Colette Vogele's blog

Shloss hearing

I attended the motion to dismiss hearing in the Shloss v. Estate of Joyce case on Wednesday morning. Here a photo of Professor Shloss and two people from the legal team, David Olson (CIS Fellow) and Tony Falzone (Exec. Dir. of the Fair Use Project). (A couple more photos are available in my flickr set.) Read more about Shloss hearing

Take the Podcast Survey and pass it along to your community

I was contacted by researchers from the International University Bremen in Germany about a podcast study they are conducting (yes, the survey is in English!) . Please read on and take a few minutes to participate in the survey, post the below announcement it to your own blog, and circulate it in your podcasting groups and communities. With strong participation, the survey is likely to yield some interesting data.

International Podcastersurvey

Media Scientists from International University Bremen (Germany) are currently conducting an international survey among active and formerly active podcasters. The aims of this study are a) to describe and compare the community of podcasters on an international level, b) to better understand podcasting from the sender's perspective (motivations, aims, aesthetical beliefs) and c) to validate some hypotheses about computer mediated communication. Active and formerly active podcasters are kindly asked to support the study by participating themselves and promoting the survey among other podcasters all over the world. The survey is available in English and German. Completing the survey takes between 15 and 20 minutes. All participants will receive a report about the results, if interested.

http://podcastersurvey.com

For questions or comments, please contact:
Dennis Mocigemba
d.mocigemba@iu-bremen.de

Read more about Take the Podcast Survey and pass it along to your community

Pam Samuelson is going to fix the Copyright Act

I attended a really fun reception last night at the fancy Hotel Vitale in San Francisco hosted by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center. One of the co-hosts was Pam Samuelson, that amazing law and technology professor at UC Berkeley whose work and writings are extremely important in the field of IP and internet rights.

During the reception, Pam was asked to tell us about the most exciting thing she's working on these days. Her answer explained that she'll be heading over to be a visiting professor at Harvard next year (which makes me a tiny bit sad because it means she won't be so close to us here in the Bay Area and I have this little irrational fear she may not come back - gasp!), and that her big project for the next 5 years is to fix the copyright act. Yes, that's right, Pam Samuelson's going to take on the the 200-plus page behemoth, which is filled with special interest carve outs, archane and sometimes seriously confusing language, and -- not unlike the tax code -- is simply unwieldy for something that so greatly impacts our rights to share knowledge, build culture, create beautiful art and astounding new technologies, and (simply) speak freely.

I think her project simultaneous fantastic and so needed on the one hand, and somewhat impossible on the other! And for that, I love that she's taking it on. We should give our support to Pam and this project, and pay close attention to how the parties who stand to gain/lose from changes get involved. Many voices in the debate will, I hope, lead to great results and powerful changes in our copyright laws. Read more about Pam Samuelson is going to fix the Copyright Act

Five Things About Me

I've been blog tagged by Denise, and I will hereby continue the game. I'm trying not to think of it as a chain letter, because normally I wouldn't further it. But the reason this is not a chain letter (at least in my mind) is that it does not include one of those ominous threats at the end, like "5 bad things will happen to you in the next year if you fail to forward this to at least your 100 closest friends."

So, the way this works is that if you're tagged, you're supposed to list 5 things about yourself that you think most people will not know. Here are my 5 things:

1. I have a tattoo of a turtle on my left ankle, which is there to remind me to be patient.
2. I'm a dual citizen with Switzerland and the US being my homelands. I'm not very neutral or good at yodeling, though I can cook up a pretty tasty fondue and rarely turn down chocolate.
3. I thought seriously about leaving my law practice a few years ago and starting a wine & travel business. I'm very happy with my decision to keep practicing law.
4. Before my tattoo (see #1) was a turtle, it was a smaller tattoo of sorority letters. An unimaginative choice I regretted ever since I "deactivated" from the sorority.
5. Eating raw carrots almost always gives me the hiccups.

I've tagged 5 other people: 3 CIS-ers, and two of my other favorite bloggers. So let's see who among them will continue this blogging game... Elizabeth Townsend Gard, Dave Levine, Joe Gratz, Dinah Sanders, and Colin Rule Read more about Five Things About Me

Copyright Office upcoming dates

The Copyright Office periodically sends out a summary of notices and upcoming dates and deadlines from its News Net service. News Net Issue 304, which I received today, made me pause. It's chalk full of upcoming roundtables and opportunities to comment and take an active role on policy matters. These issues cover the span of international questions about broadcasting rights to looking at exceptions to copyright for libraries and archives. Here's the complete rundown of what's on tap for early 2007 (click on the "read more" link): Read more about Copyright Office upcoming dates

Future of Music

The Future of Music Coalition holds a policy summit each year. Last October the summit was convened in Montreal, Canada, in conjunction with Pop Montreal and McGill University's Schulich School of Music. If you were like me, and couldn't attend this year's summit, never fear: the FMC has fully archived the conference and you can listen to podcasts and webcasts of the various speakers, panels and discussions. This is bound to be a great resource for those interested being part of the "forum for musicians, lawyers, academics, policymakers and music industry executives to come together to discuss and debate some of the most contentious issues surrounding digital technology, artists’ rights and the current state of the music industry." Great job FMC, and thank you for the excellent archive. Read more about Future of Music

Grokster, Japan Style

Just received a link to this article which reports on the outcome of the Japanese version of our Grokster case, only this case is in the criminal context (rather than civil). The Kyoto District Court convicted Isamu Kaneko, a former teaching assistant from the University of Tokyo and the creator of "Winny" a pear-to-peer file sharing program, of inducing others to infringe copyright. He's been fined nearly $13,000, and now holds the unique place in history of being "the first software developer to be held responsible for the unlawful activities of others." The article reports Kaneko's statement:

"I regret, more than anything else, that the verdict could cause Japanese software engineers to fear accusations of possibly assisting (in criminal activities) and prevent them from developing useful technologies," Kaneko said in a statement.

The article further states:

Based on Kaneko's statements during the investigation and those posted on his Web site, the court acknowledged that he did not actively encourage copyright infringements over the Internet.

But the court ruled that the defendant promoted his program among general users, and that he took no action to prevent copyright violations.

The ruling also pointed out that Kaneko enabled an unspecified number of users to use the Winny program knowing full well that many of the files exchanged were under copyright.

For those reasons, the court said Kaneko's actions helped Winny users conduct illegal activities.

I share Kaneko's concern that widespread prosecution of "inducement" claims in copyright could harm innovation and development of important new technologies. Kaneko is appealing the verdict. Read more about Grokster, Japan Style

Participatory culture report

The Rise of Participation Culture reports and summarizes a number of trends and explains "why the Internet and a new wave of Web applications have been embraced by a tech-savvy generation and spawned a culture of participation". Steve Borsch does a thoughtful job of reviewing (albeit at a high level) a number of aspects of the new web (or Web 2.0, the LiveWeb, NextGenWeb, or whatever else we want to call it) in three broad categories: Internet as Platform, Participation Applications and People. (Also available from Borsch's blog, Connecting the Dots.) This report hits all the highlights and is worth a read if you're looking for the big picture... you know, that proverbial forest through the trees. Read more about Participatory culture report

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