Cory Doctorow

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• Posted Why is the UK TV regulator planning to allow BBC DRM? to Boing Boing
  In my latest Guardian column, "Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC?" I look at how lamentably credulous both the BBC and its UK regulator, Ofcom, have been in accepting US media' giants threats to boycott the Beeb if it doesn't add digital rights management to its broadcasts. The BBC is publicly funded, and it is supposed to be acting in the public interest: but crippling British TV sets in response for demands from offshore media barons is no way to do this -- and the threats the studios have made are wildly improbable. When the content companies lost their bid to add DRM to American TV, they made exactly the same threats, and then promptly caved and went on allowing their material to be broadcast without any technical restrictions. How they rattled their sabers and promised a boycott of HD that would destroy America's chances for an analogue switchoff. For example, the MPAA's CTO, Fritz Attaway, said that "high-value content will migrate away" from telly without DRM. Viacom added: "[i]f a broadcast flag is not implemented and enforced by Summer 2003, Viacom's CBS Television Network will not provide any programming in high definition for the 2003-2004 television season." One by one, the big entertainment companies - and sporting giants like the baseball and American football leagues - promised that without the Broadcast Flag, they would take their balls and go home. So what happened? Did they make good on their threats? Did they go to their shareholders and explain that the reason they weren't broadcasting anything this year is because the government wouldn't let them control TVs? No. They broadcast. They continue to broadcast today, with no DRM. They were full of it. They did not make good on their threats. They didn't boycott. They caved. Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC? Previously:Boing Boing: Open Source Consortium to regulators: Stop the BBC's DRM! Regulators order BBC Trust to meet with open source consortium ... BBC Trustees agree to let BBC infect Britain with DRM - Boing Boing BBC's online media now requires MSFT player, DRM - Boing Boing DRM versus innovation - Boing Boing Regulators order BBC Trust to meet with open source consortium ......
• Posted US Trade Rep wants your input on ACTA to Boing Boing
  The US Trade Representative -- who has been negotiating the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement without input from the American people or Congress -- is seeking public submissions on how to conduct US foreign copyright policy. This means that Americans can file comments with the USTR asking for ACTA to be made public Under the Special 301 process the U.S.T.R. seeks input from U.S. copyright, trademark, and patent owners about whether policies and practices in foreign countries deny them adequate IP protection. The process has generally been used by IP holders to complain not only about lax enforcement in other countries, but also about limitations and exceptions in their laws that are beneficial to libraries, to education, to innovation, and to the public interest generally. The ability to comment in the Special 301 process is not limited to IP owners only. Any member of the public is free to file comments. If you believe in the importance of balanced copyright policies, file comments with the USTR and make your voice heard. Comments can be filed electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2010-0003. You have to include the term "2010 Special 301 Review" in the "Type Comment and Upload File" field. More information about the Special 301 process is available here. Deadline for filing is February 16 by 5 p.m. Tell USTR balanced copyright is important (via The Command Line) Previously:ACTA: the leaked secret memos Boing Boing Secret copyright treaty debated in DC: must-see video Boing Boing Secret copyright treaty: what you can do Boing Boing What will the secret copyright treaty do to your country's laws ... Interactive timeline of secret copyright treaty Boing Boing Follow the secret copyright treaty negotiations in Mexico Boing Boing...
• Posted Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread: lost comedy magic special resurfaces on YouTube to Boing Boing
  A long-lost Penn and Teller special, "Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread," has resurfaced on YouTube in four parts. Get it while you can! P&T are hustling magicians who find themselves embroiled in a shadowy mystery when the men in black call them in for a consultation. There's magic Marx-Bros-esque shenanigans, grifter humor, and bad eighties hair. It's some vintage funny conspiracy theory stuff -- look for guest appearances from James Randi, Whodini, and Andy Warhol! Man, I want this on DVD. Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread (Thanks, Tom!) Previously:Long-lost Penn and Teller videogame for download - Boing Boing Penn and Teller's debunker hour - Boing Boing Penn Jillette's video rant show - Boing Boing Penn Jillette's radio show podcast - Boing Boing Penn Jillette, airport patriot - Boing Boing Penn Jillette's daughter is named "Moxie CrimeFighter" - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Penn Jilette (of Penn and...
