookstores around the country celebrate the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week with special readings, displays, and more, you just might end up with a visit to your local library or bookstore and an old favorite or a new banned book in hand.
I don’t even like typing the phrase “banned books.” Glad that Google’s drawing some attention to it — and pushing the use of libraries instead of just their offering.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, September 13, 2006, at 9:49 PM.
Posted to Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Personal | Publishing
Google Book Search Allowing Downloads of Some Books
From Ars:
When Google Print was first unveiled, it was clear that the site would become an amazing resource. It provided full access to books that were already out of copyright, but only if you viewed them online, one page at a time. What people most wanted, though, was the ability to download full PDF versions of the books, which they could read or print at their leisure and on their own machines. Oh, and they wanted Google to provide this free of charge.
Google went ahead and did it. Books no longer in copyright are now available for download from the Google Book Search site.
Wow. Google strikes again, in a big way.
Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, joining Apple’s board is an interesting thing, too. They certainly have become the company to watch.…
Posted by Giles, Friday, September 1, 2006, at 12:36 AM.
Posted to Book sellers | Books | Computers | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Public domain | Publishing | Technology | Writing
Independence Day, Part One
Heard how easy it is to steal an election?
On this Independence Day in America, please think about what made our nation great and one way we can working on making it great again — by supporting the Steal This Election project.
The suggested outcome? A how-to book, which as someone suggested in the comments, should be called Stealing Elections For Fun And Profit: A Practical Guide To Making Modern Democracy Work For You.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
This post is ospreydesign.com’s 2000th in the Movable Type system — not as prolific as some (or even what was originally planned here), but still, not bad for three years and change. Most of ’em are even about book design, too…;)
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 4, 2006, at 1:53 PM.
Posted to Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Public domain | Publishing
Darknet
Speaking of politics, Adam C. Engst writes on Tidbits:
As someone who earns a living from the written word, I keep a close eye on all that’s happening in the copyright wars, that is, the ongoing skirmishes between the large companies that own the copyright on various types of media and the general populace who consume and use such media. I fundamentally disagree with the way these companies - known by some as the Content Cartel - conduct their business and treat their customers, but I’m far more worried by the ways in which they use their deep pockets to affect legislation such as the truly troubling Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). But as much as I’ve participated in innumerable online discussions in which theoretical situations showing the inanity of the current copyright regime are batted back and forth, I’ve never actually collected real-world stories in which copyright, the DMCA, and the tactics of the Content Cartel impinge upon the media-related activities of normal people, activities that meet the common sense standard of fair use.
Luckily for me, well-known blogger J.D. Lasica spent two years amassing those stories, and he’s woven them into a book, “Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation.” Lasica does a fine job of explaining the DMCA and other efforts to clamp down on any use of media the Content Cartel doesn’t want to see, and I’d recommend that anyone who is unsure of the harm being done in those ways read the book for that reason. But what made it a compelling read for me were his stories of the real people who have run afoul of the copyright regime in various different ways.
Interesting indeed! Read the rest.
Now if only the cover were up to the content…:
Posted by Giles, Friday, June 23, 2006, at 11:38 AM.
Posted to Book design | Freedoms and rights
Big Brother Assisted by Georgians -- Yuk
Gregory Abowd, an associate professor leading the project, says the new camera-neutralizing technology shows commercial promise in two principal fields - protecting limited areas against clandestine photography or stopping video copying in larger areas such as theaters. “We’re at a point right now where the prototype we have developed could lead to products for markets that have a small, critical area to protect,” Abowd said. “Then we’re also looking to do additional research that could increase the protected area for one of our more interesting [sic] clients, the motion picture industry.”
Abowd said the small-area product could prevent espionage photography in government buildings, industrial settings or trade shows. It could also be used in business settings - for instance, to stop amateur photography where shopping-mall-Santa pictures are being taken.
You know this won’t stop there — this is the beginnings of yet another battle for control. More details — love the trumpeting (not) — here. (At least it doesn’t work with SLRs!)
Dr. Gregory Abowd of Georgia Tech, get stuffed.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 21, 2006, at 5:27 PM.
