He’s a Secret Dance Freak, Too

It’s true: I’m a Secret Dance Freak [muchlessthanthree.com]. He’s a Secret Dance Freak too [vimeo.com]. Courtesy of the latest blog I can’t stop reading [blogspot.com].

Be sure to check this one out, folks. It’s worth the four and a half minutes of your time.

Don’t care so much about the past
Nothing like feelin’ my love
Baby, baby, dance with me tonight
Tonight, the night

Perspective

Raph Koster’s latest post [raphkoster.com] really does an excellent job of putting the various American entertainment industries into perspective. I’d really like to see these same figures ordered according to the price per good. Clearly price affects it greatly – you’ll notice that the only things in the tens of millions (outside of movie tickets) are the items which cost the least.

* Number of users in Habbo Hotel worldwide: 20,000,000
* Best-selling book in the US last year: 1,500,000+. (A Thousand Splendid Suns)
* Best-selling graphic novel in the US last year: 80,000. (Naruto)
* Digital sales of a hit song: 2,100,000 (Leona Lewis, “Bleeding Love”)
* Average downloads of a downloadable Rock Band track: 100,000
* Viewers of the #1 show on US TV (including DVR): 28,800,000 (American Idol)
* Viewers of the #150 show on US TV: 2,400,000 (Gossip Girl)
* Users of World of Warcraft in North America: 2,500,000
* Monthly uniques for Gaia Online: 2,000,000+
* Total number of movie tickets sold in the US in one year: 1,400,000,000
* Estimated tickets sold to the new Indiana Jones movie in five weeks: 42,290,849 (using 2007 average US ticket price and grosses to date).

Everybody scream!
意味ないけど、
コンビニが好き

Future of Copyright

A very interesting article by Rasmus Fleischer on the future of copyright [cato-unbound.com] hits a lot of topics I often find myself discussing these days. The movement to digital media has really changed the landscape, but unfortunately has yet to change the way some people approach said landscape. Fleischer does a very good job of putting into words the butting ideologies:

The real dispute, once again, is not between proponents and opponents of copyright as a whole. It is between believers and non-believers. Believers in copyright keep dreaming about building a digital simulation of a 20th-century copyright economy, based on scarcity and with distinct limits between broadcasting and unit sales. I don’t believe such a stabilization will ever occur, but I fear that this vision of copyright utopia is triggering an escalation of technology regulations running out of control and ruining civil liberties. Accepting a laissez-faire attitude regarding software development and communication infrastructure can prevent such an escalation.

Give it a read if you have a few moments and the inclination.

Japan in May, 2008, Part 1

Some pics from my trip to Japan last month. Enjoy!

One Small Step for Consumers

One giant loss for software makers? I don’t think so: I’ve never felt that the common provision in EULAs [wikipedia.org] stating that rightfully purchased software could not be transferred to a new user (read: resold) should be allowed. Despite working in the industry, I’d really rather it not. Having that level of control over consumer’s use of a product doesn’t feel right to the capitalist in me. I’m really hoping that the recent US District Court decision will pave the way to the end of this kind of restrictive EULA:

The U.S. District Court in Seattle last week issued a decision denying a motion by Autodesk to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Timothy Vernor. Vernor’s attempts to sell used copies of AutoCad on eBay had been repeatedly interrupted by Autodesk’s DMCA takedown notices. Vernor, represented by Public Citizen and Seattle attorney Michael Withey, had sued to force Autodesk to concede his right to sell legally acquired copies of the software under the First Sale doctrine of copyright law. Autodesk’s motion to dismiss argued that the AutoCad EULA prohibited Vernor from re-selling the software, but Judge Richard A. Jones ruled in Vernor’s favor and the case will proceed.

The First Sale doctrine originated over a century ago when book publishers started putting the equivalent of today’s software license agreements on their products, usually for the purpose of prohibiting or limiting re-sale of the book. Litigation eventually led the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Congress (in Section 109 of the Copyright Act), to set the rules straight. The copyright holder’s rights to restrict the distribution of a particular copy end with its first sale. So basically, the First Sale doctrine says having legally acquired a copy of a work, you can then re-sell it, lend it, destroy it, or anything else you want except make another copy.

If this excerpt grabbed your interest, check out the rest of Ed Foster’s write-up for Info World [gripe2ed.com], which covers the topic nicely.

Dubious DRM

Bill Harris over at Dubious Quality [blogspot.com] has an excellent write-up on copy-protection schemes and piracy in games. It covers the basic flow of games to crackers to players (thanks to an anonymous email he received) as well as the feelings of people towards the DRM schemes publishers employ. It’s well rounded and well worth a read.