• Posted Handsome booze packaging to Boing Boing
  I know nothing about Bitter Sisters' cocktail mixes -- I don't drink hardly at all (puts me straight to sleep) and for all I know, this stuff tastes like gasoline. But the new packaging, designed by Shane Crawford, tickles my desiderata bone. Sure is purdy. Bitter Sisters Cocktail Mixers Previously:Liquor fancier's tchotchke - Boing Boing Ice Jackets encase vodka bottles in ice - Boing Boing Science of Cocktails Boing Boing...
• Posted Youthful harmonica prodigies have the blues to Boing Boing
  Murray sez, "I recently launched a podcast at the UK-based harmonica website www.harpsurgery.com. The episode here features five young players aged 14-18 (with one 22-year-old to mess up our average) who are playing WAY beyond their years... and in some cases, pushing harmonica-playing into dark scary places where it was never meant to go. The podcast is a little ragged but the playing is great. I thought it pertinent to send this through after Roger Daltrey's shabby harp solo at last night's Super Bowl show. Any one of these kids could destroy Roger Daltrey with a single fog-horn like blast from their instrument. All he'd leave behind is a smoking pair of hush puppies." Damn skippy: these kids are honkin' and smokin'. Harmonica Podcast: The Kids Are Alright Alternative link MP3 link (Thanks, Murray!)...
• Posted Beautiful Japanese gramophones to Boing Boing
  Alan sez, "A Japanese company is producing gramophones with natural touches such as bamboo needles." The player is produced by world-class hobbyist supplier Gakken, and the quality shows. This gramophone supports all record sizes, features speed and tone adjustment, and even lets you record music! No file formats to worry about, no batteries to replace, and the warm, nostalgic sound of analog - this just might be the perfect music player. Gakken Premium Gramophone (Thanks, Alan!) Previously:Gramophone DIY kit - Boing Boing DIY gramophone build-notes and video - Boing Boing Shellac Sisters, DJs who play 78s - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Convergence, circa 1895...
• Posted Iceland's paper of record bans linking to Boing Boing
  Morgunblaðið, Iceland's oldest newspaper and most-visited website (now co-edited by the former prime minister and head of the central bank) has just announced an anti "deep linking" policy saying that Icelanders aren't allowed to link to individual pages on the site, only the front door. Which is to say, the people of Iceland can no longer talk about any news online unless it happens to still be on the front page of the newspaper. Ah, there's the commitment to public service that makes journalism so critical to a free society! (Thanks, Halli!)...
• Posted Sony Pictures layoffs explained to Boing Boing
  Fred from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "Paul Sweeting, one of the smartest analysts covering Hollywood's collision with the Internet, does a great job reminding us of the real reasons behind the recent spate of layoffs at Sony Pictures. 'Hitting the snooze button when the alarm goes off doesn't mean that what happens in the meantime is beyond your control. It means you're asleep.'" The shift in consumer behavior toward rental? That was a function of wholesale pricing and the consumers' perception of value, which are entirely under the studios' control. If 40,000 supermarkets in America were selling new release DVDs for $8.99 by the checkout counter, how many consumers do you think would be lining up at the Redbox kiosk in the parking lot? How many supermarkets do you think would let Redbox on the premises? Don't believe me? Then how is it the studios were previously able to alter consumer behavior from rental to purchase when they introduced the (comparatively) low-priced DVD to replace the high-priced VHS cassette? Alarm bells come too late for Sony Pictures (Thanks, Fred!)...
• Commented on Donate your old yoga mat to Haiti
  Fondue forks for Namibia!...
• Posted Sensored: podcast short story about ubiquitous computing to Boing Boing
  I've just posted a new short-short story to my podcast: "Sensored" was commissioned by the UK Open University's computer science department for use in My digital life (TU100), its ubiquitous computing course. It's licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. I'm pleased with how it worked out, and I'm honoured to be a Visiting Senior Lecturer in the OU's comp sci department. Sensored MP3 Link Podcast feed Previously:Bruce Sterling speech at Ubicomp - video - Boing Boing Gershenfeld pulls down the pants of ubicomp - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Sterling on Ubiquitous Computing and the canard of ... Notes from "Roboflies, Flexonics, and the Social Life of Smart ... Boing Boing: Ethics and RFIDs - video of Adam "Everyware" Greenfield Camera glasses on sale -- goodbye, photography bans Boing Boing...