Posted to Business | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Photography | Public domain
Preserved for Posterity
Found myself downright barking at a professional photographer tonight who had argued that restricting access to her work online was better than dealing with a few people out to cause trouble. I felt kinda bad afterwards; I was perhaps a little harsh. (Who? Me?)
I’m not a professional photographer, in the sense that I earn a living exclusively selling photographs, but I do sell photos, deal with photographers’ rights, and sell a creative, copyrighted or work-for-hire product/service that, while not as easily “stolen for use elsewhere,” is subject to a good deal of competition. Above-board, honest people and grab-your-ideas-and-undersell-you-later types alike.
Pushing your work farther and farther out into the world instead of walling it off clearly works. Foreword is my evidence.
Click through to Flickr and look at all the little notes by moving your mouse over the boxes on the photo. They’ll run you through all the stuff in the picture, including the icons, menu items, etc. (Warning: geek alert…;)
Sure, there are hassles. (Looking at new web servers [hosts] this week, for instance, so we can rebuild pages in the middle of the day without timeouts. You wondered why so few mid-day posts…?) It’s definitely a challenge to post regularly with the quality we’d all like to see — and that keeps traffic growing. Oh, and have I mentioned there’s still the rest of the web site to finish?
But it’s so worth it. Glad we can be here together, learning about book design. Whether it’s your first visit or your thousandth, thanks for coming by.
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 10, 2006, at 5:51 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Design | Ethics | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Jobs | Love | Personal | Photography | Public domain | Publishing | Site news | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever | Writing
Software Update
• FontExplorer X
…doesn’t work for me. It shows maybe a tenth of the previews, won’t move the files, won’t organize them, and won’t auto-activate them in the various applications (probably because it thinks they’re not complete, hence the lack of previews.)
The venerable Suitcase X1 also has one big advantage: huge preview area, small font list. FontExplorer gets it backwards, devoting more space to the font list. In FE’s defence, it can be a WYSIWYG menu, but apparently that requires that the previews work. (Unsurprisingly.) Once I have everything organized and tagged this layout might work, but have to get there, first!
I’m wondering if part of the problems I’m experiencing may be a permissions problem with Mac OS X. I want my fonts folder to be called “Font Library” and be at the root level of my hard drive. FE seems to want all the data in my users folder — but doesn’t list a help item or mention on the web site that it has to go there. No specific permissions error, either — just doesn’t work.
In short, a good first try. I’ll keep checking this one. (And, note to Extensis: I’m a licensed X1 user. Thanks for the notice on Fusion. Hmph. Your loss — I’m staying with X1 until FE is fixed. Have a feeling it won’t be too long.)
• Entourage/Thunderbird
I’ll be out of the office tomorrow and Wednesday, and have a list of things that have to get done before I leave — so in the middle of this, Enter Rage does its final face plant. “Oh, no,” was all I could keep saying. Sheesh. Bad timing!
But, after much coaxing, more than a little head-scratching, and some trial and error, Enter Rage is history, the mail’s migrated, and Thunderbird is in-house:
Installation went fairly easily — once I found this thread explaining how, except that the dragged files are already .mbox files, thus eliminating a step. Not exactly an intuitive import process, but being able to rescue 77 thousand emails from what seemed like certain death was worth it.
Now that it’s installed and working, I like it a great deal. The “vertical” arrangement — three-column panel of folders, email list, and email content — is brilliant. (And just what I want in FontExplorer. Hello, Linotype?) Junk controls that actually work, inline spell-checking, a nice “look,” and, most importantly, open source. That means, like Firefox, my browser of choice, the program is managed by people who care instead of companies that profit. Nice.
Using iCal to replace some of the calendaring functions that went away with Entourage, but the task management there isn’t great. Looking for a few tasks program with a robust notification system, if anyone can suggest such a beast.…
Posted by Giles, Monday, March 27, 2006, at 11:57 AM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Site news
The Vagina Monologues
Poster for two performances of this amazing play:
I’m glad to have been able to use a model (it’s an original photo) that isn’t a supermodel, because it just feels more appropriate for the material. The jeans and black shirt are the “costume” for the play; the purple is from the folders the actors will be holding. I’ll be up front and say that I would have gone for something a little more racy (unbuttoned jeans, for instance), but erred on the side of conservative — Mercer is a Baptist school.
