Google Shoots an Elephant

So Google has done the deed, and bought YouTube.

I can't help thinking of a story by George Orwell, called Shooting an Elephant. In it he describes how, as a police officer in Burma, he was called to deal with a rogue elephant.

He went with his gun, and an expectant crowd gathered. It soon became clear that the elephant had calmed down, and posed no danger. But Orwell realised that despite this, he was going to have to shoot the elephant: the crowd that had gathered expected it of him, and whether it was the right thing to do or not, he had to do it. And so he did.

It seems to me that Google's acquisition has much in common with this story. Once news started leaking out, the crowd gathered, and Google had to buy YouTube, whether it was the right thing or not, because the crowd expected it.

In the same way, there is now a growing expectation that Yahoo will buy something big - anything - to "counter" Google's move. And so another crowd begins to form, and another elephant must needlessly die.

Bad, Bad Patent

First WIPO, and now this:

Businesses based on the licensing of patented technologies could be able to sue the owners of the patents while still using those patents if a biotech firm wins its landmark US case. The case could upend the basis of much US patent law.

...

While some argue that nobody is better positioned to assess whether or not a patent is valid than a licensee, there are worries that a precedent set by a MedImmune victory would create havoc. During the oral hearings one of the judges, Anthony Kennedy, said that a result in favour of MedImmune could "flood the courts" with cases.

I can't help feeling that this (possible) development is partly as a result of the constant hammering away by intellectual monopoly bores like me: even major companies like IBM and Microsoft are making noises about "bad" patents, and this case looks like it might be the tipping point for this discussion.

They Can Because ICANN

The court case against Spamhaus is outrageous on plenty of levels:

A lawsuit filed in an Illinois court by David Linhardt (aka e360 Insight LLC) against The Spamhaus Project Ltd., a British-based organisation over which the Illinois court had no jurisdiction, went predictably to default judgement when Spamhaus did not accept U.S. jurisdiction.

To get the 'SLAPP' lawsuit case accepted in Illinois, David Linhardt fabricated, under oath, that Spamhaus "operates business in Illinois". Illinois District Court Judge Charles Kocoras, although being aware Spamhaus was a UK non-profit organization, did not require any proof before ruling the UK organization to be in Illinois jurisdiction. Spamhaus in fact operates no business in the United States, has no U.S. office, agents or employees in Illinois or any other U.S. state.

The default judgement awards Linhardt, a one-man bulk email marketing outfit based in Chicago, compensatory damages totaling $11,715,000.00, orders Spamhaus to permanently remove Linhardt's ROKSO record, orders Spamhaus to lie by posting a notice stating that Linhardt is "not a spammer" and orders Spamhaus to cease blocking spam sent by Linhardt.

But one point which has only been mentioned in passing is that the latest threat of being suspended by ICANN is only possible because the latter is subject to US jurisdiction.

Which means that effectively US law is being imposed on the Internet, wherever people may be located. Which, in its turn, is yet another argument why ICANN needs to be pulled out of the US and situated somewhere less likely to be at the beck and call of courts in countries with histories of rampant litigation.

And no, I don't have any good suggestions where that location might be: any ideas?

The Cartridge Standard: Common, but how Open?

Defining industry-wide standards is usually good news - if they are open, that is. So when I heard abou the Common Cartridge Standard for digital educational content, my immediate thought was: is it open? It's hard to tell from the press release:

The IMS Global Learning Consortium announced today that a new standard for digital educational content and e-Learning systems will soon be available in products in the marketplace. Digital educational content, learning management systems, and learning software tools incorporating the new Common Cartridge interoperability standard will be available from some IMS members as early as the Spring of 2007. Demonstrated in June of 2006 by IMS Contributing Members ANGEL Learning, Blackboard Inc, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson Education, and the University of Michigan (the Sakai Project), the specifications will soon be released to the IMS Developers Network.

So the standard will be "released to the IMS Developers Network": but what does that mean? The only thing that gives me hope is the fact that alongside all the usual fat cats of educational content, there are two open source projects: Sakai and Moodle. Given their presence I can only presume it's all above board and open. I hope. (Via Open Access News.)

Eats, Overshoots, Leaves

I like the concept of the World Overshoot Day. OK, the exact numbers are probably arguable, but the idea of living beyond our ecological means is certainly valid. And this is a good way of getting across the seriousness of our plight:

Today, humanity uses about 30% more in one year than nature can regenerate in that same year. This is called "overshoot". An ecological overshoot of 30% means that it takes one year and about three months for the Earth to regenerate what is being used by people in one year, creating an ecological deficit.

