Proving yet again that our readers are much smarter than we are, here are some great riffs on “When elephants dance.”
Missing any? Let me know.
[Ed. note: Minor clarification changes have been made to this article since it was published in its original form. For complete details, see the revision history section at the bottom of the document.]
When elephants dance, it’s best to get out of the way. That’s exactly what’s happening now as the entertainment industry—the recording, publishing, and motion picture industries, mainly—attempts a worldwide intellectual property power grab with two distinct targets. Think of it: a coup and a lock on all published content in the same year, amazing isn’t it?
Target number 1 is the average customer: anyone who purchases software, an audio CD, an electronic book, or a movie on DVD. The entertainment industry sees customers as pirates, plain and simple. In their collective mind’s eye, we all have a wooden leg, eye patch, and a filthy talking parrot on our shoulder. While the Copyright Act of 1790, Title 17, Chapter 1 of the U.S. Code, and subsequent judicial rulings grant customers certain rights with regard to copyrighted material, the entertainment industry very much wants to separate us from those rights.
Target number 2 in the sights of the entertainment industry are technology behemoths like Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and Apple. These companies, in the perverse worldview of the entertainment industry, make the tools—computers mostly—that allow customers to practice their piracy.
Let me point out that I am a copyright owner, as is everyone else who has ever created a work in tangible form. That’s all authors, for short. Authors are almost never members of the entertainment industry club. The entertainment industry hates authors almost as much as they hate customers. Sometimes, especially when authors get uppity, the entertainment industry hates authors much more than customers. Until recently, authors have always been seen to be at least a marginal threat while customers were seen as merely necessary annoyances.
Yesterday, like the thief-in-the-night he is, installed president George Bush proposed dropping the privacy protections associated with medical records, saying that medical professionals should not have to obtain a patient’s consent before disclosing medical information for the purpose of treatment or getting paid.
The proposal was announced by secretary of health and human services, Tommy Thompson who cited that the current privacy rules could “impair access to quality health care.”
The health care industry was unanimously opposed to the privacy rules, originally instituted by President Clinton in late 2000. According to a New York Times article, pharmacists claimed they “could not fill prescriptions phoned in by a doctor for pick-up by a patient’s relative or neighbor.” Hospitals said “they could not schedule medical procedures until the patient had read a privacy notice and signed a consent form.”
I shouldn’t have to preface this by stating that I have a lot of respect for Dave Winer, but I will, just to make it clear. For what it’s worth, I think Winer and the rest of his team at UserLand are among the few innovative software developers around. But I am neither an apologist nor a shill.
When you blaze trails, you’re bound to get lost every once in a while.
That’s what I think happened with UserLand’s announcement yesterday that it was offering exclusive XML syndication of the New York Times to users of its Radio software product. They got lost. Or maybe waylaid.
Not because the New York Times is the epitome of mainstream media. It is, but that’s not the point. What bothers me about the agreement UserLand announced yesterday is the exclusivity of it. You shouldn’t be required to license Radio to be able to read the XML headlines of the paper.
You can bet the farm that if one of UserLand’s competitors entered into an exclusive deal with a major news source, Winer would be squealing about being locked in a trunk. And justifiably so.
C’mon Dave, open and free. No locks. No trunks. Remember?
Last night, legislation that would prohibit most telemarketers from calling numbers on a centralized list passed the Minesota House Ways and Means Committee. The proposed legislation now goes before the full House for a vote.
Companion legislation is currently working its way through the Minnesota Senate.
The bill calls for a US$1,000 fine for any telemarketer that calls any Minnesota resident who has enrolled on a state do-not-call list. Charities and politicians are exempt from the proposal as is any business communication where there is a pre-existing relationship. Additionally, the legislation would prohibit telemarketers from blocking caller ID devices or the display of false information on them.
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