Major kudos to the director, student Calvin McCullar, for making it happen on campus in the first place. (For the second year in a row.) Happy to donate a few hours to this one, even at the last minute.
Heads off to press in the morning. Any suggestions before it does?
Apologies, once again, for the lag in posting. Been mired in what’s become an all-consuming project. Realized I had to break that into pieces and will keep working on; the above was a “break.” More posts tomorrow and over the weekend, however, in celebreation of Foreword’s third birthday.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 15, 2006, at 12:05 PM.
Posted to Art | Design | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Photography | Type and typography | Whatever
The Search's Copyright: A Good Discussion
Tom Evslin, author of hackoff.com, mentioned not too long ago, has a good conversation with John Battelle, author of The Search — which is about Google et al — regarding the copyright warning in his book:
This warning seems directly aimed at Google Book Search, a project which intends to scan the collections of some of the world’s great libraries and make them searchable online. Now you can find similar language on the copyright page of lots of books but John Battelle is a known strong supporter of the value of having almost everything searchable as anyone who reads either his book or his blog knows.
So I emailed John and asked him about the apparent contradiction. He said the decision was the publisher’s (Penguin) decision to make but “I totally disagree with it.” Of course, at the time he signed his contract with Penguin, no one knew that this issue would exist. He readily agreed to talk to me it.
Tom also notes that hackoff.com has been selected for the short-list of titles being considered in the fiction category for the Lulu Blooker Prize. Congrats.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 9, 2006, at 1:18 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book people | Book prizes | Books | Business | Computers | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Public domain | Publishing | Technology
"Creative Nonfiction"
Had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday about creative nonfiction, a category of literature I didn’t even know about. We were discussing it because of this:
The person I was speaking with specifially mentioned that Oprah had stood behind it, but I noticed in this morning’s NYTimes that she “rebuked” the author and kicked him out of the book club. Heh.
And the cover? Well, let’s say I didn’t need the Times to tell me someone needed a rebuke…! “The sticker’s an improvement,” I can hear someone saying. Newsflash: not for long.
A customer on Amazon left an image of this title as an alternate — and I like the cover:
It asks more questions. (A million more? Sorry. Had to go there.) Not perfect, certainly, but gets you thinking about what’s inside — an excellent measure of “success” in my book.
We have this second cover to think about because someone left a comment on Amazon. Been a good trend here recently, too. Thanks.
Posted by Giles, Friday, January 27, 2006, at 10:40 AM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Book prizes | Books | Books, design, art | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Writing
"Designers are in an explosive mood."
“Product designers are showing their angst,” the headline says, backed up by “Protests against war and politics are showing up in graphic arts and design.”
More:
Murray Moss, a New York retailer who serves on the board of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, says there hasn’t been a period of such fertile creativity since pre-World War I Vienna. That’s when radical expressionist artists shattered established notions of beauty and designers revolutionized their field, too.
Interesting, if perhaps a wee bit hyped. Read on at the Miami Herald.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, January 24, 2006, at 1:45 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Art | Book design | Books, design, art | Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Whatever
Follow-Ups
Trying to break the (bad) habit of posting at four in the morning. Wish me luck…;)
If you haven’t alredy, read yesterday’s entry first. Thanks.
1. The poster went down in flames today. One word: “groupthink.” Monica defended it well, I understand, but that’s the way it goes. They’re going to pick another photo and we’ll try again. (Will save the details for another time, heheh.)
2. Managed to get through the missive last night without mentioning Google. Foreword is the #1 response to a search for book design, with or without quotes. Ahead of Amazon! That’s seriously cool.
That’s also exactly why I’d love to spur more conversation. The description on Google, a community in the service of books and book design, is exactly the purpose. Yes, it’s about me. But it’s also about Todd, Chip, Joseph, J., Amanda, and so many others, past, present, and future. Us. A diverse “community,” in the best sense of the word.
3. I don’t feel the “arrogant American” thing was worded well. I absolutely do not care where you physically work from, what language you grew up speaking, what color you are, or how you live your life. I do care about the quality of your work a great deal, however. And I want to help make it better. Because I learn — we all learn — as part of that process.