• Posted Get Excited and Change Things: Letterpress inspirational message to Boing Boing
  (Thanks, John/Reproduced by permission of Flower&Fleurons)...
• Posted Kim Stanley Robinson: the world is an sf novel we collaborate on to Boing Boing
  I thought you might be interested in this video from a recent Kim Stanley Robinson talk in which he describes life in the present as a science fiction novel we all collaborate on. This is an excerpt from a pair of talks he gave at the Duke in January; the entirety of the other talk is available here. Here's a transcript of the first part of the video:" KSR: I think it's very true that we are living in a science fiction novel that we all collaborate on, and it's because everything that science fiction was about through its historical named period, the twentieth century, has kind of come true. And also we live in a world that is so intensely structured by science and technology that we can't get out of it. If we were to get out of it would still be a science fiction move, the retreat to the farm. So it's hegemonic, you can't escape it, we're in that world created by science and technology. And also there's this intense sense of futurity, in that if you opened up your newspaper or laptop tomorrow and it said,"They've cloned six South Koreans successfully and they're all named Kim," you would believe it, there would be no surprise there. Anything could happen. You could say, well, we just got a signal from Alpha Centauri, there are intelligent aliens there, they sent us the code for pi and the Pythagorean theorem. There's no reason to disbelieve that, either. So we live in this world of anticipation of strangeness, of change, rapidly accelerating change. I came through the Atlanta airport today, and you know those speedwalkers that are underneath the various terminals? When I was young there was this famous bestseller, Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler. Future shock: we don't talk about that anymore because none of you are shocked. And that's because the shock comes at the moment you step on the walkway and you feel the drag between one acceleration and another. At the moment you're being accelerated to a new speed there's a little gravity drag on your body, and that's the moment of "future shock"--1972 or '3--and when you're walking with the walkway that's moving at a different speed there's no shock there. You simply are moving at that speed. So now we're moving a new historical speed that's faster than the historical speed was when I was a kid. That moment was marked by this book Future Shock, and it's an archaic term, obsolete, because there's nothing in our experience now-- I don't think there's anything that could happen that would shock us, because we're moving at such a fast speed now, and because we're conditioned by science fiction. GC: What about the other end of the runway? KSR: When you slow down? Well, that's another--you feel that too. This is like when your connection to the Internet goes out for three days, or your phone line, or when your cell phone dies--these moments when you're suddenly not having the sixth sense of the cloud-- Bonus Kim Stanley Robinson Video: 'We Are Living in a Science Fiction Novel That We All Collaborate On' (Thanks, Gerry!) Previously:Kim Stanley Robinson's alternate time-travel life of Galileo ... Free Kim Stanley Robinson and Eric Simons reading in San Francisco ... Kim Stanley Robinson on "Comparative Planetology" - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Kim Stanley Robinson's new book, Forty Signs of Rain Boing Boing: Kim Stanley Robinson on eco-disasters on Earth and Mars...
• Posted Kage Baker obit by David Hartwell to Boing Boing
  Science fiction editor David Hartwell has written a sweet and moving obituary for writer Kage Baker, who lost her struggle with cancer on Jan 31. Two years ago, I had a plan to get together with Kage Baker. After several years of knowing her only through phone calls and the occasional meeting at a conference, I was pleased to have the opportunity to better know this witty and imaginative author. I was in Southern California at the Eaton conference in Riverside, and she and her terrific sister Kathleen were supposed to drive over. But their car broke down and I didn't get the chance to spend time with her that day. We tried again last June, when I was out to Los Angeles for World Horror, but in the end she couldn't make it over (I didn't know she was already ill). And now it is too late. On Kage Baker Previously:Audio from science Fiction panel with Cory, Kage Baker, John ......
