Who gets to control information, technology and culture in the digital age? That, in a phrase, is the simple and profound question raised in Siva Vaidhyanathan’s impressive new book, The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is hacking the Real World and Crashing the System. The Anarchist in the Library […]
Digital rights & copyright
A lockbox for digital radio
Mindjack has just published a piece I pulled together, culled from research for my upcoming book Darknet. Will digital radio be Napsterized? looks at a new proposal by the Recording Industry Association of America for the FCC to impose new regulations mandating the adoption of a broadcast flag standard for audio. What does this mean […]
My review of Lessig’s ‘Free Culture’
When future generations look back at this unsettled era in which we’re transitioning from an analog to a digital society, Larry Lessig‘s works will provide a treasure trove. In his first book, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, dark forces were gathering, seeking ways to use code as a sort of privatized law to hem […]
Losing control of your TV
The wonderful and wise Simson Garfinkel (whom I met at PopTech) devotes his latest column in MIT’s Technology Review to: Losing Control of Your TV. The latest anti-piracy move will prevent you from making high-quality copies of broadcast TV programs. And the new “broadcast flag” technology enables all manner of other restrictions. Here’s the lead: […]
Familiar faces at DRM conference
Just got back from a daylong conference at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business on the subject of DRM, or digital rights management. In many ways it was the West Coast version of the I-Law conference at Harvard’s Berkman School last July. Some 300 folks jammed into the hall for most of the day (the […]