No matter who you are or where you’re from, if you’re here, it’s for the same reason I am: to have a greater knowledge and understanding of book design.
When I said “quest for expertise,” I meant “collective quest.” By posting a comment that brings an idea to the table, we all benefit. Good design ideas can, thankfully, transcend cultures — someone, somewhere, will look at that idea, and it will lead to another.
For freelancers in a trade such as book design, the internet is the great equalizer. It no longer matters where you live, only that you know what you’re doing. But that doesn’t remove culture.
Foreword is American-centric because the posters and active commenters are mostly American. I’d love to broaden that — we’d all benefit. Bring something to the table, though. Don’t just ask how to do it. Get involved in how to do it. That’s why we’re all here. Let’s share those ideas.
4. Speaking of sharing, I welcome feedback and ideas for improving how this site actually functions. The redesign includes some improvement in code related to comment moderation and posting, but will mostly be a visual thing. I’m currently going around (and around) regarding “quickie” posts; whether I’d do enough “Hey, this is cool…” posts to justify a third column and the CSS tricks necessary to do that properly. Probably not. Site loading speed’s a consideration, too. Simple code with striking visuals (well, and good posts…;) works best for me.
Now is the best time to talk about it. What would you like to see next? Leave a comment.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 19, 2006, at 10:46 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Books, design, art | Business | Design | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Photography | Publishing | Site news | Whatever | Writing
Typography I Like Tonight
From the always-interesting Dave Gorman:
It only took three trips over two nights to get a complete alphabet of these. They’re by a graffiti artist called Eine apparently.
Hats off to Dave, the commenters who helped him score the whole set, and especially Eine. Nicely done.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, January 11, 2006, at 9:14 PM.
Posted to Art | Ethics | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Photography | Public domain | Type and typography | Whatever
Sometimes Not
Was in B&N yesterday, purposely trying to get myself back into thinking about design and photography in my spare time — trying to put the difficult past few weeks behind me.
Perhaps it’s my still-snarly state of mind, but I didn’t see any titles in their new releases section that I liked; wandered the aisles for a while, perused a magazine or two (why is it British car mags have such better design than ours?), and eventually wound up flipping through this:
I’m sorry that the first book design post in a while is a negative one, but this is horrible. While it’s not a bad picture of President Carter, looking serious and concerned (though the mixed plaids are annoying), the use of type has serious shortcomings. Oh, to have time to host a redesign competition…!
Posted by Giles, Monday, December 12, 2005, at 8:03 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book sellers | Freedoms and rights | Personal
Cover I Like Today
Science, politicized!?
Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration.
In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker’s agenda; or, when they’re too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues—stem cell research, climate change, abstinence education, mercury pollution, and many others—the Bush administration’s positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus.
In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government’s increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.
Heheh. Nice elephant.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, November 8, 2005, at 9:40 AM.
Posted to Book design | Freedoms and rights
On Google Print and the Suits
I got an email this morning from a kottke.org reader, Meghann Marco. She’s an author and struggling to get her book out into the hands of people who might be interested in reading it. To that end, she asked her publisher, Simon & Schuster, to put her book up on Google Print so it could be found, and they refused. Now they’re suing Google over Google Print, claiming copyright infringement. Meghann is not too happy with this development[…].
Interesting perspective on this situation. Check it out when you have a moment.
Posted by Giles, Monday, October 24, 2005, at 10:06 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
I Do Not Consent to Being Searched
Via Village Voice
In a few outraged moments, local immigrant rights activist Tony Lu designed t-shirts bearing the text, “i do not consent to being searched.” The minimalist protest-wear can be purchased here, in various styles and sizes. (Lu will not get a cut. The shirts’ manufacture, sale, and shipment, will be handled by the online retailer. Lu encourages budget-conscious New Yorkers to make their own and wear them everywhere.)
I sooooo want Giles to wear one of these when he’s in New York next month.
Also: A look at the I do not consent to being searched movement.
Posted by , Friday, July 22, 2005, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
Who Owns Your Portfolio?
[T]he very thing that makes an online portfolio so useful – the ease with which it can be found – is also its biggest drawback, because if you include content which one of your former clients or employers thinks is infringing their copyright, they can quickly and easily find you and take action.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 21, 2005, at 1:21 PM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
This is sooo last week but
Do you remember AKMA’s post last year in regards a security guard’s accusation of the priest/blogger stealing WiFi from his local public library?
