infosoc's Feed

Light Reading Europe - Video - IPTV to Grab Euro Pay TV Share - Telecom News Analysis

infosoc — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:12:00 -0400

Tagged by infosoc under IPTV, Europe,

AT&T speaks on tethering, iPhone 3G S preorders, upgrades - Ars Technica

infosoc — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:27:00 -0400

It occurs to me that attaching a WiFi router to a DSL and share the access could be argued to fall within the bound of network freedom. So is tethering. Tagged by infosoc under tethering, AT&T,

Bell Canada doesn't want to share next-gen fiber network - Ars Technica

infosoc — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:58:00 -0400

Tagged by infosoc under Canada, unbundling,

A Tale Of Two Studies On File Sharing... | Techdirt

infosoc — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:18:00 -0500

Tagged by infosoc under file sharing, copyright, RIAA, war on terror,

Facebook’s “In-House Sociologist” Shares Stats on Users’ Social Behavior

infosoc — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:10:00 -0500

Tagged by infosoc under Facebook, social network,

Slashdot | Will the FTC Target EULAs Next?

infosoc — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:09:00 -0500

The idea of standardizing EULA has crossed my mind more than once. It is an approach taken by Creative Commmons to simplify the diversity of free licenses. It has a definite benefit. But then, allowing nothing but pre-defined set of EULA provisions (bullet points!) is extreme and not practical at all in my opinion. Innovative companies are in the worst position because traditional EULA bullet points are least likely to cover the kind of novel relationship some of them have with their customers and other partners. Instead, there could be a CC+ like approach here. Some parties feel comfortable enough to stay within the combination of widely shared terms of EULA. They can present a "stamp of approval" for having user-friendly EULA (okay, that is admittedly oximoron..) Others add its own provision or amend some provisions taken from the pre-defined pool.

This, in wild guess, might save some trouble by making the agreements clearer to the both parties. That means there will be less of the OMG-what-is-this-horrible-EULA debackle falling onto companies, and users are slightly more likely to be aware of what their relations are with the service providers.

I think it is kind of crazy that people do not read EULA much at all, and it is also kind of crazy that if you read all the EULA's and privacy policies, billions of dollars would be lost for the lost productivity. But in this networked society, people have more relations with other people, including near total strangers. So it is kind of inevitable that contractual relations explode.

That is what I think, but somewhere in my mind, I still wonder if we could somehow just all get rid of EULA altogether...

EULA would also increase its complexity and lengh, in my opinion, when there is less trust among people. EULA is a good tool when you cannot trust others share the same principle and more or less act in a civil manner. In a commons, in other words, there might be less need for EULA. Tagged by infosoc under FTC, EULA,

著作権問題は？　放送禁止用語は？　ニコニコ動画とテレビ局が探る連携の道 (1/2) - ITmedia News

infosoc — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:13:00 -0500

Here are some real examples of barriers to convergence. Some say that contract can solve most of the stuff (except for the stuff created in the past without rights clearance in mind). But a comprehensive compulsory licensing scheme or something akin to that would help solve these people to move video contents more swiftly between television and the video sharing site.

And then, there is an example of creating /maintaining the technology non-neutral indecency regulation is giving them a little extra burden of moving the video from the Internet to television, due to profanity and indecency that are potentially contained in the user-posted comments. If this type of TV - Internet collaboration remains an exception, and people would still want a somewhat sanitized television as a mass medium, I suppose the burden could be considered a not-so-high price to pay. But if, as indicated by the interviewees, the TV and the Internet need to collaborate in order to survive, well, the government might need to rethink where best to draw a line between the public interest on decency and the innovative use of the Internet for interesting TV contents. Tagged by infosoc under nicovideo, television, convergence, copyright, music industry, censorship, indecency, Japan,

BitTorrent Researcher: Copyright Will Be Obsolete by 2010 « NewTeeVee

infosoc — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:03:00 -0500

After reading this entry, I was not quite sure if the paper was onto somthing except that the darkness might change the landscape.. Is it suggesting that people are becoming more sharing? Tagged by infosoc under copyright, network neutrality, study, statistics, file sharing, YouTube,

RIAA drops lawsuits; ISPs to battle file sharing | Digital Media - CNET News

infosoc — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:02:00 -0500

Interesting.. I came to view this move as a short cutting the DMCA take-down procedure by intervening into the downloaders' side of the action. DMCA was a process to deal with the uploaders' side. Now, is this a welcome move based on some innovations (technological and procedural), or should the government and law be governing the process? Tagged by infosoc under copyright infringement, ISP, RIAA, file sharing,

The Rise And Fall Of The Music Industry : NPR Music

infosoc — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:56:00 -0500

Good overview of the turbulent recent history of music industry. DAT, Home Recording Act, CD, CD burner, Napster and file sharing, litigation campaigns, iTunes-iPod, and future. Artists' prospects are also discussed.

The host occasionally sounds a bit awkward speaking some of the somewhat technological (not that much technological) issues like DRM.

