Alec Saunders SquawkBox

We discuss the Wall Street Journal Business Technology blog piece on whether virtual worlds have a place in business communication.

We also talked through some of the latest insanity from the entertainment industry:

Quote Unquote records is a label that provides it’s music under a creative commons license. For the last week, their website has been down, the target of an RIAA copyright complaint.  Naturally, they’re furious, but their ISP isn’t putting the site back up.

And… Blu-ray is bombing.  Because of the economic downturn, consumers simply aren’t moving to the new, and more expensive, format.

The RIAA now wants to avoid trial in Maverick v. Harper.  They’re worried, apparently, that a trial might undermine the bedrock of their copyright infringement cases, which is that “making a file available on a P2P network” constitutes infringement.

And finally we discussed the US election, and Barack Obama’s promise to appoint a CTO for the USA.

On the Calliflower Conference Call: Dan York, Jeb Brilliant, Bill Volk, Sergio Meinardi, Mark Hewitt and Phil Wolff.

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 Squawk Box October 20 [41:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Well, well.  This morning’s Squawk Box had the promised discussion about Art vs Business, which went fairly well.  Randall Howard made the very good point that we often get the funding of the arts mixed up with the business of art, and that really they are two separate things.  Most people spoke out against any kind of levy system, which surprised me.

We also had an opportunity to discuss T-Mobile’s WiFi + 3G strategy.  Consensus: it will be as good as the 3G is.

Enjoy.  I apologize for the quality of the sound coming from me.  I ordinarily connect with VoIP, and didn’t realize that my PC was connected to the net on a second rate WiFi connection rather than the usual ethernet.

 

 Squawk Box April 14 [32:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bob Frankston’s piece Kodak vs. the Internet is worth a read.  The world predicted by Larry Lessig in Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace is coming to be.  N.B. If you haven’t read this book, you should. Written for the legal layman, it’s a populist look at the impact of technology on law.

So, although you presumably own your photographs, Kodak’s code controls them.  As forecast by Lessig, the law, in this case copyright, is taking a subordinate role to code. 

It’s not as bad as Bob makes out, though.  You still have the option of storing the photos locally on your PC, which presumably you would.  EasyShare wouldn’t likely be your only storage solution, since the camera can store up to 1500 pictures before needing to download.  In fact, Kodak foresees the use of this camera as a photosharing device as well, and provides synchronization software to allow you to store your favorites on the camera – an iPod for photos.

A petition to preserve Canada’s copyright laws is currently making its way around the net.  You can find it here. I am printing it off and signing on.  Perhaps in our country we can thwart the RIAA and the MPAA in order to leave ourselves with some semblance of fair use.