• Posted Ship disguised as island to Boing Boing
  This camouflaged Dutch ship successfully disguised itself as a small tropical island and avoided the Japanese Navy after the Battle of the Java Sea. HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen was stationed in the Dutch East Indies when WW II began. After the destruction of the Allied Fleet by the Japanese during the Battle of the Java Sea in February 1942, Crijnssen's captain was ordered to escape with his ship to Australia. Covered with tree branches, the minesweeper crossed the Japanese naval lines camouflaged as a tropical island. HNLMS ABRAHAM CRIJNSSEN (A925) (via Make) Previously:Weird but effective dazzle camouflage schemes - Boing Boing Desiree Palmen's photos of camouflaged people - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Octopus camouflage video Camouflage any webpage as "work-safe" Word file - Boing Boing Active camouflage -- tricks of the light - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Urban vehicle camouflage Boing Boing: Idea for urban camouflage vehicle Boing Boing: Camouflage Duct Tape...
• Posted XKCD's "We Love the Internet" reenacted with Lessig, Gaiman, Nielsen Haydens, Schneier, and many others! to Boing Boing
  The incomparable Olga Nunes has released the latest and greatest iteration of the net's appreciation for Discovery Channel's "Boom-De-Yadda" commercial, reinacting the XKCD version with "Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, Bruce Schneier, Jason Kottke, Google Zurich, Hank Green, MC Frontalot, Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Mr. Toast, Miss Cellania, Team Genius, Phil Plait, Allan Amato, Maddy Gaiman, Charissa Gilreath, Belinda Casas, Chuck Martinez, Jeremy James, Joanna Gaunder, Lee Israel & Octavio Coleman Esq. of The Jejune Institute." We Love xkcd (via Making Light)...
• Posted HOWTO Watch the Daily Show anywhere to Boing Boing
  Hey, lookit this: you can watch the Daily Show from anywhere, defeating geo-restrictions, with a little Firefox tweaking! (Thanks, Malakith!)...
• Posted Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly: the unedited interview to Boing Boing
  Here's the entire video of Jon Stewart's Fox interview with Bill O'Reilly. I know I'm biased, but I think that Stewart comes across as smart, funny and substantive and O'Reilly comes across as a defensive, deluded nut. Man, it's good to see Jon Stewart again. It's been a year or so since Comedy Central started blocking Daily Show clips from the UK, where I live -- I know I could just use a proxy to get at them, but I'm always racing the clock and there's always something else that I can watch without messing around, and I somehow never get around to it. But I missed Jon. Entire Jon Stewart Interview (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Previously:Boing Boing: Jon Stewart's Crossfire appearance on bittorrent Jon Stewart clips galore - Boing Boing Jon Stewart on CSPAN - Boing Boing Jon Stewart on US torturers - Boing Boing White-collar crime pays: Jon Stewart - Boing Boing Audioclips of Bill O'Reilly reading his bad porno novel - Boing Boing Bill O'Reilly discovers Super Mario -- Offworld - Boing Boing Bill O'Reilly's alleged falafel fetish now has a name - Boing Boing Bill O'Reilly Hollywood Goatse Moment - Boing Boing Billy O'Reilly meltdown dance mix video - Boing Boing Bill O'Reilly trying to bury his Fresh Air interview - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Talk Like Bill O'Reilly Day -- Shut up!...
• Posted Remix culture: not just creativity, also social play to Boing Boing
  Flickr user Normative's 8-minute video on remix culture talks about how this isn't just about sitting around your house remixing, but often turns into a social event among remixers and their friends. It's a very good piece, and resonates with fanfic and other social forms of audience participation -- remixing isn't just about saying something back to a creator, but also about talking with your friends. The Evolution of Remix Culture (Thanks, Jim!) Previously:Gibson on remix culture - Boing Boing Good Copy, Bad Copy: superb copyright documentary on the remix ... Video explains fair use for video (video video) - Boing Boing Copyright documentary from Australian radio - Boing Boing Jay-Z v. the Beatles -- "Grey Album" food fight - Boing Boing The Tiger Woods Voicemail Slow-Jam remix Boing Boing...
• Posted Osh Kosh, B'Gosh to Boing Boing
• Posted Freaky beautiful arm-warmers to Boing Boing
  Gingasquid makes lovely and weird textiles with fairtrade beads, stones, and all manner of stuff. This is her latest, an arm warmer with sewn-on jewelry. Ginga Squid: ....and more Arm Warmers with Sewn-On Beaded Jewelry (Thanks, Vicky!)...
