Rest in Peace Isaac Asimov

[moment of silence]

Adobe Pushes DRM for Flash

I'm sooo upset by this right now that I can't think, I'll update this post as soon as I calm down...

**edit** because of the text posted below I have uninstalled flash, I have installed gnash insted. I know that gnash isn't going to do me much good, but I am hoping that it will get to the point where I can get buttons and things like that work. I am still royally pissed, and am boycotting all adobe products. **edit**

Posted to eff.org's DeepLinks by Seth Schoen

The immense popularity of sites like YouTube has unexpectedly turned Flash Video (FLV) into one of the de facto standards for Internet video. The proliferation of sites using FLV has been a boon for remix culture, as creators made their own versions of posted videos. And thus far there has been no widespread DRM standard for Flash or Flash Video formats; indeed, most sites that use these formats simply serve standalone, unencrypted files via ordinary web servers.

Now Adobe, which controls Flash and Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download, these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no illusions that this will stop copyright infringement -- any more than dozens of other DRM systems have done so -- but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Recall that the DMCA sets out a blanket ban on tools that help "circumvent" any DRM system (as well as the act of circumvention itself). When Flash Video files are simply hosted on a web site with no encryption, it's unlikely that tools to download, edit, or remix them are illegal. But when encryption enters the picture, entertainment companies argue that fair use is no excuse; Adobe, or customers using Flash Media Server 3, can try to shut down users who break the encryption without having to prove that the users are doing anything copyright-infringing. Even if users aren't targeted directly, technology developers may be threatened and the technologies the users need driven underground.

Users may also have to upgrade their Flash Player software (and open source alternatives like Gnash, which has been making rapid progress, may be unable to play the encrypted streams at all). Third-party software that can download Flash Video, like the most recent RealPlayer, will also break. But Adobe now has an incentive to push the use of DRM: it's only available to sites that use Flash Media Server 3 software, which starts at over $4,000 (with extra fees depending on the number of simultaneous streams).

Furthermore, the prospect of widespread adoption of DRM restrictions on Flash threatens to squash a growing tradition of expressive fair use of online video -- a practice effectively in its infancy that, left unfettered, would be a dynamic solution to our failing effort to teach media literacy. Before we understand how to read media messages, we must first learn how to speak their language -- and we learn that language by playing with and remixing the efforts of others. DRM, by restricting the remixing of Flash videos, stands to bankrupt a rich store of educational value by foreclosing the ability of students and teachers to "echo others" by remixing videos posted online.

Take the example of "A Vision of Students Today" vs. "(Re)Visions of Students Today". The first "Vision" YouTube video is an artful critique of higher education's failure to come up with new models of instruction that engage the modern student; the second "(Re)Vision" YouTube video is an incisive observation of higher education's crisis in diversity (summarily expressed by the lack of diversity in the original "Vision" video). The original and the remix support each other to instruct with an influence above and beyond the power of either video alone.

Outside the halls of academia, we can see that the ability to openly download and remix video is part of a new ecosystem of amateur entertainment -- watch Drama Prairie Dog and its countless responses:

* "Dramatic Prairie Dog vs. Kung Fu Baby (Best Remix Ever)"
* "Hollywood Zombies Dramatic Prarire Dog"
* "Dramatic Look Bond Remix"
* Drama Prairie Dog - Zoolander
* "Drama Prairie Dog -- Kill Bill"
* (an obligatory Star Wars-related remix) "Darthmatic Chipmunk"

As we noted above, remixers who find and use tools that break the Flash Video encryption could be sued, even if their transformative creations would otherwise have been fair use.

Finally, there's a classic suite of arguments against DRM that will be as true for online video as they were for music. DRM doesn't move additional product. DRM is grief for honest end-users. And there's no reason to imagine that new DRM systems will stop copyright infringement any more effectively than previous systems.

SXSW videos.com

Comic: Where I'd Rather Be 1

Here is a comic that that I drew on my Nokia N770 whilst at work.



I drew this one whilst watching Atonement. I can't stand that film, and while I was coming up with my list of why I thought the movie sucked a pile of ass, I thought about where would I rather be... easy answer, at my computer.

Happy Valentines Day

What if Digg was in Meatspace

Projects are taking a backseat for a bit

My dear friend Ryan has gone MIA. I think he may just be hiding, or something may be wrong. I don’t know. He doesn’t answer his phone, and hasn’t responded on facebook, twitter, or pownce. I think its because I’ve been pushing to hard to try and get txtbasket up and running. So next week I think I’ll go back to working almost full time at my other job and make some extra cash and possibly put up a $100 bounty for someone to create a “complete n00bz guide to setting up stet”, licensing it CC BY-SA, and posting it to the wiki (txtbasket.info). when I come up with the cash that will be the bounty so anyone out there who wants to get a head start can.

Help save Aaron's grandfather's house!

This is taken verbatim from Boing Boing it was posted by Cory Doctorow, on January 16, 2008 12:27 AM, and I didn't rewrite it because Cory is a better writer than me...

Aaron sez, "The state of South Carolina has decided to put a freeway through my Grandfather's 150 year old house (built by HIS Grandfather). The Governor and the people in the planning office say the route my father worked out is fine, but they need 'public outcry' to justify moving it so if people 10 miles down the route ask why they moved it for us they can say 'hey, lots of people got pissed.' So I set up a petition which in mid-Feb. will send the results to the Governor's office and I need as many people to sign it as possible. They don't care WHO you are or WHERE you are, just so long as there is 'public outcry.'"


The home was built from trees that were cleared from the forests that now are open fields of fertile farmlands. The underpinning of the home was and still is hand-hewn logs held together by 10" wooden pegs. The original structure consisted of four equally sized rooms and the kitchen was separated from the home in the back to save the home in case of a fire in the kitchen.

In the late 1940's, the kitchen was joined to the rear of the home and three other rooms were added across the back of the house. The floors of this section were not joined evenly, and there is an approximate ten inch step down from the original section of the home to this rear section. The porch was also extended across the front and down the West side of the house. In 1957, my father, who was actually born in the home in 1916, remodeled the home, leaving the basic four rooms of the home but installing oak hardwood floors. He also left most of the original windows in rooms and by the front door, which were hand-blown glass with "wavy" imperfections and bubbles. The chimney on the East side of the house is also original which, according to family lore, has brick laid with "salt crete". It was covered with a thin layer of concrete years ago to protect it from weathering. Around 1965, dormers were added to the roof of the house and the attic was opened to house two bedrooms. And the final remodeling occurred around 1985 when the kitchen was remodeled and a carport was attached at the kitchen entrance.

link good luck Aaron!!!

***BTW*** Aaron has also put this on digg so we can also help him by digging it up!!!

---*****UPDATE****----

Today I heard on Buzz Out Loud that the state of South Carolina decided to use the route that did not go through Arron's Grandfathers house!! Thank you to everyone who pitched in!!!!

---###ANOTHER UPDATE###---

I received an email from Aaron where he said:

"The state of S.C. has decided to move the freeway that was scheduled
to go through my Grandfather's house! I was able to collect over 2200
signatures with our online petition and it had a big impact in the
decision by the state. I think what caught us off guard the most were
the comments on the petition. To everyone that signed and to everyone
who wrote notes of encouragement, THANK YOU!"