Well, it’s happened. A man has actually been charged with stealing a WiFi signal in St. Petersburg, FL.
A /. reader says:
It’s not like walking into somebody’s house, it’s more like opening your bedroom window so you can listen to your neighbor’s XM radio. You’re not paying for that XM… you’re stealing by listening to it without your neighbor knowing. Sure, you can’t change the channel just like you can’t reconfigure their router settings, but you ARE leeching.… whatever. It’s absurd. It’s asinine. It’s not stealing if people are offering it, let alone broadcasting it out with an SSID beacon, and it shouldnt’ be illegal if Apple and Microsoft are setting us up for these “illegal” activities by making their OS auto-connect to open networks. Am I the only one who’s found himself accidentally using his neighbors signal instead of his own?
Also, Wikipedia on wardriving.
Posted by , Monday, July 11, 2005, at 4:11 PM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
RFID?
I just found this via Josh Sowin’s blog. At first I thought that it was a left-over April Fool’s day prank. It’s not.
In a misguided attempt to make US passports more secure, the US Department of State plans to put radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in all new passports. This RFID chip will contain the same information currently on our passports, including the passport holder’s name, date and place of birth, passport number and photograph.
Incredible.
Posted by , Wednesday, April 6, 2005, at 9:11 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
Bookmarkable
The Digital Rights Management Blog.
via BoingBoing
Posted by , Wednesday, March 23, 2005, at 8:54 PM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
Niall Kennedy Falls for the Corporate Lie
Niall Kennedy works for Technorati. Niall blogged this past weekend on his own personal blog. Here’s what he writes:
Last Friday night I posted a modified poster originally created by Albert Dome in 1942 for the U.S. government’s Office of Facts and Figures. The struggle of corporations to come to terms with a printing press at the fingertips of every employee is very interesting to me and as a history enthusiast I decided to express these curiosities through visual imagery from another era, an era of fear that the consequences of any action might be more than any individual would like to bear.
What happened next? Niall was censored by Technorati and then had a change of heart. He explains:
The past day has been a huge wake-up call. I see now that the voice of a company is not limited to top level executives, vice-presidents, and public relations officers. It is a huge responsibility on the individual and a bit difficult to fully comprehend until you have seen the effects of an economy of conversations. I need to be more aware of my actions as they are perceived as the actions of Technorati.
I’m really curious to see the image Niall created. I’m sure that a link will surface soon. From what I find at Niall’s site and through Jason Kottke, I can’t for the life of me figure out what Niall’s great sin was.
Posted by , Tuesday, March 8, 2005, at 7:15 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
This is excellent news!
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision today that will stop entertainment corporations from gaining access to the names of people using peer-to-peer (P2P) networks unless the companies file lawsuits against them and furnish actual evidence of copyright infringement.
The case was sparked by a series of subpoenas sent by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to Missouri-based Internet service provider (ISP) Charter Communications, Inc. The record companies claimed that these subpoenas, which demanded that Charter identify customers accused of offering infringing music on P2P networks, were authorized by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with 21 other groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), filed a “friend of the court” brief in the Charter case, urging the Eighth Circuit to determine that the same strong protections applied to anonymous speech in other contexts also apply when copyright infringement is claimed but has not yet been proven. In a victory for privacy and anonymity, the Eighth Circuit determined that DMCA subpoenas could not be used to get this information.
More here from the EFF. Via BoingBoing
Posted by , Wednesday, January 5, 2005, at 10:25 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
Fighting the MPAA
Loki Torrent is getting ready to fight the MPAA and needs a few dollars to start.
via BoingBoing
Posted by , Thursday, December 30, 2004, at 8:30 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
RIP Suprnova.org
File sharing takes another hit. via The Register
SuprNova.org, the most popular BitTorrent file-sharing site, is to stop hosting torrent links.
In a message posted on its website, the site operators say it “is closing down for good in the way that we all know it. We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links. We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything.”
SuprNova’s IRC channel and forums will remain open.