• Posted Working steampunk firearms to Boing Boing
  Jamie sez, "Denver artist Jonathan Alberico has created two fully functional steam punk guns. Black Betty, a dual barrel pistol uses flash paper to shoot fire balls. Doris is a beastly air cannon that fires bouncey ball at high enough speeds to rip through boxes and even bounce back and catch the videographer in the hip! Both pieces have corresponding youtube clips of them in action." functional Steampunk rifle functional Steampunk gun 1 (Thanks, Jamie!) Previously:Steampunk Nerf guns - Boing Boing Steampunk Magazine #2 - Boing Boing Mass-produced gun as olde worlde heirloom - Boing Boing Steampunk Star Wars modded action figures -- woah! - Boing Boing Steampunk Justice League costumes - Boing Boing Steampunk PC from Datamancer: The Archbishop - Boing Boing Steampunk leather mask with a breathing tube beard Boing Boing...
• Posted Locus poll, 2009 edition to Boing Boing
  It's time once again for the annual Locus Poll and Survey , where you, the readers of science fiction, get to vote for the best books and stories of the year....
• Posted Santa Fe Institute economist: one in four Americans is employed to guard the wealth of the rich to Boing Boing
  Here's a fascinating profile on radical Santa Fe Institute economist Samuel Bowles, an empiricist who says his research doesn't support the Chicago School efficient marketplace hypothesis. Instead, Bowles argues that the wealth inequality created by strict market economics creates inefficiencies because society has to devote so much effort to stopping the poor from expropriating the rich. He calls this "guard labor" and says that one in four Americans is employed to in the sector -- labor that could otherwise be used to increase the nation's wealth and progress. The greater the inequalities in a society, the more guard labor it requires, Bowles finds. This holds true among US states, with relatively unequal states like New Mexico employing a greater share of guard labor than relatively egalitarian states like Wisconsin. The problem, Bowles argues, is that too much guard labor sustains "illegitimate inequalities," creating a drag on the economy. All of the people in guard labor jobs could be doing something more productive with their time--perhaps starting their own businesses or helping to reduce the US trade deficit with China. Guard labor supports what one might call the beat-down economy. Community Action's Porter sees it all the time. "We have based almost everything we have done on the idea that we always need a part of our workforce that is marginalized--that we can call this group into action at any time, pay them nothing and they will do anything that needs to be done," she says. More discouraging, perhaps, is the statistical fact that a person born into this workforce has little chance of rising beyond it. Born Poor? (via MeFi) Previously:China's labor unrest worse than suspected - Boing Boing Which Side Are You On? Explaining what happened to labor in ... Questions from economics honors exam at Oberlin College Boing Boing EVE Online's economist speaks -- economics as an experimental ... Max Keiser's curmudgeonly TV economics show: the Oracle - Boing Boing Mackerel economics in prison - Boing Boing Economics of Malware - Boing Boing MP3s from "Economics of Open Content" conference - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Psychology, design and economics of slot-machines...
• Posted Zero rupee note that Indians can slip to corrupt officials who demand bribes to Boing Boing
  An Indian U of Maryland physics prof came up with these zero rupee notes that Indians can slip to officials who demand bribes. They've been wildly successful, with a total run over over 1,000,000 notes, and the reports from the field suggest that they shock grafters into honesty. Fifth Pillar is the NGO that produces the notes, and they're available for download in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. One such story was our earlier case about the old lady and her troubles with the Revenue Department official over a land title. Fed up with requests for bribes and equipped with a zero rupee note, the old lady handed the note to the official. He was stunned. Remarkably, the official stood up from his seat, offered her a chair, offered her tea and gave her the title she had been seeking for the last year and a half to obtain without success. Had the zero rupee note reached the old lady sooner, her granddaughter could have started college on schedule and avoided the consequence of delaying her education for two years. In another experience, a corrupt official in a district in Tamil Nadu was so frightened on seeing the zero rupee note that he returned all the bribe money he had collected for establishing a new electricity connection back to the no longer compliant citizen. Anand explained that a number of factors contribute to the success of the zero rupee notes in fighting corruption in India. First, bribery is a crime in India punishable with jail time. Corrupt officials seldom encounter resistance by ordinary people that they become scared when people have the courage to show their zero rupee notes, effectively making a strong statement condemning bribery. In addition, officials want to keep their jobs and are fearful about setting off disciplinary proceedings, not to mention risking going to jail. More importantly, Anand believes that the success of the notes lies in the willingness of the people to use them. People are willing to stand up against the practice that has become so commonplace because they are no longer afraid: first, they have nothing to lose, and secondly, they know that this initiative is being backed up by an organization--that is, they are not alone in this fight. Paying Zero for Public Services Fifth Pillar) (via Kottke) Previously:Judges jailed for taking bribes from private juvie prisons to send ... Boing Boing: Canadian copyright czar forced to turn away industry ... MPAA bribing NYC cops to bust bootleg DVD sellers? - Boing Boing Boing Boing: No pensions for dirty Congresscritters WIPO's $50 million bribery scandal - Boing Boing Army officer charged with using Iraq $$ to pimp out her NJ crib ......
