Dirty Red Commie

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has a petition regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

ACTA is an attempt to regulate pretty much everything electronic. It has been drafted behind closed doors and has, for the most part, been kept completely secret. It attempts to, among other things, require countries to impose a 3 strikes law (if you're accused of an illegal file copy 3 times, you're in trouble, regardless of guilt). It also attempts to require DRM for just about everything.

I urge everyone to sign the FSF petition on ACTA.

Here are some links to more information:
FSF on ACTA
has some information on ACTA
Wikipedia ACTA page
Public Knowledge ACTA page
Office of the US Trade Representative on ACTA
Intellectual Property Office (UK)

Wired has a short article on Snacktones -- music written specifically for ringtone use.  They Might Be Giants composed a few that are cool enough to make me want to get a cell phone again.

 Oh, and they're free, as they should be.  My favorite is "Untangle the Phone Cord."
 

According to an article from the International Herald Tribune, record labels may be thinking of selling DRM-free music in an attempt to restore sluggish online music sales.  If true, this is very, very good news. 

This could be an excellent way for some company to steal the online music lead from Apple's iTunes.  Like many customers of AllOfMP3.com, I shopped there because I could get music in the format I wanted, and the crazy-low prices were just a bonus.  I think it could be very interesting to see what happens if someone starts offering mainstream music in an un-crippled format, even if they charge more than iTunes.  

I'll certainly buy music from them as long as the selection is good, the price is lower than that of a CD, and the encoding is good, (or configurable like AllOfMP3).  What do you folks think?

 Music labels, if you're reading this, please please please sell me un-crippled music.  I won't buy it any other way.  Ever.

Second Life is a virtual on-line world reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. In addition to the communication and games afforded by most virtual worlds, citizens can create, buy, and sell property.

The French organization Front National caused a stir when it set up a headquarters in Second Life. The protests held there have quickly escalated to violence. Violence, in this context doesn't mean people are being hurt. The area the organization has settled in doesn't even allow virtual property damage. Some of the weapons used are purely symbolic, such as machine guns and bombs. Others have a stronger effect in the virtual world--attacks designed to overload that area of Second Life so as to make it temporarily unusable. Pig bombs, holographic attacks, push guns, and rez cages are some of the weapons unique to this virtual world.

What a surreal story. I wonder if these sorts of events will start to make wider press in the near future.

CNN posted this on today's news: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/19/france.blog/index.html

I'm playing around with my blog on another site, and wanted to post some links to word documents. Basically, I want to post all the outlines I've created so that students from the school can open them up from the site. Any suggestions?

http://www.hiddenpassageway.com/

From Bruce Schnier's blog, this really neato company builds hidden passageways into homes.  I particularly liked the reclining-chair=>escape chute animation.