In an attempt to at least partially un-clutter my desktop, a collection of semi-random outrages, videos, and linkage.
The MPAA wants to decide how and when you watch content, again. They not only want to kill your Slingbox, but now they’re talking about prohibiting HD DVR recording of some programs.
Not sure I agree with everything here, [...]

Russ Kick’s site has been re-launched, to fill all your FOIA and secret Government document needs.
Announcement.
The Memory Hole.
For newbs:
The Memory Hole exists to preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find, or is not widely known. This includes:
• Government files
• Corporate memos
• Court documents (incl. lawsuits and [...]

Ben Compaine, author of Who Owns the Media? has some interesting data from the Project for Excellence in Journalism on the shift in the WSJ editorial composition since it’s acquisition by News Corp.

Compaine also ran some numbers a few years back in Reason.

Media Defender, an “anti-piracy” business (or Content Cartel front) may be getting a richly deserved visit from the FBI over it’s practices, after attacking Revision3 with a Denial-of-Service attack.
Previous coverage of Media Defender shenanigans here and here.
What’s sickening is that if it was a bunch of pink-haired 16-year-olds doing this, they’d get a glorious perp-walk, [...]

YouTomb documents copyright takedowns on YouTube.
YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violation.
More specifically, YouTomb continually monitors the most popular videos on YouTube for copyright-related takedowns. Any information available in the metadata is retained, including who issued the complaint and how long the [...]

An excerpt. A little windy, but it’s pretty amazing somebody said this to a NAB audience.

WMG has decided to test the DMCA Safe-Harbor provisions once again by suing Seeqpod.
The safe harbor principle is the same one that prevents major search engines from being sued every time they link to illegal information or content (though it hasn’t prevented porn purveyor Perfect 10 from going after both Google and Microsoft over the [...]

Interactive: Singularity is “the first large-scale online web conference in the world,” from October 24-26th, 2008.
Flixwagon joins Qik as a live-video-blogging-service-via-cellphone.
Film, video, and music: Made in America. Stacy Peralta documents LA gang culture.
Cynical-C blog digs up some hilarious FCC complaints from Government Attic.
Download some Negativland.
Radiologik is a Mac DJ automation app:
Radiologik is a set of [...]

The recent Facebook kerfluffle (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) over it’s “Beacon” technology, has brought new light to some interesting projects on data portability—
VRM: Vendor Relationship Management.
VRM, or Vendor Relationship Management, is the reciprocal of CRM or Customer Relationship Management. It provides customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both [...]

Hopefully, such high-profile outrages as the $220,000 fine levied against a Minnesota woman for “infringement” will ignite the necessary backlash to rein in the RI/MPAA. All the salient points are nailed in this piece by Declan McCullagh at CNET:
After decades of special-interest lobbying by large holders of intellectual property rights, U.S. copyright law has spiraled [...]

Awesome Story this week unfolding around Media Defender, an anti-piracy company working with the content cartels to do things like pollute P2P networks with bogus/corrupt files, hack P2P users computers and entrap people into illegal file-sharing. Emails and all sorts of internal goodies have been outed on the Internets. All sorts of interesting tidbits and [...]

Via Intellectual Property Watch. Something to keep an eye on.
The United States House of Representatives Friday approved sweeping changes to the US patent system, setting the stage for Senate action which could send the measure to the president for signature.
By a margin of 220-175, lawmakers passed “The Patent Reform Act of 2007,” HR 1908, with [...]

Of course, referring to “Hollywood” movies as “Culture” is often a stretch.
I was going to link to this yesterday but never got around to it. Ken Fisher at Ars explains the consequences of AACS adoption. From Alan Wexelblat at Copyfight:
It’s not clear to me is where we go from here. In under a year we’ll [...]

This graph says it all. Story at Ars: webcasters favor indie music over major labels.

The MP/RIAA and their puppets in the Senate are proposing blackmailing Colleges into doing their Due Diligence/dirty work. This proposal (Senate Amendment 2314) would withhold federal funding for student aid unless schools adopt surveillance and filtering technologies on their campus networks.