Earth: Mostly Harmless

UK digital rights group sets up

Good show, chaps! It’s about time we had a European version of the EFF!

UK digital rights group sets up:

A UK-based organisation to preserve digital rights and freedoms has been set up thanks to pledges of money by those passionate about such rights. It says it wants to highlight European and UK legislation which could threaten the rights of digital citizens.

Still at early stages, the Open Rights Group (Org) will serve as a hub for other cyber-rights groups campaigning on similar digital rights issues.

Org emulates US’s Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) digital rights group. The EFF has campaigned against entertainment industry attempts to limit what people can do with digital media. It has also provided guidelines and legal advice to bloggers at work, and has helped shape e-voting policies.

Org aims to nurture a grassroots community of volunteers to campaign on digital rights issues, such as ID card proposals, biometric passports, data protection, “fair use” rights over digital content, and vehicle tracking technologies.

(Via BBC News | TECHNOLOGY.)

Valenti signs Betamax tape for fan at Grokster hearing

Nice work guys!

Valenti signs Betamax tape for fan at Grokster hearing: “Xeni Jardin:

Given that the datestamp is 4/1/2005, I’m guessing this may be a spoof. But. According to Copyfight: En route to the Supreme Court Grokster hearing, former MPAA chief Jack Valenti — who famously predicted in 1982 that the VCR would choke the life out of the movie biz — stops to sign a Betamax tape for EFFer Annalee Newitz.

‘I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.’

Link

Update: Cory sez, ‘This is no hoax. My cow-orker Seth Schoen (the guy who wrote the DeCSS haiku) scored a bunch of old Betamax tapes and gave one to Annalee, who cornered Valenti and asked him to sign the tape. Valenti apparently did not get the irony here — he’d gone to Congress in 1982 to get the Betamax banned as the certain death of the movie industry, but from Annalee’s look of unholy glee, it’s clear that she was nearly busting open at this juncture. The tape has been given to Fred von Lohmann, EFF’s Senior IP Attorney, the rockstar lawyer who successfully argued Grokster in the 9th Circuit.’

Update: Xeni sez, holy crap.

BB reader Luis Villa says, ‘I and probably a hundred others saw it the morning of the case. Stills of Cindy Cohn of EFF with the tape, including a fairly clear shot of the signature: One, Two.’

Nick Disabato adds, ‘I was in line a few places in front of it happening, and posted an image of his signing it from the back: Link, a few pics down, or here is the actual jpeg.’

EFF Policy Director James S. Tyre says, ‘It was an unauthorized TV recording of Woody Allen’s Sleeper. More snapshots, including ‘the signing,’ by EFFer Chris Palmer here.’”

(Via Boing Boing.)

MGM vs. Grokster: P2P on Trial

At a time when the future development of the Internet is on trial in the US Supreme Court in the MGM vs. Grokster and Streamcast Networks case, it is fascinating to hear the original arguments made in 1983 establishing the Betamax princple - that as long as a technology has ’substantial non-infringing uses’ then the manufacturer cannot be held liable for copyright infringements which may be committed by their users.

Spoken Word Principle Investigator Jerry Goldman’s excellent OYEZ Supreme Court audio archive site has an excellent quality MP3 of the original arguments made. I’m listening to it now, and it’s remarkable how close the 1983 case parallels the current one.

A straw poll of Google News sources suggests that Supreme Court justices were divided in their response to oral evidence from both sides, but that the substance of peer to peer technology should be safe. Let’s hope so.

There’s more info on the EFF site (the EFF are defending Grokster/StreamCast).