We currently maintain this overshoot by liquidating the planet’s natural resources. For example we can cut trees faster than they re-grow, and catch fish at a rate faster than they repopulate. While this can be done for a short while, overshoot ultimately leads to the depletion of resources on which our economy depends.

(Via BBC News.)

God Bless this Contrarian, and All who Sail in Her

There's nothing like a good contrarian for rocking the boat. And with a blog posting entitled "Developers do not matter, Users even less. Part 1: He who owns the code shall rule them all" you can tell there are going to be some waves.

What's interesting for me, is that part 2 of this splendid rant ends with the words:

In part three of this essay, I shall try to examine the implications of the user-developer relationship when applied to the discussion on the GPL v3.

This is clearly setting up the big "user" versus "user" battle that underpins the current GPLv3 bust-up, something of particular interest to me at the moment. I can't wait.

Open Source Cinema in the Raw

The idea of open source cinema, where anyone can hack around with the final version is not new: I've written about it couple times before. But the charmingly-named Stray Cinema is a little different:

Stray Cinema is an online community where you are able to download and re-edit the raw footage from a film we have shot in London. This will provide people from all over the world with an opportunity to create their own version of the film. Stray Cinema will navigate the film experiment out of the online digital world, into the 'real world' with a screening of the top five films in London. The footage shot in London is the first of many open source films to be provided by Stray Cinema.

The footage is under a CC licence. (Via LXer.)

Really Simple Second Life

If you needed any proof that the distinction between real and virtual is blurring hopelessly, try this: a way of displaying RSS feeds within Second Life.

The Death of WIPO?

I barely dared hope that the recent events at WIPO marked a significant moment, but here's someone rather better qualified than I am to comment. Let's hope.

Blog + Portal = Blortal = Meta-Blog

One of the roots of blogs was in the lists of interesting sites for a particular field. But blogs are now so numerous that we need metablogs - lists of blogs within a particular area. Here's one, offering a fine collection of academic blogs, arranged by subject in a wiki. It calls itself a portal, though blortal might be more appropriate.

Behold the IceWeasel

It's GNU's Firefox. (via Ian Murdock's Weblog.)

Locking Down the Digital Cat

This is what happens when the genetic code of an animal matters, as here, with "the world's first scientifically-proven hypoallergenic cat":

Purchaser shall not sell or transfer any Cat purchased hereunder to anyone other than an immediate family member, and shall not offer to any person the purchase of a Cat or any genetic material from a Cat, the rights Purchaser may have under this Agreement, or any other right related hereto, without the Company’s express written authorization.

In other words, you don't really own the cat, you just have a licence to use it, like any other software. And don't even think about giving a copy of the genome to a friend.... (Via BoingBoing.)

Stop Press: Google Book Search Sells...Books

Now there's a surprise. (Via Techdirt.)

OECD Gets Open Source, Open Content and Open Access

The OECD Information Technology Outlook 2006 is remarkable for three things. First, for the fact that you can browse it freely online. Secondly, for choosing to highlight GNU/Linux in its press release:

The ICT industry is expected to grow by 6% in 2006 and, looking ahead, highest growth will be driven by Internet-related investments, Linux servers, digital storage, personal digital assistants and new portable consumer products.

And thirdly, by the degree to which this august institution is starting to get it. To wit:

* "Linux" occurs 15 times

* "Wikipedia" occurs 18 times

* "open access" occurs 21 times

Impressive.

Common Justice for the Commons

Here's a perceptive thought from Alex Steffen on the dangers inherent in the success of the movement to get global warming recognised and dealt with:

What is worrysome, though, is the idea, which one is beginning to hear all over the political map, that climate change trumps every other environmental issue, or, even more, that climate change is not an environmental issue at all. These arguments usually precede a call for some action which reduces carbon output but has other demonstrably negative environmental impacts, whether that's damming a river for hydropower, launching into a massive nuclear energy program or seeding the ocean to produce a plankton bloom.

In other words, we can't repair one commons - the atmosphere - by destroying others like the oceans or the land. We cannot solve global warming by simply transferring the ecological deficit from one commons to another. We need a "global" global warming solution, not one restricted to a single domain. It's all connected, people.