• Posted Tahoe-LAFS: a P2P filesystem that lets you use the cloud without trusting it to Boing Boing
  Zooko sez, Tahoe-LAFS is a p2p filesystem. You pool your spare hard drive space together with that of your friends. This forms a distributed filesystem which endures even if some of your friends' computers are unreachable. Everything is automatically encrypted, so backing up your files onto the distributed filesystem doesn't necessarily mean sharing the files with your friends. But, it is easy to share specific files or directories with specific friends. It comes with a command-line interface and a web interface. If you choose, you can allow remote HTTP clients to connect to the web interface. We've configured our test grid to do that so that you can take Tahoe-LAFS for a test drive just by clicking here. Please try it out and contribute bug reports! We are an all-volunteer project of Free Software hackers in the public interest. We need encouragement, love, and bug reports. This looks like some exciting stuff! From the announcement: In addition to the core storage system itself, volunteers have developed related projects to integrate it with other tools. These include frontends for Windows, Macintosh, JavaScript, and iPhone, and plugins for Hadoop, bzr, duplicity, TiddlyWiki, and more. As of this release, contributors have added an Android frontend and a working read-only FUSE frontend. See the Related Projects page on the wiki [3]. We believe that the combination of erasure coding, strong encryption, Free/Open Source Software and careful engineering make Tahoe-LAFS safer than RAID, removable drive, tape, on-line backup or other Cloud storage systems. ANNOUNCING Tahoe, the Least-Authority File System, v1.6 (Thanks, Zooko!) (Image: King Cloud, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike photo from akakumo's photostream) Previously:Grooveshark -- DRM-free P2P music -- pays uploaders - Boing Boing Verizon teaming up with P2P companies, Yale, to make file-sharing ... Boing Boing: Congress moving to criminalize P2P The military applications for P2P - Boing Boing Christian P2P: is it a sin? - Boing Boing P2P Spam Filter - Boing Boing...
• Posted Cheshire Cat papercraft to Boing Boing
  Here's a lovely little Cheshire Cat papercraft to print and assemble, released a month before Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland adaptation hits screens. Exclusive! Cheshire Cat Paper Toy in Wonderland: (via Super Punch!) Previously:Alice in Waterland: disturbing vintage postcard from mermaid park ... Structure of the Sun papercraft Boing Boing Beautiful, immense papercraft castle Boing Boing Fractally-delicious Papercraft - Boing Boing Papercraft deep-sea creatures and submersibles from Japan Agency ... Quake papercraft - Boing Boing Papercraft Enigma machine to assemble at home - Boing Boing Alice in Wonderland journal - Boing Boing Tim Burton to direct Alice in Wonderland - Boing Boing Free reading of Alice in Wonderland - Boing Boing...
