:: cykopath :: ramblings :: » Seriousness

Copyright Buttholes

xian — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:35:55 +0000

Not long ago someone noticed Deutsche Telekom AG, parent company of T-Mobile, claimed it owned the patent on the color magenta in the trademark statement on its website. Other, more heavily trafficked sites picked up on the story, and Engadget (one of my daily reads) went so far as to speak to a copyright attorney about average folks’ rights with respect to this rubbish.

Two days ago, DT sent Engadget Mobile a cease & desist letter regarding the use of magenta in the logo for their sister site, Engadget Mobile. Yesterday Engadget’s editor, Ryan Block, announced a tweaked Engadget Mobile logo and a sort of magenta-wash campaign to protest this obvious abuse of copyright law (it’s obvious when you read the link at the beginning of this paragraph – lays out why this isn’t copyright infringement).

I understand that companies are required to protect their trademarks, copyrights, patents & trade secrets – if they didn’t, such protections would carry no weight. From a legal standpoint, (And obviously my many years in the legal profession, right? Right?) I see where they’re coming from. From a realistic perspective, maybe claiming to own magenta was kind of dumb in the first place. Perhaps if DT invented a color, but magenta is a pretty widely used color. It’s a base color for the CMYK color model (Hello? M == Magenta). While I am a T-Mobile subscriber, I’m not a big fan of magenta on its own, but Ryan’s actually taken to time to comment on this site before. Being the comment-/attention-whore that I am, I feel kind of obligated to give his cause some love. Plus, I agree with him.* So, grab your Che t-shirt & beret, link to the image above, spread the word, fight the power, down w/ the man and all that – you know the rhetoric!

* Block has said many times that this is not an April Fool’s joke. If it is color me, and most of the ‘tubes, gotten. Well played, sir(s).

Anthropology can be very cool…

xian — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:41:57 +0000

… Really, it can. I’m serious!

In college, it took me awhile to realize that I enjoyed anthropology and sociology. Once I figured it out, I was about to graduate, so I never really pursued either. Like many things, these two disciplines have in a way changed the way I look at the world around me. Today, I got an email from a friend linking to this YouTube video – one of the very very few that isn’t in danger is disappearing due to copyright restrictions. Besides being well-done and pretty cool, it does a good job explaining what it is about anthropology and sociology that fascinates me:

Fight the power, down with The Man

xian — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:11:06 +0000

As a simple search of this site will tell you, I hate the RIAA with a passion. I am not alone, either. Recently, Gizmodo published its Anti-RIAA Manifesto to kick off their efforts to boycott the RIAA in March. Admirable plans, guys. I couldn’t agree more with your position.

One commenter on that last link offers up a good point while illustrating one of the huge flaws in the RIAA’s case against consumers. He says they will simply blame piracy for low sales numbers and use it to get more help in Congress. Quite possible, but even the f-cakes in DC eventually hear what the people are saying.

As an aside, the cartoon Foxtrot recently got on the anit-RIAA bandwagon.

Say it like Twisted Sister….

xian — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 11:53:31 +0000

On Friday, July 23, call the RIAA and tell them you’re not gonna take it anymore. Before you do that, head over to Defective By Design and sign up so they can email you a phone number to call. The idea is to swamp RIAA executives with calls protesting digital rights management, or DRM. The RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America. They would have you believe they protect artists’ copyrights when in reality, they are basically the political action committee (PAC) of the major record labels. In the past number of years, they have been pushing technology on consumers called digital rights management (DRM) that effectively controls how, when and where you can play music you purchase legally. We’re not just talking songs you buy from iTunes or Napster, we’re also talking about CDs. The DRM notice on Coldplay’s X&Y states that the CD won’t play on some PCs, all Macs, some car stereos and some DVD players. What’s the point of paying the inflated asking price for a CD if you don’t even know it will play on your equipment!? Not that you would know about this by looking at the unopened CD – you have to open it up to find this out. The best thing about all this is Coldplay wrote "Make trade fair" in encoded characters in the liner notes! Coldplay’s nothing – Sony Music recently agreed to a settlement over DRM they included on their CDs that compromised the security of your PC by silently installing an application called a rootkit.

So, DefectiveByDesign.org is offering up an easy way to hassle the RIAA and voice an opinion that would otherwise go unheard. It’s not illegal, and it will probably be pretty fun. In fact, if I knew some people doing this, we could exchange numbers and make more than one call. Whether you tell the RIAA you wanna rock is entirely up to you, though.

DefectiveByDesign.org’s email explaining the event after the jump.

technorati tags: RIAA, defectivebydesign.org, DRM, copyright, protest

In the last 3 weeks nearly 3000 people have signed up at DefectiveByDesign.org to take action. We have gotten emails from all over the world; people want to step up, take action and proclaim their support of digital freedoms by opposing DRM.

On Friday, June 23rd, we will coordinate a day of action, and this time it doesn’t involve yellow hazmat suits. You don’t even have to leave your desk. We will provide contact numbers for executives at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and similar organizations around the world. We’re asking you to proclaim your support for digital freedoms by calling the RIAA and telling them what you think of DRM and what you think of them!

Spread the word about this call-in by asking your friends to register today! When you log in on Friday we’ll give you a special number to call. After you’ve made your call, you can let us know how it went.

Remember, tell your friends about this action, the more people that take part, the more fun this will be. With just 480 calls at one minute each, we can let the industry hear our voices all through the workday. The RIAA pushes DRM on us; it’s time to push back!

In Solidarity,

Gregory, Peter, Henri and the rest of the DRM Elimination Crew

More information about the RIAA:
The Recording Industry Association of America represents the major recording labels, and their influence plays a leading role in pushing DRM into our technology.

More information about DRM:
Big Media would have you believe that DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. However, since its purpose is to restrict you the user, it is more accurate to describe DRM as Digital Restrictions Management. DRM Technology can restricts users’ access to movies, music, literature and software, indeed all forms of digital data. Unfree software implementing DRM technology is simply a prison in which users can be put to deprive them of the rights that the law would otherwise allow them.

In case you wondered…

xian — Sat, 27 May 2006 04:54:07 +0000

… why the NSA’s domestic spying program is a bad idea, check this out:

Opinion: Why NSA spying puts the U.S. in danger

It’s an article by a former NSA analyst outlining how the program is bad for the U.S. both in terms of constitutional rights and federal law enforcement. I’m not going to get into what I think of this program or the fact that the guy who ran it was recently promoted because that would be way more than the two of you would read. Plus it’s late, and I have a long day tomorrow.

I will say that I have a problem with one thing he says:

"Addressing the first point, people who did nothing wrong have been investigated and jailed in this country and others over the years. Additionally, I believe that Saddam Hussein would cheerfully agree with the tired allegation that if you did nothing wrong, you shouldn’’t mind the government looking at your calls. I think Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and the Chinese government would also agree with that line of thought. Is this the company we consent to keep in the name of safety?"

I think just about any person in any position of power would agree with the sentiment as well. This is a pretty weak argument in what I think is an otherwise solid op-ed article. The problem with the "I have nothing to hide" argument is that in this country it doesn’t matter if you have nothing to hide. The Bill of Rights protects you from having to hide anything by requiring just cause for investigations and invasions of privacy. Aside from the fact that so many Americans seem to be okay with it, that’s what’s so scary about this wiretapping program: there is no check on the agency carrying it out.

technorati tags: NSA, wiretapping, Ira Winkler