billso.com

More drivers and pedestrians crank their music to high volume to drown out traffic noise. Sadly, this means that police sirens sometimes go unheard.

Enter the Federal Signal Rumbler, a siren that uses two subwoofers and new sonic patterns. These articles from Wired and Gizmodo have more information, and two YouTube videos provide examples of these bone rattling sirens.

I’ve also posted an MP3 file here.

The deep tones in these videos are the Rumbler in action. I hope you don’t hear one this Memorial Day weekend. Stay safe!

County politicians in Los Angeles have passed legislation championed by the RIAA and MPAA that lets authorities confiscate property from anyone convicted of IP theft or piracy. See Wired for more information.

The RIAA uses automated methods for collecting information fom LimeWire and other peer-to-peer programs. Data including the IP address and the files offered for trade are collected. The trade organization also has an automated takedown notice and settlement system that targets universities and students. The RIAA uses a manual process when investigating commercial ISPs. This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education has some details.

Meanwhile, BoingBoing reports that the US House of Representatives has passed a similar measure (HR 4279, PRO-IP (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008). The bill may not get through the US Senate this year.

See Ars Technica and TechDirt for more information on this ridiculous piece of legislation.

Related posts on

billso.com

• 11 May 2008: Qtrax makes a free music download deal with Universal
• 15 March 2008: 10 years of MP3 players
• 21 February 2008: Copyright and fair use
• 4 February 2008: Better than free
• 13 November 2007: File sharing and campus security
• 5 October 2007: What’s wrong with copyright?
• 17 July 2007: A quick explanation of copyright law
• 29 September 2006: US copyright law in verse
• 15 August 2004: American Library Association promotes fair use
• 27 June 2003: Sue your best customers

Universal Music Group has announced its deal with Qtrax for free music downloads. See these reports from the Associated Press and Engadget. UMG is the first of the major recording labels to reach such an accord.

Back on 27 January 2008, I published a billso.com story about the Qtrax free music download service. Qtrax intends to earn advertising revenue from its P2P web site and software.

Of course, Qtrax hasn’t released any Mac software yet. There’s a beta version available for Windows users. The Qtrax browser is based on Mozilla, and it sounds vaguely like Flock.

Sometimes it takes a few months to work out all the pesky details.

Smells like… depseration! The New York Times reports that three of the largest recording companies will sell digital music through an updated MySpace music store. ReadWriteWeb has more details on the updated store, which EMI is avoiding for now.

While MySpace does have a large user base, the site can’t offer the easy integration that Apple’s iPod and iTunes have developed.

Previous efforts like Helio might have survived if MySpace had done a better job with its earlier music sales sites. See this 4 September 2006 New York Times article and an earlier article from Mashable for more details.

Related posts on billso.com

• 25 February 2008: Social Media 101
• 28 August 2007: EarthLink announces layoffs
• 20 June 2007: MySpace vs Facebook
• 17 June 2007: Anticipation builds for Apple’s iPhone
• 17 April 2007: Mobile telcos search for new business model
• 29 September 2006: ESPN sacked, Helio scrambling

Google’s senior copyright counsel, William Patry, posted a long article about a whisper campaign that media giants are conducting. Patry’s article was also discussed on BoingBoing. and ArsTechnica.

The whispered rumor is that US Fair Use doctrine is so broad that it violates international law - specifically, the Berne Convention on copyright. If enough national governments agree with this interpretation, the US government might be required to replace the Fair Use doctrine with something far more restrictive and expensive.

Patry, who helped negotiate modifications to the Berne Convention when he worked for the U.S. Copyright Office, offers a lengthy and detailed response to the whisper campaign that can be summarized in one word: NO.

Why should students care?

A revocation of fair use might also destroy the online and retail used textbook markets. This would limit the opportunities to find used textbooks, and force more students to buy new textbooks for their courses.

Fair use is the doctrine that lets reviewers quote from the published works, and helps professors distribute sections of published works to their students. Without fair use, students and universities will have to pay more for the content they currently use.

The publishing and media conglomerates would love to kill fair use once and for all in the USA, to help the industries’ flagging revenues.

it’s unlikely that the US courts would allow the Fair Use doctrine to be overturned, even if the US Congress does manage to overturn it through new legislation.

The European Union is about to vote down a publisher-friendly three strikes proposal that would have let ISPs exile users from the Internet for repeated copyright violations, including P2P file-sharing. See this Electronic Frontier Foundation post for more details.

Related posts

For more information see my posts about copyright, including the following articles from billso.com:

• 24 March 2008: The used electronic textbook
• 21 February 2008: Copyright and fair use
• 4 February 2008: Better than free
• 13 November 2007: File sharing and campus security
• 5 October 2007: What’s wrong with copyright?
• 17 July 2007: A quick explanation of copyright law
• 6 February 2007: Steve Jobs calls for DRM-free music sales
• 29 September 2006: US copyright law in verse