Continue reading "RIP Suprnova.org"SuprNova’s demise as a BitTorrent clearing house coincides with increasing legal pressure in America and Europe against P2P-enabled piracy. In the last week the Movie Picture Ass. of America signalled its intention to pursue the P2P server operators in a new front in its war internet movie pirates. Also, a popular BitTorrent site in Finland was raided by police, and an eDonkey site in the Netherlands was raided and shut down.
Posted by , Monday, December 20, 2004, at 3:33 PM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
Publishing Rules Changed
A few days ago, I mentioned the problems with publishing works from so-called bad countries. Things have changed, however:
In September 2004, publishers’ and authors’ organizations filed suit in federal court to strike down regulations of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control that effectively bar U.S. publishers from publishing books and journal articles originating in countries such as Iran, Cuba and Sudan that are subject to U.S. trade embargoes. Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian author and human rights activist, filed a related suit in late October. In response to the suits, OFAC issued new regulations today which explicitly permit Americans to engage in “all transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to the publishing and marketing of manuscripts, books, journals, and newspapers in paper or electronic format.” This includes substantive editing and marketing of written materials, collaborations between authors, and the payment of advances and royalties.
The revised regulations are “clearly a step in the right direction, permitting the broad range of publishing activities American publishers and authors must be free to pursue,” according to Edward J. Davis and Linda Steinman of Davis Wright Tremaine, counsel to the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), the Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division (AAP/PSP), PEN American Center (PEN), and Arcade Publishing, the plaintiffs in the case. “We will continue to examine the regulations in detail, but it is plain that significant obstacles have been removed for American publishers and authors who want to work with authors in Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Works of critical importance to the advancement of science and our understanding of international affairs can now be published without threat of civil and criminal sanctions. Even works written by Iranian and Cuban dissidents could not be published in the United States under the prior regulations.”
Read the new regulations here. Thanks to No More Mister Nice Blog for the heads up.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, December 19, 2004, at 9:58 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
U.S. Gov't Censoring Foreign Works
In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval.
The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States. […]
Violations carry severe reprisals publishing houses can be fined $1 million and individual violators face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Seattle Times has more, including a great reference to Doctor Zhivago. Just another example of our government working for us. Not.
Posted by Giles, Friday, December 10, 2004, at 9:47 PM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
Quote of the Day
in regards to the US Patriot Act.
The United States has long been a beacon of freedom because our laws have been more protective of privacy and civil liberties than others. [snip] Thanks to excessiveness in some provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the United States is reversing its global orientation from a beacon of freedom to the paragon of a surveillance society.
More here from Jim Harper at the Cato Institute.
Quote lifted from cool Jessamyn at Librarian.net.
Posted by , Thursday, November 18, 2004, at 7:38 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
What he said - uh, drew
Oh, and Katherine Harris was reelected, too — a decision that makes reelecting Bush look smart. C’mon, people, get your heads out of the sand.
A longer political post when I’ve caught up with the to do list. But I will say this: I’m proud to be a liberal. I’m proud to stand with people who know that Bush lies, that Bush is a hypocrite, that Bush is bad for our country. It’s going to take another four years. But we will — we must — take our country back from the people currently intent on destroying it. And I’m not talking about Osama Bin Laden.
P.S. If you haven’t already, check out Joe’s post on Covering the Election. Excellent!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, November 4, 2004, at 11:58 AM.
Posted to Freedoms and rights
The Day After
Down to the wire on the election — but so many doubts. Fraud seems likely in both Ohio and Florida; exit polls showed a Kerry victory in Florida until the middle of the night, when they were mysteriously changed — and Ohio is shaping up to be the “new Florida,” with results not coming in for at least ten days.
Put another way: in areas with paper-trail voting, the exit polls reflected results accurately. In areas without, Bush did an average of 5% better than the exit polls said he should have. Would you trust those results? Why?
For Bush, Rove’s strategy is evident: Claim victory and scorn anyone who challenges it. Rove has a long history with that type of plan — but Kerry’s not conceding.
Nor should he. Some hot lights on the processes in Florida and especially Ohio would be good right about now.
Update Kerry gives up. He’s scheduled a speech for 1pm in Boston. I thought he had more spine than that. Perhaps some — indeed, most — of my “faith” was misplaced.