Clay Shirky on the insoluble domain name problem

Typically thoughtful essay. Quote:

“Unfortunately, what made domain names contentious was simply that the internet became important, and there’s no putting the genie back in that bottle. The legal issues involved actually predate not only ICANN but the DNS itself, going back to the mid-70s and the earliest decision to create memorable aliases for unmemorable IP addresses. Once the original host name system was in place — IBM.com instead of 129.42.18.99 — the system was potentially subject to trademark litigation. The legal issues were thus implicit in the DNS from the day it launched; it just took a decade or so for anyone to care enough to hire a lawyer…”

From Dave Winer…“Here’s some exciting cross-pollination. Ben Hammersley, writing in the Guardian, explains how Web services are the province of the little guy. Analysts who follow the BigCo’s, please read this piece and consider the point of view. Blogger’s competitors (including UserLand) have adopted and even extended the Blogger API, so the same tools can be used to create content for the centralized Blogger app, or for Radio running on the desktop. This is the process by which new technology enters our culture, also known as bootstrapping.”   [Scripting News]

Blogging craze spreads to mainline journalism!

Even the National Review has one, it seems.

DaveNet: How To Start a Weblog (For Professional Journalists).  [Scripting News]

FT.COM bites the subscription bullet

It will begin charging for premium content this month. There will be a lot of free stuff on a day-by-day basis, but everything over seven days old will be available only to subscribers. Which leads to the thought: what happens to all the links Webloggers like me post to FT.com stories? Presumeably they will all lead back to the subscription gateway — a dead end for most followers of those links. Net result: the FT will be cited less on the Web. Which will be a shame because actually it’s a damn good paper.

Fascinating Weblog essay by Adam Curry about Pim Fortuyn’s assassination and how the mainstream media have got it wrong, wrong, wrong.

Apr 30 2002: A new study from Websense indicates that the number file-swapping, and peer-to-peer (P2P) websites, has grown by 535 percent in the past year, despite legal efforts to have them shut down.

According to the study findings, the number of P2P websites totals nearly 38,000.

Around 30 percent of the most popular downloadable applications on CNet’s Download site, are P2P services, says Websense.

More Lessig stuff

This time a vivid interview with Business Week in which he provides really striking examples of the abuses he and the rest of us are fighting.

Good review of Larry Lessig’s book
The Atlantic

“AT&T would have strangled the Internet in its cradle. Disney hated the VCR. Television broadcasters fought against cable. Even player piano rolls triggered lawsuits from sheet music publishers. Established businesses don’t like innovators, and who can blame them? The innovators threaten to do things better and take business away. But on balance, most of us are better off because of innovation.

The Internet is probably the greatest innovation of the last 20 years, one that promises to give us new ways to distribute music, movies, and books; new ways to do business; and even new ways to create. But in The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, Lawrence Lessig maintains that old-style businesses are fighting to bring the Net under control and force a return to business as usual.

Two related battles are raging — one technological, one legal — and the author, a Stanford University law professor, explores both. On the legal end, old companies are aided by legislators and courts that have extended intellectual property protection far beyond what’s reasonable, Lessig argues….”

If you buy a PC with Windows preinstalled, can you remove it and install Linux instead?

According to The Register, a Microsoft site aimed at helping schools deal with donated computers asserted that it was a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine.’ Last Tuesday the site, titled ‘A Guide to Accepting Donated Computers for Your School’, read: “If you feel it is in the best interest of your school to accept the donated PCs, make sure that the hardware donation includes the original operating system software. Keeping the operating system with the PC is not just a great benefit – it is a legal requirement.”

On Wednesday, however, the relevant passage had been altered to read:

“If you feel it is in the best interest of your school to accept the donated PCs, make sure you know the licensing guidelines. For instance, if the hardware donation is an original equipment manufacture machine, the pre-installed operating system license is only valid when used on the original machine for which it was first installed, so it’s beneficial to leave it intact.”

So a legal requirement has been downgraded to a mere benefit. But nothing is hidden from the all-seeing eye of The Register, which has noticed that the old formulation remained intact in the Q & A section of the site.