CD Baby’s Fantastic Shipping Notification

Posted on March 30, 2007 by Mark

I just recieved the obligatory “we’ve shipped your item” from [cdbaby.com](http://cdbaby.com). I’ve gotten thousands of these, but this is the first one that ever made me laugh out loud:

>Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
>sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

>A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
>it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

>Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
>the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
>can buy.

>We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
>marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
>Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in
>our private CD Baby jet on this day, Thursday, March 29th.

>I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
>Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all
>exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

>Thank you, thank you, thank you!

>Sigh…

Brilliant.

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Linux (the OS) Will Be Subject to the GPL v3

Posted on March 29, 2007 by Mark

Today, the [FSF](http://www.fsf.org/) released the [latest draft of the GPLv3](http://gplv3.fsf.org/). The reported reason for the delay is to deal with the Novel/Microsoft deal. I.e., making explicit that if you distribute GPL licensed code, you are not allowed to sue people for patent violations implemented in that code.

A lot of people are talking about the fact that Linus Torvalds has stated he won’t move the Linux kernel over to GPLv3. And, while a shame, doesn’t actually mean much. You see, the kernel is only one of the many critical pieces of Linux. Sure, it’s got the highest profile and is the brains of the OS, but a brain without a heart can’t survive.

The FSF is not just a supplier of licenses. They are also the copyright holder on a number of critical components of any Linux distribution. They hold the copyright on:

* The Bash shell
* The GCC compiler
* The glibc C library
* The fileutils package

etc. So without the above, you might be able to boot your kernel, but you won’t have a shell, a userspace library, or a compiler for your OS.

And, of course, the FSF is certainly going to move all of their own software to GPLv3 as soon as possible. So while the kernel might still be under the GPLv2 licenses, you won’t be able to distribute a usable Linux (the OS) without becoming subject to the GPLv3.

Interesting times indeed.

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Twitter

Posted on March 23, 2007 by Mark

I’ve signed up to twitter, mostly because I’m a shameless follower. But hey, maybe there’ll be a prize…

http://twitter.com/melevittfl

Posted in Fun, Tech | 2 Comments

Kaleidescape DVD Copying Case Goes to Trial

Posted on March 22, 2007 by Mark

I’ve been following [this case](http://www.kaleidescape.com/company/legal.html) for a while, ever since I saw the Kaleidescape system at a home theater dealer.

*PC Magazine* is reporting that the case is now moving to trail. Kaleidescape is, according to the article, arguing that the copying done by their system falls under the “Fair Use” exception to copyright.

However, Kaleidescape is not being sued for Copyright Infringement, for which a defence of Fair Use might apply.

They are being sued for violating the terms of a contract. Namely, when they signed a contract to license the CSS playback system, they allegedly agreed to not do what they are doing.

So, I suspect this case will rest of the terms of the contract and the court won’t make a ruling on the broader question of fair use in relation to the DMCA.

If Kaleidescape had not signed a license for CSS, then their product would be violating the DMCA (bypassing a technological protection measure) and then they’d be liable to a copyright infringement lawsuit from the movie studios. That would have lead to a better test of a fair use for format shifting right than this case will be.

In my next post, I’ll explain more about what this system does and why the DVD Copy Control Association does not want it to exist (in my opinion).

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Report DVD Ripping Questions as TOS Violations on Apple Forums

Posted on March 16, 2007 by Mark

Apple is about to release a new product, the AppleTV, that lets you watch movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store on your television.

Just like the iPod and CDs, most people already have a number of movies on DVD that they won’t want to buy again through the Apple Store. What they’d like is a way to rip the DVDs into iTunes, just like they can with their CDs.

Most of the songs on an iPod come from people’s CDs, not from music they bought through the iTunes Store. Similarly, I expect that most of the value of the Apple TV for most people will be to watch the DVDs they’ve already purchased.

And, in fact, many threads on the newly create Apple Discussion [Forum for the Apple TV](http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1133) are people asking for help in doing exactly that.

Now, two things to note:

1. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes ripping DVDs **illegal**.
2. Apple’s Terms of Service for the discussion forum state:

>3. Keep within the Law
>No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.

Now follow along with me:

* Apple wants people to perceive the Apple TV as a worthwhile purchase.
* The Apple TV becomes much more valuable if people can rip their DVDs
* Ripping DVDs is illegal
* Asking about illegal acts are a violation of Apple’s Terms of Use for the discussion forum.

The solution? On every post is a handy link to report a post as a violation. Use it to report any DVD ripping posts you find.

Why? Because maybe it will make the average Joe more aware of the flaws in the DMCA. Or, perhaps it will push Apple into spending more money lobbying for copyright reform.

OK, I’m mostly joking. But really, go join [EFF](http://www.eff.org) or [The Open Rights Group](http://www.openrightsgroup.org).

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