The author sometimes speaks a bit nicer to the music industry than typical geek blogs do. He does not mention shady aspects of the litigation campaign. He emphasize the fault of Napster as well as the fault of the studios. This sounds like a good point. His characterization of rootkit was a bit strange to me, but I suppose it is not off the mark much.

He predicts that live concert is the way to earn living for artists, citing examples like Madonna. Online distribution is a marketing like singles on radio used to be to sell albums. Minor artists can get noticed via online venues including SNS.

A possible business model for the music studios is to gather bits of revenue sources here and there, and he thinks that it is too late for them to transform themselves. I am not so sure, but it is a possibility. I would not be surprised if there emerges one or two big source of revenue for them somewhere. He does not discuss much about legislative route to preserve the industry, and thinks that DRM is dead. Perhaps. Not that sure about this either, though. If music industry moves based on that recognition, that would send some ripples to other entertainment industries perhaps. Music, after all, is smaller in size, and consumed repeatedly and carried portably. In other words, the music industry need the DRM the most, benefit from the DRM the most, compared to news, TV, movie, books, magazines, and other industries, I think. Other content industries would be interested more in first-access control than copy control since the consumption tend to be one-time for a large portion of the consumers. Tagged by infosoc under music industry, business model,

Digg - This Is Why I Love Linux.

infosoc — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:08:00 -0500

Installation and GUI were said to be the biggest hurdles for wider Linux adoption. Now drivers? I think it is not about drivers. It is probably about branding and brand awareness. People would be worried about an OS that they have never heard of. Tagged by infosoc under free culture, open source, Linux, GPL, sharing,

エンドユーザーの見た著作権: B-CASをめぐる議論に望んでいたもの

infosoc — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:50:00 -0500

One thing that I come back often regarding B-CAS debate is the lack of participation of diverse stakeholders in the process - B-CAS was created by and implemented among a limited range of stakeholders. If it were an open standard, or at least more widely shared closed standard, the discussion would be much different. And now I see possible competition among DRM standards, or, quite possibly, dual use of overlapping DRMs. That might cause even an inconvenience for end-users and device manufacturers. I am not sure what could be a good option, though, at this point. I wonder what would have happened if Japanese Fair Trade Commission had intervened. What would they have recommended/ordered? Tagged by infosoc under DRM, television, content policy, private use, Japan, monetary compensation, competition,

RIAA win: Tennessee to police campus networks | Digital Media - CNET News

infosoc — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:47:00 -0500

What kind of network management is reasonable when it comes to use of file sharing via campus networks? It is a good question. Should students' use be bandwidth-capped, or tier-priced? Should universities be instituting congestion-management type solutions targeting only heavy users at congested time? If the do only these, RIAA sure is going to be unhappy. Tagged by infosoc under network, neutrality,

Yahoo Shares Plunge On Ballmer Comments -- InformationWeek

infosoc — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:53:00 -0500

The roller coaster ride for Yahoo! goes on.. Tagged by infosoc under Microsoft, Yahoo!, buyout, affair,

Nonprofit Distributes File Sharing Propaganda to 50,000 U.S. Students | Threat Level from Wired.com

infosoc — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:04:00 -0400

Tagged by infosoc under propaganda, music industry, file sharing,

Techdirt: MPAA Doubletalk On FCC Request To Block DVR Recordings

infosoc — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0400

Now, suppose that the camcording is not harmful but helpful. And suppose that the file sharing is not clearly harmful. These two assumptions are probably not that outrageous.

And now, suppose that MPAA is smart enough to be aware of these facts, or possibilities. What is the best strategy for MPAA? In my view, they would of course want to have more control over flow of contents, so that they can monetize it better. And in the meantime, camcording and file sharing would be used as the reasons for their need for tighter control.

There might even be an incentive for MPAA to let those "insiders" to leak movies for file sharing, because that will actually strengthen their claim that their business is damaged tremendously while it is not clear at all if there is actually a damage.

Is this too much speculation? Tagged by infosoc under MPAA, piracy, DRM, television, DVR,

Techdirt: On The Criminality Of WiFi Piggybacking...

infosoc — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:28:00 -0400

Tagged by infosoc under WiFi, sharing, openness,

FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 Analyst: Apple’s U.S. consumer market share now 21 percent «

infosoc — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:17:00 -0400

Tagged by infosoc under Apple, statistics,

Techdirt: Mainstream Press Finally Realizing That Kids Want To Share News, Not Read News

infosoc — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:19:00 -0400

Tagged by infosoc under newspaper, journalism, business model,

FriendFeed, The Centralized Me, and Data Portability

infosoc — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:05:00 -0400

The centralization of personal information has one obvious drawback - many people want to manage multiple identities. Some are just matter of sorting out what is relevant for certain group of people and what is irrelevant. You have a friend from college and you do not want to mix them with your colleagues, even if there is no secrecy involved. Other needs for multiple identities has to do with secrecy. There are some tastes, experiences, identities that I want to share with only a limited range of people, or share anonymously, etc.

For each of multiple identities, FriendFeed and the like are convenient. But FriendFeed alone is only half of the picture for our information sharing activities, I think. Tagged by infosoc under