Not Quite a Blog

(Full disclosure: Pam is my adviser)

Via the RSS feed of Pam Samuelson's Papers page comes her forthcoming (Oct. 2005) article for CACM's Legally Speaking column: "Did MGM Really Win the Grokster Case?". Here's the take-away and a comment:

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Man, does this bring back memories... (Chris is my dad).

Chris Hall's Barbecue Sauce

• One large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 6 T olive oil
• 2 cups catsup
• 3/4 cups light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 T brown sugar
• 3/8 cup lemon juice
• 1 T dry mustard
• 1 1/2 T chili powder
• 1 T oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups water

Directions:

1. Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until limp in 4 quart saucepan.
   

2. Stir in remaining ingredients.
   

3. Simmer an hour or so.
   

"This is one of those moments in American history," said Ralph G. Neas, president of the liberal People for the American Way. "No matter what side you're on, everything you've believed in, everything you've cared about, everything you've fought for is at stake. (From "After a Brief Shock, Advocates on All Sides Quickly Mobilize" by Robin Toner in the NYT)

You can donate to PFAW's efforts.

Courtesy of Doug:

Ezpeer found not guilty in landmark copyright verdict

By Jessie Ho (Taipei Times)

Taiwan's music industry suffered a setback yesterday when the Shihlin District Court found a local peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing operator not guilty of infringing intellectual property rights.

In the nation's first ruling on file-sharing cases, the court found that Weber Wu , president of Ezpeer -- which provides a for-fee platform for subscribers to swap files -- did not engage in reproducing or publicly distributing works of copyright holders.

This just emphasizes the international nature of our networks... there will always be one country that isn't a treaty member or has a more liberal view of intangible property rights. (Of course, I'm ignoring the facts and this could be a very narrow ruling.)

Mary makes a pointed observation ("The 5-8 Year Problem: Asking the Ocean To Turn Back Won't Work With Digital Media Tides"):

Chatting with Jason Schultz and Joe Hall yesterday at Where 2.0, we noted that vlogging is a gateway drug to all sorts of things, including technically, infringement.. and the Grokster loss won't stop it. People are creative, and they want to remix and reuse, and they will. But if they remix each other's stuff, for non-commercial uses, even if it is technically under copyright, they'll learn soon enough that analog copyright as we've known it the past 100 years isn't going to work in the digital age.