Open Music Lives Happily Ever After

Now here's a heartening tale of musicians doing all kinds of creative things with CC music and getting their just desserts - including 15 minutes of fame with a certain lonelygirl15, and heaps of dosh.

Vladimir in the Belly of the Whale

Now here's a thought: Firefox developers being invited to visit Microsoft. They went, and, yes, came back without any obvious implants. One of them - Vladimir Vukićević - even blogged about it. Fascinating.

Leveraging Levy

I was pleased to see that Steven Levy, author of the definitive Hackers book on where it all started, has declared himself on the side of the angels when it comes to the Net neutrality discussions (I won't dignify the misinformation put about by those with vested interests with the name of "argument"). It's short but definitely sweet. (Via SmartMobs.)

ODF La La!

France really seems to have something about ODF. I wrote before about one initiative to bring in ODF, and now here's another that's even more promising.

That's because the report is to the French prime minister - no messing on this one. Moreover, its recommendations are very broad in their sweep. So, not content with proposing

Introduire, par voie réglementaire, l'usage obligatoire de ce format par l'administration française pour la création et la diffusion de tout document administratif.

the obligatory use of the ODF format for the creation and distribution of all administrative documents of the French Government, it also suggests

Proposer à nos partenaires européens de favoriser systématiquement les standards ouverts et, comme premier exemple, d'imposer le format international ISO «odf» pour la création et la diffusion de tout document officiel échangé dans le cadre européen.

proposing to European partners to do the same for all official documents of the European Union.

It's well-worth reading the whole document, which ranges widely - the GNU GPL and Yochai Benkler's Wealth of Networks are both discussed - and offers a uniquely French perspective on the modern world. It reminds us yet again that if France did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.

Open Source Radio

I mention this for the sake of completeness, since I can't imagine many people will be interested in buying one of these high-end software-defined radios. But the idea of a device - any device - totally controlled by software, preferably open software, rather than through physical buttons and knobs is clearly the way of the future for certain classes of systems. (Via Digg.)

Lots of EPA in the EPLA

EPA, the better-known name of Eicosapentaenoic Acid, is associated with fish. This compromise on the EPLA (European Patent Litigation Agreement) also smells very fishy to me.

I hope I'm wrong.

All Hail, Mighty Ajax

As I may have mentioned before, I hate Flash. But this blog post about a report on the state of Web development gives me hope:

Most web technologies will apparently be used more - in particular Ajax, which next year is predicted to surpass Flash for the first time.

Did somebody say nike?

Warming Up Nicely with Firefox

Although it's hard to tell from this singularly unhelpful graph, Firefox continues to storm away. According to these figures, it has notched up 12.46% market share.

But perhaps what is most significant is the non-Microsoft figure, now at 17.90%. This represents the percentage of the Web browser market that Microsoft does not control; I predict that once it gets to, say, 20%, then things will really start warming up as just about everyone realises that coding for the non-standard IE only is no longer an option (who wants to lose 20% of the potential audience?).

Sinking Venice

Those pair of old Skypers, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, are at it again. But curmudgeon that I am, I won't be sad if this particular Venice sinks without trace:

While the software turns your PC screen into something that looks a lot like your TV, the capabilities go far beyond anything you'll experience in your den. Jiggle your computer mouse, and a variety of tools appear along the edges of the screen, even as the video continues to play. At the bottom of the screen, there are controls like those on a DVD player, including stop, pause, and fast-forward, as well as a search window to find new videos. An image on the left includes a menu of preset channels. And on the right, there's a set of interactive tools that let you share video playlists with friends or family. An image at the top of the screen identifies the channel and the name of the clip you're watching. All of the images can be expanded by clicking on them with a mouse.

Turn my marvellously metempsychotic, and perfectly protean PC into a tarted-up tub of a TV? No, grazie. (Via IP Democracy.)

Organic Farming Goes Open Source

Now where I have heard this before?

Fears that organic farming is falling victim to commercial pressures to abandon key principles have led to disputes in the Soil Association, the gold standard of the groups that certify "green" products.

...

Claims of the relaxing of key principles in the organic movement come amid pressure from Sir Terry Leahy, the Tesco chief executive, for the British organic movement to become more "professional".

Hm, let's see: a fear that some may be abandoning key principles, while others call for more professionalism. Sounds rather like the "free software" vs. "open source" debate, to me...