• Posted Photog sued for shooting a street that contained publicly funded art to Boing Boing
  Ginger sez, " A Seattle man is being sued for taking photographs of public art--after he complied and destroyed his photos. The city commissioned the Dance Steps of Broadway more than 30 years ago, and used public funds to cover some costs. And the neighborhood quickly embraced it." But the artist claims that because the publicly funded art is copyrighted by him, people who violate his copyright must face the full might of the law. The photographer took some pictures of the street that incidentally reproduced part of the sculpture, and as far as the sculptor in concerned, that's illegal. I think the city needs to find some new art. Let them sell off the Dance Steps and use the money to commission art from a sculptor who won't demand that residents stop documenting their own streets. Mike Hipple took photos of those steps, and he's now being sued for the photos that earned him $60. "A large majority of the images were out of focus," Hipple said. "And you can see some of the dance steps, I think, maybe there were a handful of them (photos)." Out of focus or not, Jack Mackie, the man who sculpted the Dance Steps of Broadway sued Hipple, claiming the photographer side-stepped his copyright. "My agency, at that point, told me that they had complied with his wishes and had destroyed the images. There was no copies (sic) available," Hipple said. Man sued over photos of public art on Seattle street (Thanks, Ginger Red!) (Image: Komo News) Previously:San Francisco's secret public spaces that are privately owned ... Chicago's Bean sculpture is free to photograph, at last - Boing Boing...
• Posted Bruce Sterling interviewed by Shapeways to Boing Boing
  Don't miss Bruce Sterling in full-on grumpy zen master mode, busting out futuristic koans in this interview with Shapeways, the 3D printing people: Joris Peels: If everyone had replicators would people that were able to speak quicker be happier than those that spoke slower? Bruce Sterling: Look, "everyone" is never going to have anything. The human race includes infants, the senile, the mentally retarded, the disabled, people in clinics and prisons, the illiterate, the totally broke, dropouts of all descriptions, refuseniks... This is like asking what happens when "everybody has a car." Everybody's not gonna have a car, even in an imaginary world where cars cost less than nothing. If replicators were as cheap as cellphones we wouldn't be any "happier." Are guys who yak really fast on cellphones any happier than the rest of us? Hardly. Joris Peels: How long will it take for someone to develop the first prank disease? Bruce Sterling: You mean besides "smallpox blankets?" Maybe massive lethality on entire populations doesn't count as "pranks." Shapeways interviews Bruce Sterling Previously:Shapeways interviews Makerbot: 3D printing ahoy! Boing Boing Successful marriage proposal via 3D-printed ring - Boing Boing Bruce Sterling on life in the ISS Boing Boing Bruce Sterling taking over Cool Tools - Boing Boing Bruce Sterling on "generative art" Boing Boing Bruce Sterling's visionary novel Distraction: still brilliant a ... Bruce Sterling's story on the merger of blogging and scientific ... Bruce Sterling - Boing Boing Bruce Sterling and "Tech Nouveau" design examples - Boing Boing Bruce Sterling ruminates on Pokemon - Boing Boing...
• Posted South African budget airline's fantastic self-explanatory livery to Boing Boing
  Stef sez, "Kulula (South Africa's low fare airline), have recently released this fantastic new aircraft livery entitled 'Flying 101'. Each part of the aircraft is labelled with humorous captions such as 'Loo (or mile-high initiation chamber)' and 'Landing gear (comes standard with super-fly mags)'." Kulula Airlines: Flying 101 livery (Thanks, Stef!)...
• Posted Lawrence Lessig calls for a Constitutional amendment on campaign financing to Boing Boing
  Eric sez, "Today, Larry Lessig announced his call for a constitutional convention to fundamentally address the problem of money in politics by passing a Constitutional amendment. Here's the HuffPo piece he posted today." The procedural point is more fundamental, and comes in two parts: First, no one should distract Congress from the one good thing it could do right now -- pass the Fair Elections Now Act. That would be a huge victory; it is a possible victory; and we are defeating the cause of reform if we do anything that jeopardizes that possible win. And second, we all need to recognize that America is uncertain about how best to fix our government right now. From the Tea Party Right to the Progressive Left, there is agreement that something fundamental has gone wrong. But I believe that our frustrations share a common source -- an exasperation with the broken state of our political system -- even as we disagree passionately on what to do about it. The solution to that disagreement is democracy. We should begin the long discussion about how best to reform our democracy, to restore its commitment to liberty and a Republic, by beginning a process to amend the Constitution through the one path the Framers gave us that has not yet been taken -- a Convention. Call a Convention (Thanks, Eric!) Previously:Lessig video on ending corruption - Boing Boing Draft Larry Lessig for Congress! - Boing Boing Lessig's last Free Culture talk, Stanford, Jan 31 - Boing Boing Lessig on giving corporations unlimited right to bribe politicians ......